Acer 5315, installing Wifi 'n' card

As the 5315 is such a robust, open and upgradeable platform I thought I would try changing out the Wifi card for one with a third antenna to exploit MIMO for improved signal acquisition and retention on legacy 'g' networks as well as providing 'n' capability.

The card swap was every bit as simple as you would expect and my Vista home premium picked up the new card and installed a suitable driver, in this case for an Intel 4965AGN card.

If anyone has seen a 5315 completely dismanted, can you confirm where the two factory antennae are routed? I'm guessing along the two outer edges of the laptop, and as far from the fan, cpu and memory as possible.

Any suggestions for routing the third antenna would be welcome!

Although I have a state of the art MIMO 'g' network (using Ruckus gear) it is not 'n' standard so I can't check the 300Mb 'n' functionality at the moment.

The laptop's reception does seem to be improved as the Acer eNet utility is showing signal strength increased from 60 to 80%, but I wouldn't claim this is a scientific measurement.

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=260624

check that thread,,, intstall the 3rd antenna as an EXTERNAL using a pigtail...

the 2 antennas i do believe go thru the LCD hinges and there is an antenna on each side of the LCD about 2/3 the way up the sides

 

That's an interesting thread and the laptop is quite a hefty piece of machinery, with the metal shielding almost forcing the use of an external antenna.

I'll gather up a few bits and pieces, do a little research, and see what I come up with. There does seem to be a nice spot on the 5315 between the ethernet and vga sockets. It looks like the internal metal frame is punched/drilled to accept a serial port.

In the meantime the Intel card, which is only a stopgap as its draft 'n', seems to get good reception and run much cooler than the standard Atheros card. I have the card set to operate as 'g' only and to optimise performance for resilient throughput.

The third antenna is currently tucked under the front edge of the bottom right hand corner of the base, more to keep it plugged in but out of the way than anything else.

 

glad to hear the swap went ok...

if you do decide to install a third antenna... be it internal or an external... take some pics and maybe even create a little HOW TO guide..

thanks,

bigO

 

My 'n' card finally arrived, an 802.11a/b/g/full n Atheros AR5008 5418, with 'Dell' on the anti static bag.

The install went as smoothly as ever, 2 screws holding the card in place and the 3 antenna clipping on with no problems.

I ended up positioning the third antenna in the right hand corner of the bottom half of the laptop, held in place by some impact absorbing, compressible mounting material (aka bubble wrap!). I'm too ashamed to include a photo .

Vista identified the card and installed a May 08 driver as part of its blank HD install. Acer's enet software talks to the card and allows the usual selection of available wireless networks with good signal strengths, on a par with the Intel 4965AGN card it replaced.

I don't have an 'n' router yet so I'll not comment on 'n' performance until I do.

I am disappointed with the configuration options (in the driver sub menu) which are much more limited than the Intel card it is replacing. On the Intel card I could disable the 'n' and select resilient transmission, optimised for throughput. No such options exist for the Atheros card.

The only outstanding issue I have is that the dedicated button on the laptop to switch the wireless on/off doesn't seem to do anything anymore, apart from displaying a message on the screen. Any suggestions most welcome !

 

first i'd try to locate the driver from ATHEROS... and not use the VISTA driver

NEWEST VISTA DRIVER

http://www.station-drivers.com/page/atheros.htm

 

Thanks for the suggestion bigO, the latest drivers did help - in that the orange network light is flashing on and off steadily, about once every 2 seconds. It didn't come on at all before.

The button to enable/disable the wireless still isn't affecting the wireless, though the on screen messages appear showing the button itself is ok.

I wonder if the sequence in which the software is installed is important to make sure the right soft links are established.

 

cool... glad it helped SOME...

i'm not up on the button control like i should be...but i believe it's controled by settings in the registry...

i have a feeling that the HARDWARE ID of the new card doesn't match the ID of the old card,,, thus when the WIFI button is pressed, the LAUNCH MANAGER tries to start/stop the old card but that piece of hardware is not there...

you might try to uninstall LAUNCH MANAGER,,, reboot.. then reinstall LAUNCH MANAGER

that might cause the new WIFI to be recognized and controlled when the WIFI button is pressed

 

Thanks again bigO, but still no joy.

I've tried removing the enet software, launch manager, drivers and uninstalled the device, rebooted and then reinstalled the latest drivers, rebooted, installed launch manager but no joy with the wireless button.

The wireless card is running beautifully, blissfully unaware of any attempts to turn it off.

I may pop my Intel card back in to see if I can localise the problem to a card:laptop incompatibility specific to this Atheros card (as my original card was an Atheros).

 

since none of that worked...

i have a feeling that it will require a registry edit to fix the issue...

i'll see what i can find out

 

that would be great....

I swapped back to the Intel card and everything came up and worked properly as soon as the drivers were installed.

 

well i searched thru the registry and had no luck with changing the WIFI card that is linked to the button... (i found all kinds of WIFI BUTTON settings but none seem keyed to specific hardware.. or if it is, it's done at a VERY LOW level {as in machine code})

you might try loading the LAN_Atheros_v5.3.0.67_XPx32.zip but make sure the AR5008 is installed first!

i highly doubt it will work the 5008 card... but maybe something in the driver installation will set the WIFI BUTTON up to work w/ an ATHEROS card since this driver is directly from ACER.tw website..

i know it's the first ATHEROS driver i installed after downgrading to XP.. and the driver is still the most current atheros driver for XP listed at ACER's site.

i'd try installing this driver... don't be alarmed if it doesn't opperate your 5008 card... we're just testing to see if it enables the WIFI Button later on..

after installing drivers REBOOT..

then install that LATEST DRIVER (atheros_V7.6.0.154_V7.6.0.239) and reboot again.. and test the WIFI BUTTON

 

i've been playing with installing VISTA DRIVERs form ACER's sites and getting them to work in XP!!!

i think i can solve this sooner or later... but it's hard to test w/o a 5008 in hand... next i'm gonna replace the INF file from ACER with an INF from laptopvideo2go and see what comes of it!!!

the reason i wanna solve this is because i will be oredering this 5008 next month and may as well get a jumpstart on figuring this issue out

 

http://www.mediafire.com/?jkoded2hnmk

THIS SHOULD WORK

it has 5008 INF files and is working with my 5007 in XP and my wifi button is working

go to device manager... update driver.... do not search... select it from list.. highlight network adapter in the list.. then click have disk... then browse to where you unzipped the file too!

and click OK

 

Hi BigO, sorry for the delay in responding, I'm on crutches after a recent accident, but still have my day job to get done

No luck with this driver although it did seem to install ok. The driver is dated July 2007 with some interesting configuration options.

After installing and a reboot, wireless networking comes up ok, though no orange light is displayed.

The card can connect as before, but pressing the wireless on/off button doesn't have any effect.

I'm sure you're on the right track, but not quite there yet !

 

sorry to hear about your accident...

i'm not quite sure what to try next... instead of relying on the BUTTON you may have to settle on RIGHT CLICKING on the WIFI ICON in the system tray and disabling the WIFI there (when needed) at least until ACER includes the 5008 as a factory installed card. Then when drivers for the 5008 are available, either the NEW DRIVERS or the NEW version of LAUNCH MANAGER should have support for the WIFI BUTTON.

wish i had a bettter answer,,, maybe after i wake up i'll think of something else.

 

no problem, I don't really use the laptop in battery mode, its more a portable machine with a known, safe and clean configuration that I can use when I'm travelling.

I'm hoping to travel to visit family soon and expect quite a few 'would you mind checking if my pc is ok?' enquiries - I'm sure that's the same for a few of the regular posters on here .

Delivery of my 'n' router has been delayed so nothing to report on that front either.

 

i got a call at midnight from a relative who's PC was in a continous BSOD loop... so i know exactly what you mean...

hopefully that ROUTER won't take too long to come in!

 

My router (a UK ISP engineered BT Home Hub v2) has finally appeared so I've been able to see if the 'n' features of the Atheros 5008 work.

I am now getting connection speeds of 130M (rather than the 54M previously on 'g') with signal strengths between 80 and 100% - I have never seen 100% before.

As my router has a 7.6M DSL connection I don't notice any throughput increase .

I wouldn't recommend this upgrade at the moment, unless you do not care about battery life (like me!) as without a way of switching the card off I'm pretty sure the battery would disappear quite quickly.

 

glad you like the strenght and increased speed... and i know what you mean about the data speeds i think G is fast enough to handle most DSL and CABLE connections at near peek or even max speeds of the data being served to us,, but connect to another N laptop and tranfer some large files.. it will really shine there...

use a DLINK or other atheros based N router and you may even get transfers up to 300M (or so i have read any way) i'm still waiting on cash to be able to upgrade myself... too much money going out for my little vacation!


as for that power issue,, i'm pretty sure that will be fixed soon enough...

 

I've pulled the Atheros 5008 card out of my 5315 and gone back to the draft n Intel 4965 card.

The final straw came when the card exhibited some very poor performance when in a very congested area, with repeated total loss of signal resulting in internet access being lost and regained. (A scientific test conducted by taking laptop from downstairs front to upstairs back of house, )

I live in the centre of a town and there are 7 good/very good signal reception networks broadcasting in the immediate vicinity - the Intel card seems to be able to handle the interference much better.

I have had to switch off the 'n' capability of the Intel card as my 'n' router would not allow it to connect if it was on. The card can also be and has been tuned for throughput and resilience and seems to get and keep reliable links.

The wireless button works properly as well !

I'm sure things will work better when full driver/OS is available for the 5008, but in the meantime definitely not recommended.

 

well it looks like I have the same problem. I got mine off ebay and its a Toshiba brand. It installed fine and after connecting the antenna's no matter what I do it does not detect my wireless networks. Shame because I have a D-link DIR-855 and would love to get this to work

 

Sorry to hear about your problem, I have been having another go, this time with a Lenovo branded 5008-3NX.

It came with a matching Lenovo driver disc.

This card connects and holds connections at a claimed 130M, which is as fast as the congested airwaves near me will allow.

No complaints so far on performance, either in getting a connection or holding it to my full 'n' router.

The wireless button doesn't work, but as a normally mains only user that's not a problem for me.

One point of interest is that the orange network active light which used to flash continuously on and off with my old 5008 card, is now on all the time, with the occasional flash.