Dell e6530 wireless adapter upgrade

Hi - Can the 1504 wirless adapter that came with a Dell e6530 be ugraded to the Centrino Advanced N 6205 half card? If so is this pretty straightforward, i.e., remove 1504 install nw adapter then download the driver to the 6205?
Thanks,

 

As it's Dell - probably not (unless that model came with that option and you can download a BIOS and/or driver directly from Dell).

 

You can configure an E6530 with the 6205, so there's no reason this shouldn't work. Even if you couldn't, Dell doesn't whitelist WIFI cards, so there still shouldn't be any reason this wouldn't work. That being said, get a Dell-branded or generic 6205; the Lenovo/HP ones sometimes don't play nice.

 

Thanks - I can't find one on the Dell site - only the Australian and Euro Dell site. Will this one work? Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

That one should work. If you're in the US, it's way cheaper on eBay, though.

 

Thanks so much. You're right about eBay!! One last question. Once I install it can I download the driver from the Dell website for the laptop I have?

Thanks again,

 

Just get it from Intel's website.

 

Be aware that while this will probably work, there are chances it won't...

I've had two Acer laptops so far, and upgraded the WLAN in both.
Upgrade from Intel 3945ABG to Intel 4965AGN worked perfectly (although I had to add an antenna)
However, the upgrade from Atheros 5Bxx (forget exact model) to Intel 6230 had some issues. It worked perfectly (WLAN and BT) in Linux, but Windows would only work with the BT, and WLAN wouldn't work. To now, I still don't know the exact reason, it might have been a faulty unit.

Lesson to take from this? WLAN units from eBay are a LOT cheaper, but the QC might not be as good, so be ready to play around and possibly RMA...

 

^ Hes right, somewhat.... Definitely not about QC though... Again I have to mention that Ebay is NOT a manufacturer of electronics, does NOT work directly with Intel or any electronic manufacturers that I know of, and does NOT have anything to do with QC of products listed on their site... you seem to have some misconceptions about what Ebay is...

The issue, I have discovered, is related to the actual wireless switch a lot of the time.

In general, all you need to know is that if the laptop wasn't released with that wireless card, it might now work. I experienced a number of cards including the 6205 not working on the Dell m6600, only because they would not detect that the hardware wireless switch was on.

WORKAROUND FOR THIS ISSUE:
Use the slot labeled WWAN instead.

 

by QC I mean more that you don't know where the chips came from, sometimes they could be the ones that failed the original Intel QC for all we know...
and mine was weird because in Windows part of the chip worked, but in Linux everything was fine.

 

You have a lenovo/HP card, typical result is windows boot fine, driver install fine, but in device manager it say the device driver cannot start.

I have purchase the cheapest 6200 ,6300 ar9382,5100 from ebay as they work as expected. (just make sure from US seller)

 

So you think that intel is selling their crap chips under the table? I guess that would be similar enough to the sale of ES chips, however, its hard to say at what point QC is done - I'd imagine with Wifi cards the QC happens before the put stickers on it, and that seems hard to fake.
The whole point of QC, according to wikipedia, is to help "make the decision to allow or deny product release". While ES chips are used in prerelease systems by manufacturers other than intel for testing and whatnot, I don't see any reason why the chips that didn't pass QC would escape the "trash" or more likely a repair process.

As far as the "windows part of the chip" you're talking about, that is absolutely not a separate part of the chip, lol. I highly doubt it was a hardware issue with the chip itself. The fact that it worked on one OS is definitely not a clear indication of a hardware issue.

 

Thanks. I'm going to call Dell in the AM to see if I can get one from them. I did find a brand new Intel 6205 and might get that one. I'm thinking the 6205 will work since it's offered as an option in the e6530. The card isn't that expensive so I'm going to give it a shot.