i've got a Compaq v6000 which lost it's wireless mind a few weeks ago. It started with the network connections being slower than normal, and culminated with the feared Orange Dot o' Death. (got a V6000? You know what i'm talking about.) i tried just about everything to fix it. First, i went to the HP site to see if there were new drivers for the Broadcom chipset i had. There was, i installed the drivers and got about another four hours out of the internal card.
And there was swearing.
So, i dug out an old USB 802.11g dongle i less than ceremoniously taped to the lid and plugged in a USB extension cord. It worked, but that meant i was down on of the two USB ports, so not really a good solution, that. The good news was that the card was fairly easy to replace. (Flip over the laptop, loosen the three screws on the memory bay and you'll see the card plugged in at the bottom right.) The antenna wires pop off fairly easily, and i figured since this is using a mini-PCI slot, i could pop in a new Intel BGN card from PC Universe and have draft N capacity. If it's dead, might as well upgrade right?
Well, no. Apparently it doesn't work that way. $60 later i wound up with an installed BGN card and a BIOS error message telling me "INVALID WIRELESS DEVICE DETECTED. REMOVE DEVICE AND REBOOT."
There was more swearing.
Fine, submit the RMA request to PC Universe (which has YET to reply, so i'm stuck with the damn thing), and see if i can find a replacement Broadcom card. i found one over at GetPartsOnline. $40 and three days later, it arrives in a Compaq box (good), wrapped in bubble wrap (what?), with the static shield seal broken and scotch taped closed (oh dear), one version OLDER than the one that had fried (*groan*), and doesn't work (sigh). Apparently, they shipped me a bad card. Considering that i only spent $20 (+$18 shipping) on it, i'm not going to send it back so that they can get $20 from the next sucker to try and buy it.
Fantastic. Two cards, two strikes, and still no joy.
Fine. i've got a perfectly accessible PC Card slot on the side of my computer. i'll just go that route. i went over to MicroCenter (they were selling 8GB USB sticks for $30 so i picked up one of those while i was there) and found a nice, cheap 802.11g PC card… which fits about halfway into the PC ExpressCard slot i actually have. Back to MicroCenter, and this time i picked up quite literally the last PC ExpressCard 802.11bgn stick they had, a Belkin N1 Wireless ExpressCard (F5D8071).
To my astonishment and surprise, it worked.
i can nearly guarantee that Ubuntu will never, ever see it, but since that box currently runs XP, i'm in business. (i'd be less in business if i ran Vista because the included CD doesn't have Vista drivers. The support site does, however, so make sure you grab those from a friend's net connection.
i also pulled out the various other mini-cheese-graters so that if nothing else, they're not adding drain to the battery.
Do i still like the laptop? Yeah, actually i do. Crap like this happens, particularly when you've got crap like the Broadcom card. i wish that i could have swapped in a working one, but the problem with laptops is that they're not really as reconfigurable as a stand-alone workstation is, and when crap like this breaks, it's a pain in the ass. If anything, the design of the v6000 did make it easy to get to the broken bits and swap them around.
So, Executive Summary:
- When you get the orange dot of doom, Panic.
- Don't buy stuff from GetPartsOnline.com, they suck.
- If you buy something from PC Universe, make sure it's the right thing. They suck for returns.
- Check what the hell your computer can take BEFORE you run out to the damn store to buy something for it. If possible, bring in the laptop and see if you can get the part to fit first.
- Tell your geeky friends that you're "upgrading". Trust me, getting a $100 gumstick might SEEM pricey compared to the $20 replacement card, but it'll work and you'll be back on line in a matter of hours.
Oh yeah, and be prepared for a great deal of swearing.
No, more.
More than that.
*sigh*
Anyone want a few mini-PCI network cards?
