Toughbook CF 30 wlan adapter card

Got a quick question regarding the CF 30's wlan card. It comes with the Intel 3495 ABG and I'm assuming its the mini pci express connection type?

If thats the case, how easy would it be to swap an IBM mini pci express wlan adapter card? I have only done this with a Thinkpad in the past.

I'm looking to do this as I have had much better experience with the Atheros based card rather than the Intel one.

 

I prefer the Atheros based cards too. I have no experience with the CF-30 (Unfortunately... I'd love to get one.) but I imagine it's similar to the CF-28 & 29... It should be a walk in the park!

 

I also would imagine it to be similar to the 28s. Is there a guide somewhere that would show me how to open it up to get to the innards of the mini pci express adapter card? I couldn't find anything while searching.

EDIT:
Actually, how would one go about just opening up the keyboard?

 

bump
anyone?

 

is there another cover on the bottom of the toughbook next to ur ram cover...........

 

I actually opened the entire underside panel revealing the motherboard and CPU. Not sure how the other toughbooks' mobos are arranged, but I don't see the mini-pci express where the wifi card sits. I believe its on the other side of the mobo connected by a daughter card which means I might see it if I pop out the keyboard. but my question is how do you guys take out the keyboard?

 

the keyboard for the cf-28 is taken by removing 2 screws from the back of the lcd panel which conects to the keyboard part and then the 4 screws on the top of the keyboard.........
i ask my mate about the cf-30 and he never changed his card also so doesnt know where to get to it from........

 

Ok, I bought the Thinkpad AGB card which is the Atheros card and popped it in. Loaded the driver, however, I'm not able to use it. As if the wifi isn't switched on even though the wifi switch is on and the green light is on.

I did a fresh install of Vista premium on the hdd. I lost the ability to use the program to switch bluetooth and wifi on. any ideas?

 

This is just a guess, not fact, but perhaps the thinkpad card is bios locked or otherwise locked to the thinkpad hardware. Some hardware designers do stupid things like that.

Other than that, just for the hell of trying, pop into the BIOS on the toughbook and see if perhaps it has an option that is now disabled.

 

thats an interesting theory, I'll have to check up on that, but I have been through the bios many times but the only option is to enable or disable wlan and that option is enabled as of right now.

when I uninstall the atheros driver, upon reboot, it finds new hardware and asks for driver installation, so I know it knows that its there. I just can't seem to even get windows to recognize that its there. It keeps saying you're not connected because you need to switch your wifi on even though its already on.

 

Which driver are you using?

 

I went to the Lenovo site and downloaded the driver. its the only place where I can find a driver for this wlan card.

the card is Thinkpad 11a/b/g wireless lan mini pci express adapter
part number: 40Y7026

Since I can't seem to correct the issue, I put back the Intel Pro wlan card. and I'm running inot another issue.

As I said, I did a clean install of Vista on a new hard drive. I went to the Intel site and downloaded the driver/application for the Intel 3945 card, but when I tried to go throgh it with the profile name and password settings, it only allows the enterprise security and not personal security. I much rather use Intel to manage my wireless rather than Vista.

Does anyone use Vista on any of their toughbooks or just using Vista period? How do you manage your wireless network?

 

Its under the keyboard. take out the 4 screws at the top of the machine above the keyboard, then take the keyboard out. once you get the keyboard out, take out the tiny screws that make up the cover (the ribbon cable goes under).... the card is in their. its a mini xpress card. i put an intel 4965abgn card in mine for 802.11n capabilities . good luck