New guy with noob question

Been lurking for awhile, and finally got a toughbook.
got a CF M34JA2BDM.
my question is, I have a intel pro 2200 b/g wireless card from an IBM thinkpad R51.
can I replace the modem in my m34 with the wireless card, and what do i do for a antenna.
Thx

 

I am telling you as a friend that you have never met, take the 2200 card and follow john belushi's example here: John Belushi Example love song, guitar, and toga optional of course.

Ok maybe not if you have a budgetary restraint but I tried the 2200 in my toughbook and have only been as frustrated as I was getting that card to work correctly only a few times in my life. I now have an Engenius 8602+S card and absolutely love it and I'm sure some of the guys here will chime in with some praises for it. It's an extremely powerful card in a little package. However for antennas it's a little more tricky. As toughbooks have a magnesium shell, the flag antennas will not work unless routed underneath the keyboard or something similar, such as a plastic piece along the side. (and you only have to have 1 of the flags hooked up to make it work.) what you could look into is search on here for "External Wifi antenna hack" and that should get you pointed in the right direction.

I'm don't know too much about the 34's as I'm not too up to snuff on any of them but my own but here is a service manual for yours that you may find handy: SERVICE MANUAL CF-M34

 

I miss John Belushi! Great clip!

Yeah... Trash the BG card as it is already garbage... Unfortunately, it has no handle like that guitar! Go for the Engenous and poke around some of the threads to see what others have done for antennas... Use your imagination!

 

It takes a bit of snaking the cable around, but you can mount the flag style antennas underneath the palm rest and it is plastic. You have to be careful of how you route the cable from the flag to the card, and you may have to trim some of the internal housing in places. I did this to one of my 34's and it works great. The trimming I did inside the case did not hurt the structural integrity of the unit and you have no idea any of it is there. Barring that, you can always use an external should you desire.

 

This is what you need

 

Thx For all the advice. You guys are GREAT!!
I was able to get the intel card to work, but had to configure wireless network connection settings through Windows. So no roaming WIFI.
But I am going to watch ebay for the other card you guys suggested.

 

Noob to Noob. Get those Wiha screwdrivers ordered. Wiha 8 Pc Precision Screwdriver Set 26190A worked for me. Of course I am working on 29's and have never had a 34 in my hands. Size 1 and 0 Phillips are the most utilised. (I think that's right) O.K. I just looked. PH1 x 80, PH1 x60 and PH0x50. Those little flat bladed ones are handy for pushing stuff around where your fingers won't fit and for prying little doors and lids open and stuff. The PH1x80 came with the wrong kit I ordered first. But not wrong in that they are "nice" tools.
By all means if you get the kit mentioned above, keep the package! Then when you break your 34 down you can use the package slots to sort your screws by size.
Get to a section...pull that set of screws out into the flat open area for easy pick up. And the lid portion keeps bigger parts from rolling away.
Works for me.
But hey, I'm a noob!

Jeff

 

GORK... You've come a LONG way in a short time! Good for you!

 

Way ahead of ya. Already have a set of Wihas. have been doing RC and working on Airsoft guns for a long time. ( a few real firearms as well.)
Also have a complete set for torx and STD and metric allen.

 

Yeah but I left out the OO size for the internal shiny screws.

My long winded dissertation just meant you haven't lived 'till you've cracked the case. I don't know anything I'm just like the parrot who repeats what he hears.

Thanks TB.

Jeff

 

Yep! A nice addition to the community!

 

I've found that the PH 0 works better on those, the 00 has a little play. I generally use the largest tip that will snugly fit the screw at hand. The PH 0 fits nicely with no slippage or play.
I plan on eventually upgrading to Wiha. Though I have had great success with this set. Which is what I am currently using. It is really well made, quite surprisingly so.

 

LOL - that's the driver I've recommended here for years. They also have a Torx driver set that is made exactly the same; a must have if you service HP/Compaq...

I will recommend AGAINST the similar Kobalt model in blue anodized aluminum sold at Lowes; the bits are too brittle, they break off inside the screw, leaving you to try and figure out how to drill out a screw that has a plug of metal in that's harder than any drill bit.

mnem
Up to his Superman underoos in the whole daddydwagon thing...

 

I inherited a nice partial set of Wihas from my Dad when he passed. So I ordered anothers 11 piece set... Brought a few of those down to my Mom's house to fix a few things... So I ordered another set... Plus a few extra of the same size with different grips styles.

My tool bench it seriously littered with Wihas!

 

Yeah, some tool manufacturers don't realize some hand tools are not as effective when the metal is too hard. High hardness = brittle, not a good idea for screwdrivers.

 

Toughbook... You're right on there! Though I think Gork has a bit of a head-start on tiny bits, with his R/C experience...
*Sighs wistfully, remembering his ultra-modified Kyosho Javelin affectionately nicknamed SWAMP THING *

And speaking of coming a long way... that youngster Azrial here is coming right along too... looks like about 20 weeks and doing fine. :wink:

mnem
Ab-so-Toot-ly!

 

mnem,
You need to get more sleep. PaulDwog is the guy with the R/C thing.
I have done a bit of tinkering and screwed several screws usually with Saddle Leather behind them to catch the bit if I miss my thumbnail.
J

 

D'OH!

You are of course perfectly correct. My apologies.

You know, they say the memory is the first thing to go...

You know, they say the memory is the first thing to go...


mnem
Who are you, and why are you inside my computer?

 

You know... They say... Crap... I can't remmeber what they say!

But you ar right... Gork has a leg up as he is used to doing fine quality work on small little things that take great attention to detail....

 

Thanks guys. I have been tinkering with PCs far longer than I've been messing with the RC stuff., but this is my first Toughbook. Beginning to think I should have saved more pennies and got a 28 or 29. But, on the other hand I get allot of comments on my tiny laptop. looking into a tweaked XP install next.
Oh well maybe next one. Me and my trusty Patron Silver , Are gonna go work on my m34 now.

 

The first sign of senility is loss of memory, but I can't remember the rest of the signs!