Repairing and Upgrading WireLess LAN mini-PCI Cards

Do you want to upgrade a wireless miniPCI card? Here are links to free do-it-yourself instructions. If you have written a repair guide yourself (or if you know of a report not linked here), please submit a new entry.

For technical details about miniPCI see PCI Spezial Interest Group. Common miniPCI card types are WLAN cards, network cards and modem cards. Often they are built as combo cards. Note: not every built-in card is a miniPCI card, especially in older laptop models. Newer Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo based laptops come with mini PCI-Express slots instead of miniPCI!I

Acer Aspire One	The freakishly long process to upgrade the memory of the AAO is amazingly ridiculous. The easiest thing to upgrade is the WiFi card with a Dell 1390 card.
Acer TravelMate 290LMi	How to replace an Intel 2100 11Mbit/s with an Intel 2200 54MBit/s miniPCI Wireless LAN card (in German).
Acer TravelMate 426LC	How to add a Intel 2200BG miniPCI WLAN card and an internal antenna (in German)
Acer TravelMate 3004WTMi	The notebook comes with an Intel 2200 b/g WiFi card, which has 100mW (20dBi) output power (nice), this card has been replaced by a Wistron NeWeb CM9 from Netgate, which is in fact a 5004 MP Atheros 4G: 802.11a/b/g miniPCI Card. Includes hard disk downgrading instructions.
ASUS Eee PC 701 4G	The Wifi-card is only 802.11b/g, not the latest draft-N, but the card can be easily replaced by removing two screws and unmounting the card from the Mini-PCI Express socket and adding an Intel 4965agn 802.11a/b/g/n Mini-PCIe card for a decent price.
ASUS M2400N	Changing the built-in miniPCI WLAN card.
ASUS M2400N	Upgrade tutorial for the miniPCI WLAN card. From IEEE 802.11b 11MBit/s to IEEE 802.11g 54MBit/s (in German).
Compal CL50	How to fit a miniPCI WiFi card into the housing, an illustrated step-by-step manual.
COMPAQ Evo N620c	Disassembly manual about adding a wireless miniPCI card (based on Atheros chipset) and better antenna (in German).
COMPAQ Presario B1800	BIOS whitelist & hardware modification for Broadcom MiniPCI wireless LAN card.
N.N.	Adding miniPCI WLAN modules to a laptop (e.g. Intel-2200BG) (in German).
DELL Inspiron E1505	Want better performance from your laptop? The conventional wisdom has long held that you should simply buy a new one. You can put such conventional wisdom aside: upgrading a laptop may not be for the timid or the impatient, but if you're handy with a screwdriver, and the sight of a circuit board doesn't scare you, an upgrade can be a far more affordable solution. Upgrades covered: RAM from 1GB to 2GB, HDD from a 5400RPM, 120GB drive to a 7200RPM, 200GB model, miniPCI wireless card from 802.11b to 802.11a/b/g, BlueTooth card added, optical drive, LCD screen with better resolution or matte instead of glossy, CPU from a 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo to a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, graphics card nVidia 7300 with a more powerful ATI X1400.
DELL misc. models	How do I install a TrueMobile miniPCI card into a laptop?
DELL Latitude C840	Improving wireless reception by replacing the Dell 1150 miniPCI card with an aftermarket model (Netgate 5354MP) and the addition of a 2nd antenna.
DELL Latitude C840	How to install an internal wireless miniPCI card into an older laptop.
Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E-4010D	This guide gives a short overview about replacing the IEEE 802.11b mini-PCI card with a IEEE 802.11g card (in German).
Fujitsu-Siemens LifeBook S-2020	How To: Adding Internal Wireless LAN to a Notebook. Today's notebooks all come with the ability to host an internal wireless LAN card. But cost-sensitive buyers may choose to forego that option and later regret it. But as long as you're willing to do some homework, this How To shows that it's not that hard to add a miniPCI WLAN card yourself.
HP Pavilion DV9000	How to remove hard drive, memory, wireless card and keyboard.
HP Pavilion ZE 2005EA	This guide will explain how to get a Gigabyte (GN-WIAG02 - Atheros AR5005 GS) wireless miniPCI card working.
HP Pavilion ZV 5460US	Defeating HP's Wireless Whitelist for Fun and Profit: adding a Atheros based wireless miniPCI card.
HP/COMPAQ NX6125	This aims to be a short how-to providing guidelines to "hack" HP notebooks bios protection which prevents to boot the system when an uncertified Atheros wireless adapter is inserted into the miniPCI slot.
IBM ThinkPad	A compatibility survey of wireless miniPCI cards.
IBM ThinkPad A31	Adding internal WiFi by featuring a DELL TrueMobile miniPCI 1400 card.
IBM ThinkPad R31	Explanation how to re-flash the BIOS after changing the miniPCI card.
IBM ThinkPad i1400	HOW-TO: Laptop resurrection and upgrade, battery revival, membrane keyboard repairs, trackpoint transplant, adding USB ports and wireless LAN.
IBM ThinkPad T23	Picture gallery about an installation of an internal WLAN miniPCI card and antennas (in German).
IBM ThinkPad T40p	Adding a miniPCI WLAN card.
IBM ThinkPad X30	How to build a miniPCI WLAN card into the laptop (in German).
MaxData Eco 4000A	This tutorial covers upgrading components and parts of the laptop and details of the technical process involved in installing them. It details several upgrades: 1. RAM: 1GB DDR 400 (PC3200) in 2x512 2. CPU: AMD Sempron 3100+ (1.8ghz) 3. Internal Wireless 4. Internal Bluetooth 5. Hard Drive: 60GB 7200RPM with 8MB cache 6. Optical Drive: QSI DVD+-RW SDW-082S 7. Heatsinks and Cooling.
Microstar (MSI) Wind U100	How to open the casing to achieve some hardware modifications: memory upgrade and WiFi card replacement.
NEC Versa M300	Putting an IPW 2200 BG WireLess mini PCI card into the laptop. To make this card work can cause a lot of trouble, because there is no BIOS option for wireless radio switch on/off, and there is not any button either in the keyboard. In some cards you can switch the radio on by covering some pins of the card, they are normally pins 7 or 13, sometimes 11, in this case.
Panasonic ToughBook CF-M34	The is available with CDPD wireless data capability. This comprises an internal Sierra SB300 modem, an antenna mounted on the screen, and some intermediate cabling and connectors. The internal wireless card, is more or less a PCMCIA type-III device, but instead of a 68-pin connector on the end, there's a flat ribbon cable bringing signal to it from the motherboard. Take apart pictures and a proprosal to junk the 56k modem and put a MiniPCI wireless card in the slot.
Panasonic CF-W2	Taking this laptop apart is a long and tricky process, putting it together needs just as much care and attention. This guide gives a completely illustrated take apart explanation to get the built-in IPW2100 miniPCI WLAN adapter upgrade to an IPW2200bg.
Panasonic CF-W2	Take apart guide leading to HDD and WLAN miniPCI card replacement.
Samsung P30	Upgrading the laptop model from P30 to P35 by replacing the motherboard and the WLAN adapter (in German).
Samsung P35	How to replace a 11Mbit miniPCI WLAN card with a 54Mbit card (in German).
Sony VAIO PCG-SRX7	How to add a WLAN miniPCI 802.11g card (in Japanese).
Sony VAIO PCG-TR1/B, TR2/B, TR1MP	Replacing the internal WLAN miniPCI card.
Sony VAIO PCG-Z1A	How to change miniPCI WLAN card.
Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303	Sellotaping over pin-13 of the Askey/Toshiba AR5212 mini-pci card to cause radio to be permenantly enabled.
Toshiba Satellite 5100-503	Attach a miniPCI WLAN card.
Toshiba Satellite A65-S1067	Soldering and installing a wireless slot/card on the mainboard. Not much yet but it could be a starting point.
Toshiba Satellite A215	These instructions show how to remove the wireless card from the laptop. Also, you can use this guide for removing the keyboard.