Compaq R3030EA

Hi,

I have an old compaq R3030EA that I have taken to bits loads of times for various reasons. I have just bought a new Notebook, and have given this Compaq to the wife.

I had a spare internal network card and thought I would swap out the old 10mbit for a nice 54mbit card. It fit perfect, powered up, and the bios squeels that its an usupported card.

So is there a bios upgrade or if not, can this notebook have a 54Mbit card fitted and if so - which one.

Many thanks in advance

Ump...

 

Unfortunately there wont be any BIOS updates since HP has a BIOS lock on non HP specified wifi cards. Thats the reason why you are getting the 104 unsuported card message. You will have to hack through the BIOS to add in the PCI ID codes for the card you purchased. There are some guides online which describe how to do this...
http://www.richud.com/HP-Pavilion-104-Bios-Fix/
http://www.rechner.org/b1800_bios.html

I would urge caution with trying to mod the bios since if something goes wrong you might not be able to boot into the system and fixing it is not going to be easy if you are a novice.

 

Thanx for the replys, I'll look in to it.

Is there a wifi card that I can fit an work ?

Cheers

Ump..

 

You would have to look for a card which specifically mentions support for the R3030EA which would be difficult to get since HP only used the 11mb model with that laptop. You could also look look for cards compatible with the R3000 series although I am not sure if these will work with your particular model.

Another option would be to use a external wifi card which works with the PC-card slot. This should give you the higher speeds and you would avoid the problems associated with the internal cards.

 

yeah - I know your right !

I have two of these cards that you slide in, but the signal is rubbish the internal gives me full strength when the cards dive about 2 pips (old solid brick house).

10 mbit will have to do.

thanks

Ump...