Intel 6200/6300 into nc8430?

I'm pretty sure that I know this cannot be done. The wireless card in the older nc8430 is PCI and newer wireless are PCI-E cards (correct me if I'm wrong). The laptop is with my grandfather so I don't have ready access to it, but he complains that the wireless in it is spotty (he has cable Internet and a current "N" router that can connect to my newer laptop at 150Mbps). So I might need to replace the card, but I don't think its a good idea to have him poke around in the laptop to give me the specs.

So before I just get a replacement card for him, anybody know if the card can be upgraded to something more current?

 

There's a no-whitelisted bios for the nc8430 here, allowing other cards to be used. According to http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-compaq/115777-intel-4965-802-11n-nc8430.html your system has a mPCIe slot + antennas, so then a Intel 6200/6300 could be used. You may find it necessary to also use cellophane tape to isolate pin20 on the mPCIe wifi card to ensure the radio works.

 

Thanks, I searched and didn't find the other thread. Thanks for the link to the BIOS. I might need to try this out. Worse case scenario I'm out the the zero cost of the laptop and like $30 for a new wireless card. If it works, I'm golden. If I do it I'll update this thread with my success or failure for others to see.

 

My experience from the nx9420 which is the 17" model is that the original WLAN works great with Vista and W7, but with XP it's more sluggish when connecting.
Have you looked into the drivers and tried to upgrade, or chcked out the settings in the WLAN properties window in device manager? Like disabling power saving features, check the different tabs.

 

The original setup worked great in XP and Kubuntu. The problem is that the wireless is going South from what I can tell (don't have the laptop in front of me, my grandfather is using it). Rather than spend $20 on ebay for a direct replacement "g" wireless, I'd rather spend $30 on an "n" wireless to help him out with streaming HD content on it since that's what he does the most on it. Plus, for $10 extra dollars, why not do it if I can?

 

Ths laptop doesn't have 3 antennas, but it doesn't need it. IIRC, the theoretical speed drops to about 130 Mbit, more than enough for 99% of us.

Besides, some n-cards have only two antenna connectors. I think the 6200 would be a great choice for you:
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6200 – Overview

The two white dots between the screwholes are the antenna connections, which is all you need.

 

Please share your experience here if you do this. All of a sudden I'm having issues as well. .