Upgrading Wifi on a Lifebook P770

My P770 is still going strong. Rather than replacing it, I am looking for ways to enhance it.

It currently has 8Gb RAM (max), and 1.5Tb of hard drive. The boot drive is a 480Gb SSD, and the optical drive was replaced with a hard drive holder, which is populated with a 1Tb 2.5" hard drive.

OS is Windows 8.1, using a utility to get rid of the horrid interface that is the Win8 default. Overall, I would rate Windows 8.1 without tiles as being Windows 7.5 - a bit faster, a bit more stable, a better place to work.

Wifi is the factory default 802.11N. Upgrading to 802.11AC would be neat, and would work well with my ASUS RT-AC68U access point.

The P770 uses either a Intel® Centrino® 6200 or an Atheros Minicard - will check the next time I boot it up. As far as I can tell, both Wifi cards are the same shape and size, with the same connectors. These are PCI Express Half Mini Cards.

Does anyone know if there is an 802.11AC card that can replace these?

I found the following at Newegg.ca: "Intel 7260HMW IEEE 802.11AC, dual-band, 2x2 Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.0 Mini PCI Express combo Adapter - 867 Mbps+300Mbps - Internal - OEM"
Intel 7260HMW IEEE 802.11AC, dual-band, 2x2 Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.0 Mini PCI Express combo Adapter - 867 Mbps+300Mbps - Internal - Wireless Adapters - Newegg.ca

Would this be a direct replacement?

Of course, I also need to figure out WHERE the minicard is, inside the P770. I have had it apart a few times, and learned not to open up too far else you pull out the ribbon connectors to the keyboard and trackpad. Never looked for this card before, so I have no idea if it is exposed and easily changed, or buried on the wrong side of the board....

Any advice or experience would be appreciated!

 

Just checked, and it is definitely the Intel 6200 installed in my P770.

Did some searches, and could not find a service manual for this notebook. Anyone see a service manual?

 

Wow - 185 views, and zero comments?

Nobody has taken a P770 apart? Nobody has seen technical manuals? That last seems very possible, no matter what searches I use there does not seem to be any technical manuals available for this notebook.

Hope to have time to pop the keyboard on my P770 tonight, see if the Wifi module is visible.

 

This is a free forum. Take it such.

Fujitsu, as a brand, is not very popular here in North America. They never got the memo in the mid to late 00s that notebook prices are dropping like a rock. As a result, their products are expensive compared to other brands. I'm guessing they don't sell a lot of them, which means there's less buyers that would increase the knowledge base. Perhaps, Fujitsu will sell you a manual.

 

ZaZ - that may be true, but a lot of the members here are not from North America.

 

Not all the views are registered members, also seach engines view these threads (and I'd guess make most views?).

Anyways... service manuals for those aren't publicly available. They are password-protected and stamped with CONFIDENTAL text everywhere...

 

The Wifi upgrade went well, and did show a speed improvement.

Purchased the 7260 at a local computer store - Canada Computers - for $30.00.

Taking the P770 apart is easy, but putting it back together can be a challenge. There are three ribbon cables that are pretty short, and must be detached to get the top half of the case out of the road to get at the wifi card. The card is located at the rear right corner, and is held in with one screw.

Some time ago, I purcahsed a pair of needlenose pliers which are very long and narrow just for times when I had the laptop apart. They came in very useful this time.

Once back together, Windows 8.1 booted and found the new card without issue. Transfer speed is now around 120Mb/sec. Before, it was around 80Mb/sec, so the 11AC does make a bit of a difference. This is talking to an ASUS RT-AC68u access point that is in the same room, about 10 - 12 feet away, so it is under ideal conditions.

I have not tried taking the laptop further away and testing 11n speed yet.

Overall, I am happy with the upgrade. Far as I can see, short of replacing the 1Tb WD hard drive with a 1Tb SSD, or replacing the 480Gb SSD with a 1Tb SSD, there is not much that can be done to take the P770 any further.

 

Finally replaced the 1Tb hard drive in my P770 with a 960Gb Sandisk Ultra II SSD.

Nice boost in speed - which surprised me, since this is the secondary hard drive. The primary boot drive is a 480Gb SSD. There is nothing on either partition of the secondary drive that is accessed during boot or shutdown, but both of those have improved a lot.

Did this mostly because I don't trust spinning drives in a laptop where the laptop may be knocked or otherwise jossled. Spinning drives can crash, something that won't happen with an SSD.

Not sure, but I think this is about as far as one can take the poor old P770, at least until Windows 10 is released.

As to the 802.11AC upgrade - that has been working perfectly under Windows 8.1. Unfortunately, this laptop must be booted into XP at least once every week, and there do not seem to be any drivers for XP for the 11AC card. In other words, no Wifi when running XP!

 

That's one sweet machine, the P770. Seems like Fujitsu stopped making sub 13" non-converts...