3rd party PCI Wireless cards

OK, so I've decided to finally install broadband at home.
I've had an Airport Express (AE) for several months to use when traveling, etc.
I have a PowerBook with an Airport Extreme card in it and I use its wireless capability all the time.
My older G4 tower (Digital Audio) does NOT have a wireless card.
I want to install a wireless card in the G4 tower, since I suspect that will be the easiest way to get both of my computers online. I know I could buy a wired router instead, but...
Anyways, my G4 tower would need the old original Airport card, which costs way more than the new Airport Extreme cards. So then, like my title says...
Are there any known issues with using a 3rd party PCI Wireless card?
For instance, Belkin's F5D7001.
I thought I saw somewhere that Belkin supports OS X, but some people had problems in Tiger. Others may have had problems with various wireless encryption methods.
Am I better off just biting the bullet and finding an old Airport card for $100?
Sorry if this topic has been covered, I tried a search but didn't get much info on this particular topic.
I am running Panther on both my machines.
Thanks, folks!

I am using a Belkin F5D7000 in a AGP G4 Tower. The chipset is by Ralink. Free OS X version drivers are available here:
http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm
While not as elegant as Airport software, of course, the driver and card work excellent.
If you can find a wireless PCI card using the original Broadcom chip sets, just like the Airport card, then it will be recognized as an Airport card and use the Apple software. These are hard to find now however.
Here is an excellent article on what you are trying to do:
http://homepage.mac.com/techedgeezine/2005_0217-54g-inyourmac1.htm

Similar Messages

3rd party pci wireless card for G4 1.25GHz (MDD 2003) & Leopard?

Greetings. Upgrade to Leopard broke wireless on my son's PowerMac G4 1.25GHz (MDD 2003). Previous PCI wireless G card was a third party distributed by Buffalo, but it worked fine under Tiger. Does anyone have a recommendation on a third party card known to work with 10.5.x?
Thanks!
gary2400

I am using a Belkin F5D7000 in a AGP G4 Tower. The chipset is by Ralink. Free OS X version drivers are available here:
http://www.ralinktech.com/supp-1.htm
While not as elegant as Airport software, of course, the driver and card work excellent.
If you can find a wireless PCI card using the original Broadcom chip sets, just like the Airport card, then it will be recognized as an Airport card and use the Apple software. These are hard to find now however.
Here is an excellent article on what you are trying to do:
http://homepage.mac.com/techedgeezine/2005_0217-54g-inyourmac1.htm

New 10.3.x Airport update and 3rd party PCI cards

Apples new update states:
"This update resolves AirPort compatibility issues with certain third party 802.11 cards and access points for OS X 10.3.3 through 10.3.9."
Well, any one have the guts to try it yet? I am sick of having my G4 out of date. The last two times I have tried to update it I could not get the PCI wireless card to work and had to roll back to 10.3.7 (?) versions. Very frustrating.
I will try again, but only when I know I have a day up my sleeve to roll it back. Any reports of success or failure would be appreciated.
Doug

Thanks Henry.
Fingers crossed that it will work in my case!
Maybe this time I will clone my system and try the upgrade on the clone! Just have to see if I can dig up the disk space....

Satellite 1905-S303 PCI wireless card won't start code 10

I've put a broadcom BCM94306PM PCI wireless card in my laptop. The laptop is equipped with antenae however one is damaged and can't be connected, these cards can work with one side only and I've even read somewhere that they can work over a short range with no antenae. My problem is device manager states that the device cannot start code 10. I have a clean install of XP Pro with SP1 (not from the original restore disc). With this in mind I suspect that there must be some Toshiba utility or driver missing to allow the card to work. Any help appreciated.

I've downloaded drivers that others have stated are for this wireless card but I'm not able to find drivers that work. I've heard speak of a Toshiba Wireless LAN manager type of utility but I can't find any other reference to this on Toshiba site. This is not an original Toshiba wireless card, but I thought you could just plug any mini PCI device in and install drivers to suit. Is this not the case? The person that I purchased the card from says that some manufacturers prevent use of third party PCI devices. I find this unlikely. Could this card really be broken?

Startup gets 'Network cable unplugged' on mini-PCI wireless card

I recently installed a Netgear DG834GT wireless router and now have an intermittent problem connecting my Tecra 9100 to it. If the 9100 has been shutdown for a while (like overnight), when I restart I always get 'Network cable unplugged' for the wireless connection. Rebooting a number of times (anything from 3 upwards) I eventually get connected to the router and all then works fine for hours. Even a quick restart at this point (i.e. once the wireless card has connected) does not cause a problem but as soon as I leave the machine shutdown for a length of time it fails again at reboot.
There are no errors in the Event log.
I am using the built in mini-PCI wireless card and have already upgraded to the latest driver.
Any ideas gratefully recieved, at the moment each morning is a 20-30 minute frustration of rebooting trying to get my connection working.
(Running Win2K Professional)

Checking other boards for help (Netgear etc.) it seems that the 'Network cable unplugged' is a common message when wireless connectivity is failing. However, to prove the point, I have disabled the other LAN card (for which I was also getting 'network cable unplugged' but as expected since it was). I still get the same issue with the wireless card, although now the reboots are slightly more predictable - it normally seems to succeed on the third reboot. I guess disabling the other card has changed the startup timing slightly and in that way made things slightly better.
Again, any other suggestions gratefully received. As this seems to be a timing issue at startup, I am suspicious that one of the other things that runs at that time is causing the problem.

Startup gets 'Network cable unplugged' on mini-PCI wireless card (again)

Reposting as previous topic has been locked although has not been resolved. Original post below, please see previous post for more details
I recently installed a Netgear DG834GT wireless router and now have an intermittent problem connecting my Tecra 9100 to it. If the 9100 has been shutdown for a while (like overnight), when I restart I always get 'Network cable unplugged' for the wireless connection. Rebooting a number of times (anything from 3 upwards) I eventually get connected to the router and all then works fine for hours. Even a quick restart at this point (i.e. once the wireless card has connected) does not cause a problem but as soon as I leave the machine shutdown for a length of time it fails again at reboot.
There are no errors in the Event log.
I am using the built in mini-PCI wireless card and have already upgraded to the latest driver.
Any ideas gratefully recieved, at the moment each morning is a 20-30 minute frustration of rebooting trying to get my connection working.
(Running Win2K Professional)

More info : I have found that this is time related rather than related to the number of reboots. It always fails on the first reboot after being shut down for a period of time. At this point, however long I wait the connection never comes up. However, if I wait a few minutes and then reboot, the second reboot will always successfully establish the connection.
On this basis, the problem has become slightly less annoying as I have a workaround - boot once, wait a few minutes and reboot. That being said, any information on how I can isolate this further (e.g. tracing what is running at startup) would be gratefully recieved.

Netgear PCI Wireless Card in a Power Mac G4

I have a Netgear PCI Wireless Card MA311 and I'm trying to make it work in my Power Mac G4. Does anyone know of any drivers I can use or any way I can get online with it? An alternate option is the Linksys Wireless-B USB adapter (ver.2.8) that I have around here somewhere.

Generally speaking, if you are planning on buying a PCI wireless card, do make sure that it is Mac compatible. Mac drivers for such cards or for USB wireless adapters can often be difficult or impossible to find.
Another option could be a wireless Ethernet bridge (also known as a gaming adapter) connected to the Ethernet port. These devices (examples include Belkin F5D7330, D-Link DWL-G810, D-Link DWL-G820, Linksys WET54G, Linksys WGA600N and Netgear WGE111) do not normally require special driver software, and can be used under almost any operating system. WPA security may or may not be supported for a certain unit, so study the specifications (a firmware update can solve this in some cases).
Jan

3rd Party SATA raid cards for internal drives?

All --
Apart from the discussion as to if RAID actually benefits a home desktop system, I am wondering if anyone has the lowdown on using 3rd party SATA raid cards to support the INTERNAL hard drives on the Mac Pro series?
My Mac Pro is still slated to be built at Apple and for now I have the minimum memory and HD spec being requested at Apple, with the plan to upgrade the memory and drives from OWC or another vendor.
I've toyed with the idea of utilizing Disk Utility's software RAID features (e.g. RAID 0 for scratch disks, RAID 1 for boot, RAID 0+1 for all else.) I've also toyed with the notion of searching for a hardware raid solution which would allow me to transfer the internal SATA cable runs from the motherboard to a host adapter card for an internal multi-channel experience (with options to create and break mirrors to external devices for backup purposes.)
So....
Has anyone experience or utilized 3rd party hardware raid controllers which can connect to the internal HD bays? Are there limitations to this (ie, does the boot drive HAVE to reside off the internal motherboard controllers, or can an internal hardware controller successfully boot the system) of which ought be noted?
Finally, in the event that a host adapter card cannot drive the interna bays, can anyone give feedback to hardware SATA cards to power external drive bays with support for Disk Utility (to allow RAID1 pairings of internal drives to external snapshot-backup drives)?
Thanks for your time,
Ian Poulin
Richmond, Va

I am wondering if anyone has the lowdown on using 3rd party SATA raid cards to support the INTERNAL hard drives on the Mac Pro series?
There are many 3rd party controllers that support the internal HDs if an internal iPass connector is used. The problem is that some are bootable but most are not.
The Areca ARC-1680ix-12 and the HighPoint RocketRAID 4320 are bootable. However, the system cannot be installed via the Apple DVD. Instead the user needs to clone a boot drive with the proper drivers to the boot volume on the controller and then boot from the 3rd party controller.
The other issue I found is that these controllers do not support Boot Camp. If Boot Camp is desired, my recommendation would be to leave the internal HDs on the Mac Pro internal bus intact and use the 3rd party controller for external storage. This method provides four internal bays that are bootable, support Boot Camp and can be used for system backups. I use the 3rd party controller for external storage for large RAID sets and hot swapping hard disks.
With the internal bays intact and external hot swap RAID storage available the user can support Boot Camp, multiple system volumes and large external RAID sets. From my experience using a 3rd party controller with the internal HD bays always has some limitations. The user usually does not realize it unit later when Boot Camp does not work or the computer fails on a system upgrade or the controller does not work at all with a new version of Mac OS X.
Staying with the standard internal Mac Pro bay configuration will be the best configuration to avoid compatibility issues with future versions of Mac OS X. It is rumored that the new Snow Leopard may require 64-bit drivers. If that is the case, I would expect most if not all existing 3rd party controller drivers to fail. Some drivers will be upgraded after a few months while others may not. Having the internal Mac Pro SATA controller intact should at least allow the Mac Pro to boot if my guess about compatibility issues is correct.
can anyone give feedback to hardware SATA cards to power external drive bays with support for Disk Utility (to allow RAID1 pairings of internal drives to external snapshot-backup drives)?
There are a large number of external controllers that work with Disk Utility. Here are some of my favorites.
1. FirmTek SeriTek/2SE2-E and the SeriTek/5PM
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm2se2.html
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/
2. Sonnet Tempo E4P
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/sonnet/mac-pro/
3. DAT Optic eSATA_PCIe8
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/datoptic/pcie8/
Have fun!

1802 Error Message on installation of Broadcom Mini-PCI Wireless Card

I am getting an 1802 error message on boot when I install the Broadcom Mini-PCI wireless card. I know it has something to do with some code IBM put into the BIOS or CMOS to check the cards for manufacturer or something like that. Is there anyway around this message or do I have to try and find an IBM mini-PCI wireless card for this machine?
Solved!
Go to Solution.

All depends on how one defines success...
To put it this way: A3x machines are very unpredictable and moody when it comes to these issues, and you're talking to someone who has owned over a hundred A31p ThinkPads, not counting A30/p and A31 units along the way. More than once I've faced a scenario where the card that worked "out of the box" in one machine required a hack in the next one...
But to answer your question:
Can it be done? Absolutely.
Do I recommend it? Absolutely not.
IBM-issued (with a proper FRU number) Intel 2200BG should work in your machine with no hack. Some people have reported this experience even with generic card of the same type.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
George
In daily use: R60F, R500F, T61, T410
Collecting dust: T60
Enjoying retirement: A31p, T42p,
Non-ThinkPads: Panasonic CF-31 & CF-52, HP 8760W
Starting Thursday, 08/14/2014 I'll be away from the forums until further notice. Please do NOT send private messages since I won't be able to read them. Thank you.

How To Install mini-pci wireless card in 1955-S805 ?

I'm trying to install a new mini-pci wireless card in my Satellite 1955-S805. I was able to pry off the black shiny strip above the keyboard, and unscrew the two screws holding down the keyboard. But under the keyboard is a silver metal plate. There doesn't appear to be a way to get past that. Everything I've read seems to say that the mini-pci card goes under the keyboard.
Does anyone know how to install a mini-pci card in these 1955-S805 notebooks? Or does anyone have a tech manual on this model?
Thanks,
Pat

Hi Pat
I am not sure but you have an US model. I have 1900-703 notebook. It is a European model and I had no problem to install mini-pci wireless card.
Your unit has also wireless keyboard. Am I right?
If you want to built in wireless card you must remove the keyboard from notebook using keyboard releases on the left and right side of your unit. After that you can see small cover on the place of keyboard and this cover is fixed with one screw. Under this small cover there is wireless card slot.

A20p, got a mini-pci wireless card working on it

I had thought this impossible. Everywhere i'd looked i couldn't find one person who'd got this working.
Today i've just done it. I had an SMC wireless router which had failed, it kept powering itself off all of the time so i'd bought a new router. Before i chucked the old router out i took it apart to have a look to see if i could find what had failed. To my surprise it had a mini-pci wireless card mounted in a slot on the mainboard (to give it wireless functionality i guess). I got the wireless card out and left the antenna leads still connected to the antennas on the back panel of the router.
Then i removed the mini-ethernet/56K modem card (IBM FRU-08K3125) from the A20p mini-pci slot and put the mini-pci wireless card in it's place. For the time being i left the antenna wires hanging out of the bottom with the router back panel and antenna still attached.
I hadn't got a clue who the manufacturer of the wireless card was but what i did have was the chipset number "TNETW1130GVF" which i obviously got off the chip on the mini-pci card. After a quick search i found some drivers that should be compatible with the chipset:-
http://www.safecom.cn/code/support/DMF.aspx?pid=316#
I've also tried these (actually the same thing):-
http://www.wireless-driver.com/download/other/2007-6-26/TI-TNETW1130GVF-Chipset-Driver.htm
I loaded them up and it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Both driver downloads work!!!!
Now i've just got to find some internal antenna and wire them into the case!
Edit: i forgot to mention that the card is being recognised as a Texas instruments 802.11g MiniPCI card in Windows Device Manager (which is no surprise as it's a Texas Instruments Chipset). Also i'm on WinXP Pro SP3.
Message Edited by snowbum on 03-08-2009 12:48 PM
Message Edited by snowbum on 03-08-2009 01:12 PM

Who would have known? I wouldn't have expected a router to use a mini-PCI card.
Message Edited by ortegaluis on 03-08-2009 12:32 PM
\\ I do not respond to PM regarding individual tech support. Keep discussions in the forum for the benefit of others //

Compatibility issue between MSI MS-6575E and a Linksys PCI wireless card

Hi all,
I have a Compaq Pavilion a249.pt with a MSI MS-6575E motherboard. I bought a Linksys PCI wireless card to access to network.
The problem is when I plug in the PCI card the system don't boot. It remains in the HP logo and doesn't jump to system start.
I plug the card in another computer and I get no problems...
Do you have any idea about what can be wrong?
Yhanks,
CC

Thanks for your comments and help. The problem is solved!
Here are the steps I took:
1 - Try to find help in HP support team: they don't help me in any way!!!!
2 - Try to find help in Linksys support team: they help me isolating the problem and they didn't have any kind of error report regarding with Linksys card and MS motherboard. They told me to try the linksys card in another computer to ensure that the card was in perfect conditions. And it was.
3 - Download of MSI motherboard manual to find any clue.
4 - Search for a forum (like this!) and ask for help. You were the only with straight and usefull ideas . Thanks!!!!!
And now the solution: After checking the BIOS parameters regarding with LAN boot (you told me to disable it), I switched the card to PCI slot 3. The boot was OK.
Again, many thanks to you all.

Help with a 3rd party airport extreme card

I have a G4 power mac running 10.3.9. I purchased the following 3rd party card on ebay:
- Truly Plug & Play - NO complicated software CD setup at all.
- Uses Airport Drivers built into MAC OS X
- Amazing 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless - Airport Extreme speed
- Range: 50' Indoors, 150' outdoors (maximum range in ideal conditions).
- Supports WPA (TKIP,AES),802.1x and standard 128/64-bit WEP Wireless Security
- Fully Compatible with: Apple Power Macintosh G3 (Blue & White), G4 Power Mac (all models except Cube) or G5 (tower, PCI model only) computers, with a spare PCI slot, running Mac OS X 10.2.6 with AirPort installer, or Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger & 10.5 Leopard.
Installed the card in an open slot and Airport setup assistant does not find it. The lights on the card are dark and it just is not working. So far the seller has not responded to my emails. Does anyone have any ideas what I can do to get this thing running? Thanks

What model G4. You need to add this info to your Apple Discussions profile.
What is the make/model of the Airport card?
 Cheers, Tom

Audigy 2 will not work with my PCI wireless card......causes freezing mouse ......HELP,!

Hi All,
I am just about beat with my Audigy2 Plat. card !!!!! .
IT WORKS A TREAT ON IT'S OWN . but when I attatch my wireless PCI Card all hell breaks loose.
My wireless card works great with a SoundBlaster Li've card,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but not the Audigy 2.
Device manager can't see any conflics.................... I have updated all drivers , but no luck.
I have had "looking for ctgame.sys " messages ...................managed to find that file on the Installation Disk, but still it won't give me a break.....................just when you think you might be getting some where the mouse freezes and you have to reboot !!!!! What is it about the Audigy 2 ?
I have a feeling it might be something to do with the Game Port ................... I don't wan't to play games !
Please help.........
Cheers
Blackbob

Blackbob wrote:
Hi All,I am just about beat with my Audigy2 Plat. card !!!!! . IT WORKS A TREAT ON IT'S OWN . but when I attatch my wireless PCI Card all hell breaks loose.My wireless card works great with a SoundBlaster Li've card,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but not the Audigy 2.Device manager can't see any conflics.................... I have updated all drivers , but no luck. I have had "looking for ctgame.sys " messages ...................managed to find that file on the Installation Disk, but still it won't give me a break.....................just when you think you might be getting some where the mouse freezes and you have to reboot !!!!! What is it about the Audigy 2 ?I have a feeling it might be something to do with the Game Port ................... I don't wan't to play games !Please help.........CheersBlackbob
Just disable the gameport on "Device Manager" to see if it's the culprit.
Have you also played with mouse settings (acceleration and saple rate)?
.jtp

PCI wireless card does not work after restart - FM2-A55M-E33

Installed TP-LINK WN751ND wireless PCI card onto FM2-A55M-E33 motherboard. The card works fine after cold start, but does not work after restart. Windows recognises the card, but it gets code 10, cannot start.
BIOS is updated (v.11.1), as well as drivers and Windows 7 64.
I suspect that this might be the issue: Incorrect ASPM Transitions on the GPP Interface as found in ChipsetMotherboard_TechDocs/48671.pdf on AMD's official support site.
Does anyone know more about this issue?

Great! I've done that and now my card shows up. Thing is, when I try to get an IP address, it won't work. Here is the command output:
ieee80211 phy0: wl_ops_config: change monitor mode: false (implement)
ieee80211 phy0: wl_ops_config: change power-save mode: false (implement)
ieee80211 phy0: wl_ops_bss_info_changed: qos enabled: false (implement)
And then it times out and no IP is assigned. The thing is, wpa_supplicant stays alive after this time out, and I am unable to kill it (killall -9 wpa_supplicant won't kill it). At this point if I try to reboot the machine, it will stop at 'Rebooting' and won't go anywhere. If I turn off the wireless card in its switch Linux crashes. If I try to get an ip again (by running dhcpcd) the command will hang and not return to the shell anymore.
I am unable to find any useful information in the logs.
Got any more suggestions?
Thanks! (And sorry to disturb so much)

3rd party PCI Wireless cards

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