replace the 5100 AGN wifi for a 5350 Wimax on sony Z?

Can i do a simple swap with my intel wifi card? In portland we have wimax now, so i am thinking of going that way. It would be nice to keep my express card slot free and have wimax internal. I wouldn't need a specific driver sony driver to use it would I?

 

I don't know if you have been following the main Sony Z thread at all but the 5300 takes three antennas and the 5100 takes two. That is going to be your main issue as the drivers you can download from the Intel site if you can get it working.

I bought this card the 5300 just last week to upgrade the wireless card in one of my laptops and i probably am not going to go ahead with that upgrade now. It seems to me that some type of modification will be needed to get it to work and that is not something that i wish to do.

Edited to add:
I am going to give a go and buy a 3rd antenna and try to route it myself.

 

wait for 5150, it uses two antennas. i have been waiting for that piece of junk for almost a month. It is pending FCC approval.

 

whats good about 5150?

 

2 antennas, same functionality, bit slower (300mbps vs 450mbps). I doubt you will be able to use the 450mbps with any of the routers that are currently avaialble. In couple of words -> less hassles.

 

5100 sucks ... I want to replace it with Atheros I think. OUr laptops take the mini card right?

 

rachuk do you have instructions on how to replace the wifi card? where exactly it is located?

 

pardes, I don't think you know what you are talking about

1) because the 5100 is by default the one in your VAIO, adding 5150 adds WiMAX
2) Your Wireless Switcher Utility will not work with Atheros, since it needs the Intel Manager.
3) It doesn't take the half size card, it takes the full size 5150.

If you have signal issues/connectivity problems, the default settings of every sony I've seen has the wireless at power saving mode, so boost that to normal/performance and you will sing another song then

 

Are you absolutely sure that the Vaio Z takes the mini card pcie and not the half mini card pcie??? Because the thread that has the "take vaio z apart" pictures show the wifi card to be half mini pcie card or atleast thats what i see.....

 

i think it depends if the model is with WWAN or not. My TT has half-sized, but it has WWAN (only TT with WWAN). The TT180 I saw taken apart had the full size 5100. Your best bet will be checking the model in the wireless manager. MMW is full HMW is half

 

i have the z540 without wwan and device manager shows i have the HALF card.

 

Hi i don't have the Z but what you want to do putting in a third antenna should be pretty much the same in any laptop.
I haven't installed mine yet the parts haven't yet arrived and i probably won't be able to do it until next weekend.
Have a read of these threads you will see that other people have done it and it looks pretty much plain sailing.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=338918
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=131729

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=335530

 

rachuk : thanks for the info

Can someone else here with a Vaio Z confirm they have the "HALF" mini pcie 5100 wifi card? I am getting this info from the device manager, under details.

 

Yes, I can confirm that the Z590 uses half mini 5100

 

Polish sell me your half mini 5100, also I was thinking about getting the Intel 5350 myself, but WImax is not widespread in uk..

 

I have a FW160D with Atheros which gives me 300mbps vs FW285HD with Intel 5100 which gives me only 150mbps. I am still finding the way to achieve 300mbps on my FW285DH.

 

Does anyone have the step by step wifi card replacement for Sony Z?