Latitude E4310 WWAN slot - will a WLAN card work?

I'm not sure the WWAN antennas are optimized for WLAN use.

WLAN is 2.4 or 5 ghz while most WWHA (GSM is 850/900/1800/1900, CDMA is 850/1900 mhz) so the antennas are optimized for different wavelengths.

why would you want to have 2 WLAN cards installed at the same time anyway?

 

Hi everybody,

I have bought refurbished laptop Dell e4300, and wanted to install WWAN card in it. But after opening the place i found out that there is no cable for WWAN. Near WLAN has 3 cables (white,black,grey). Is it normal that there is no cable for WWAN? I'm asking because have been seen following video Move Dell Broadband Card - YouTube

Thanks for advance

 

Yes, not all models of the E4300 have WWAN antennas. If there is no bump on the LCD back cover, or if your system has a webcam, there are no WWAN antennas.

If you want to use WWAN, you'll need to purchase a LCD back cover and bezel for WWAN (and give up the webcam, if you have one).

 

hi, thank you for reply!

There were really no additional cable except 3 cables connected to WLAN. So I risked to disconnect white and black cable from WLAN and connected it to WWAN (Ericsson 5530) card. And both WLAN and WWAN works! But don't know if properly, I felt a little slower connection with WLAN after that. But WWAN works much much better than my USB WWAN adapter Huawei E1750.

Question: if someone has an experience with a such thing and what is advantage or disanvantage, what is wrong with it? Can I work with a such connection without worry that it can damage something?

Thanks!

 

It probably won't damage anything, but neither connection will be able to get a good signal.

Do you have a webcam in the system? I saw a fourth type of E4300 LCD back cover, and it has an even bigger bump for both WWAN and webcam.

WWAN only (blue): http://www.ebay.com/itm/270881144905
WWAN only (black): http://www.ebay.com/itm/320515789704
WWAN only bezel: http://www.ebay.com/itm/260884982033

WWAN + webcam (black): http://www.ebay.com/itm/360426789426
WWAN + webcam bezel: http://www.ebay.com/itm/330590323708

If you swap the LCD back cover and bezel, you'll have access to both WWAN and WLAN cables.

EDIT: One more complication...I remember that when I replaced the LCD cover on my E4300, the antenna cables all connected to the radio switch board. That means you'll also need to get the two short cables which connect the radio switch board to the WWAN card. Let me see if I can find a link...

EDIT: Looks like nobody's selling that cable...I do have one in my E4300 and I don't use WWAN, so send me a PM if you're interested.

 

good thema

 

Hi,

thank u for your reply and attempt to help.

Yes, I have an integrated webcam, but still cannot understand why u are asking for that, is webcam as something common with wwan?
I also have seen a cable near DDR, but there was another free slot (I apologize for Latitude ON card) so I thought that was dedicated for that.

I cannot understand: Why DELL let's there a hole for SIM card on the back of laptop (so I logically thought that I can use UMTS, but there was even a WWAN card in it) but did not let a pair of cables for it. So what a man should do if wants to install some wwan card??? That's interesting. and stupid!
PS: for two days wwan and wlan works correctly, i think ))) Is there some tools to check it if it works as it should do?

Thanks!

 

There are four types of LCD assemblies for the E4300, and this determines what antennas are installed. If the top of your LCD assembly is flat, that is WLAN-only (no webcam, no WWAN). If the top has a small bump, that is WLAN-only with webcam (no WWAN). If the top has a wider bump (~50%), that is WLAN and WWAN (no webcam). If the top has a very wide bump (~80%), that is WLAN, WWAN, and webcam.

Now, the additional problem is that for Latitude ON to work, the antenna needs to be re-routed from the WLAN card to the Latitude ON module (which would use the second set of WLAN connectors next to the memory). This is why there is a radio board, and why there are short cables that go from the radio board to the WLAN or WWAN. Since your system is not equipped with WWAN from the factory, the short cable that leads from the radio board to the WWAN card is not installed.

It's easy to understand why all of these "extra" features are there. It's to reduce the number of different parts so that the same motherboard can be used for multiple configurations...it's not expected for customers to add WWAN cards to their WLAN-only systems if they didn't purchase the system with one.

If speeds for both the WLAN and WWAN are acceptable, there should be no problem. Interference from the signals won't necessarily damage anything except throughput...

 

I am debating on an experiment to do the same on my Thinkpad X61T. WWAN WLAN exchange.