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    Internal USB plug

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by ejohnson, May 1, 2012.

  1. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Just ordered a mpcie to usb card, It plugs into the unused wwan slot, and gives me a single USB 2.0 (its 2.0 despite the fact that the plug is for a 3.0)

    With this I can either install a usb mouse dongle, usb stick for extra storage, or well, really just about anything usb....

     
    ejohnson, May 1, 2012
    #1
  2. blingers

    blingers Notebook Consultant

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    nice find! i was looking for something like that for a mouse dongle. where did you order this?
     
    blingers, May 1, 2012
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  3. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    ejohnson, May 1, 2012
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  4. un4tural

    un4tural Notebook Evangelist

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    price? would be quite useful to stick one of my 16gb cards in there for some extra room. would be even nicer if it gave 2 USB slots, no problem DIYing some wiring, plenty of space under the hood.

    Edit

    15bucks is kind of expensive, could get another 16gb class 10 micro sd for that -_-
     
    un4tural, May 1, 2012
    #4
  5. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Dont forget the 18$ shipping too :)

    Im going to use mine for a wireless controller or maybe a usb tv tuner.

    This item is more for the people who want a usb dongle plugged in all the time, but dont want to give up a usb plug on the outside.
     
    ejohnson, May 1, 2012
    #5
  6. un4tural

    un4tural Notebook Evangelist

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    it is quite a lot for something like this, considering you can get a decent wifi card for that... what we would do with the first netbooks (old asus ones) is solder wires straight to motherboard to get extra internal USBs, thought i don't feel like doing that to 4x more expensive m11x lol
     
    un4tural, May 1, 2012
    #6
  7. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Thats what we did with the dell mini 9's also, but the mini 9 had just a slot where a wwan could go... no plug, just bare solder pads. I like this mod though as its a little more reversable.

    I am almost wondering if I could put a usb wire going to the right side of the computer, then cut out another usb hole. Then have 3 external on the right side, and 1 on the left side... might be a little overkill though.

    I just like the idea of having a solid mounting platform for my usb dongles.
     
    ejohnson, May 1, 2012
    #7
  8. bouddha

    bouddha Notebook Geek

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    nice find ejohnson!
    I did exactly what is described here but adapted a blank car to access the usb connection points, needed to relocate the usb dongle elsewhere because no space, attached a logitech unifying receiver for keyboard and stuff, works great!
     
    bouddha, May 2, 2012
    #8
  9. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Got the usb card today, plugged it in, then went searching for something usb that was small enough to fit in there.... Only thing I could find was a small wireless logitech mouse.

    ANyways, plugged in the receiver and it fired right up!
    Now I have a wireless mouse hooked up internally. Going to see if I can find a nice wireless gaming mouse that I can plug in there.... wish the tactx mouse came in a wireless flavor.

    Thinking I am going to go with a set of wireless heaphones. Nothing worse than moving around the laptop only to have the wires tug at your ears.
     
    ejohnson, May 7, 2012
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  10. T-ravisty

    T-ravisty Notebook Consultant

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    Are you able to disconnect and reconnect it via device manager or something?
     
    T-ravisty, May 7, 2012
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  11. iCrap

    iCrap Notebook Enthusiast

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    is there anything cheaper than the one posted? That is a crazy high price for what it is.
     
    iCrap, May 7, 2012
    #11
  12. Rishwin

    Rishwin Notebook Deity

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    Still awaiting my R1 in the mail so unsure of the internals, but this is going into your WWAN slot while your WLAN slot still has your WiFi card? Do they both go to USB controllers?

    Looks to me like that adapter will fit full-size in the WWAN slot, and half-size in the WLAN slot, am i correct?
    I might be interested in it, either for my wireless mouse dongle or i'm thinking something like this instead http://www.hwtools.net/CardReader/MR15.html for dual micro sd cards? Some hidden storage might be handy.

    I swear either you or someone else had a thread up about the dual SD card slots, is that a viable option or was it scrapped due to speed limitations?
     
    Rishwin, May 8, 2012
    #12
  13. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    The dual sd card reader works good for storage, there are a few people here that run them.

    This usb plug fits into the wwan slot, your wifi card stays where it is.

    EDIT:
    I am removing this little thing due to the lack of space inside the m11x for anything really :(
    going to give the TV tuner another shot.

    Putting the USB deal inside my x51 to install a IR reciever inside the x51 for my home theater... then picking up a aurora to replace the x51 as the main gaming machine.

    Lots of shifts going on in my gaming life. With the top floor of my house almost done, I will be moving down to rebuild my basement into a alienware command center...
     
    ejohnson, May 8, 2012
    #13
  14. T-ravisty

    T-ravisty Notebook Consultant

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    Is it possible to use this for the R3?
     
    T-ravisty, May 21, 2012
    #14
  15. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Yeah it should be.
     
    ejohnson, May 21, 2012
    #15
  16. T-ravisty

    T-ravisty Notebook Consultant

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    So I'm a noob at the hardware game... What's the difference at the full-sized and half-sized?

    I'm thinking of buying myself a small intuos5 wireless. So to have the RF USB internally would be fairly sweet for on-the-go use, it'd be even better to have 2 internally... o_O but alas...
     
    T-ravisty, May 21, 2012
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  17. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Full size is about twice the length of half size

    The m11x uses a half size slot for the wifi card, the wwan slot is a full sized though.
     
    ejohnson, May 21, 2012
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  18. Rishwin

    Rishwin Notebook Deity

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    It's purely just size, the fullsize just has extra PCB board at the side with holes for mounting. From the looks of it on the pics, i think you can just snap off the extra bits if you just have a half slot.

    I'm contemplating this, but not sure about reception for my wireless dongle... as it is i have it on the left side and sometimes has connectivity problems if slightly covered.
     
    Rishwin, May 21, 2012
    #18
  19. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    I will take a picture tonight of the card installed. There is a pretty huge lack of space inside this thing... I tried to put my flash drive in first, not enough space.
     
    ejohnson, May 21, 2012
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  20. Rishwin

    Rishwin Notebook Deity

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    I just need it for my mini Logitech unified wireless dongle, it's really quite small - probably only protrudes out by ~5mm from the socket.
     
    Rishwin, May 21, 2012
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  21. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    Oh yeah that will fit just fine. Thats what I have in mine.
     
    ejohnson, May 22, 2012
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  22. Aerotype

    Aerotype Notebook Consultant

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    I have one of the MR15 dual microSD card readers. I'm quite happy with it and for my needs it's much more useful than an internal USB port. I bought two 32GB microSD cards for about $30 each and use them for expanded storage, put my music/pictures/videos etc. on there to free some space on my Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD. It was a much cheaper alternative to buying a larger SSD, and makes good use of the slot that was empty anyways.
     
    Aerotype, May 22, 2012
    #22
  23. T-ravisty

    T-ravisty Notebook Consultant

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    Ohh... I like that too.

    However an extra USB would be sweet for me, especially internal as I'm a champ at losing dongles! XD
    If it's inside, then I wouldn't need to worry about it.
    Mainly for use with a Wacom Intuos5 tablet.

    However a cheap alternative from a larger SSD is favorable...
     
    T-ravisty, May 22, 2012
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  24. bouddha

    bouddha Notebook Geek

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    just a side note, don't forget that you won't get even close to a ssd performance, the bus on this connector only works at USB2 speed.
    This can merely add some space for datas that don't require speedy access.
     
    bouddha, May 23, 2012
    #24
  25. T-ravisty

    T-ravisty Notebook Consultant

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    Yeah, I figured that.
    If anything I'd put movies and music onto it, basically all the non-important stuff. I like the potential to add an extra 128GB to this little tacker more than an internal USB to be honest... Being that I could get a 256GB SSD instead, as a 512GB is far too expensive... and then add an additional 128GB to it... Fantastic! But yes, I understand that read/write speeds would be slower.

    Would you be able to access both cards at the same time though? That's my biggest concern really...
     
    T-ravisty, May 23, 2012
    #25
  26. Rishwin

    Rishwin Notebook Deity

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    Yup, each will appear as its own removable drive as per normal.
     
    Rishwin, May 23, 2012
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  27. T-ravisty

    T-ravisty Notebook Consultant

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    T-ravisty, May 23, 2012
    #27
  28. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    Yes, it will :)
     
    katalin_2003, May 23, 2012
    #28
  29. T-ravisty

    T-ravisty Notebook Consultant

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    Nice.

    Thanks all. Now to decide whether to go and get a 512GB SSD or 256GB SSD... Thinking the latter due to money.
    For around $400 I can get 2x 64GB MicroSD, the mPCIe adapter and a 256GB SSD, all new.
    That'll do me for a while, and I'll just get a case for the current 500GB HDD and use it as an external. :) Sweet.

    Thanks all.
    If later down the track I get a 512GB SSD for cheap, I'll then go the internal USB.

    Cheers. :)
     
    T-ravisty, May 24, 2012
    #29
  30. soup006

    soup006 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a M11X R3 and I don't see the second mini card slot. Am I crazy or do they not come with a second one anymore? I bought this thinking I could use it but don't see a second mini card slot.
     
    soup006, Aug 6, 2012
    #30
  31. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    katalin_2003, Aug 6, 2012
    #31
  32. soup006

    soup006 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thanks! I don't know how I missed it the first time.
     
    soup006, Aug 6, 2012
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  33. pmdash

    pmdash Newbie

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    I bought the mini card to usb adapter from amazon Amazon.com: PM3U (MiniCard to USB2.0 Adapter): Everything Else and I installed it in the extra slot and plugged in a wireless mouse but it doesnt seem to recognize it. It wont work. Is there a setting I have to change or add or anything I can do to get it to work? Thanks
     
    pmdash, Dec 23, 2012
    #33
  34. RED-XIV

    RED-XIV Notebook Consultant

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    Edit - LoL wrong thread... but here are my thoughts on this one　anyway. My M11x gets here in a few days... Im torn between 2x64GB and a wireless mouse or game controller.
     
    RED-XIV, Feb 19, 2013
    #34
  35. bobthedespot

    bobthedespot Notebook Consultant

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    This is sweet. Alientosh (I think we are allowed to talk about those, right?) m11x r1's have to have a wireless wifi dongle because the wifi card doesn't work.... I wanna see if I can get a decent wifi chip and put it inside.

    I would connect the wifi reception cables up on the inside for better signal... any signal... lol

    Bob
     
    bobthedespot, Jun 10, 2013
    #35
  36. katalin_2003

    katalin_2003 NBR Spectre Super Moderator

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    Yes, you are :)
     
    katalin_2003, Jun 11, 2013
    #36
  37. Bob_760

    Bob_760 Notebook Enthusiast

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    There are no settings, it should just function the same as any USB port you allready have. Which pci slot did you use? I'm not sure it matters but I used the WWAN slot. I bought that same exact PM3U card and installed it in my red M11x R3 along with the microsoft wireless mobile mouse 3500's dongle and it works perfectly.
     
    Bob_760, Jun 22, 2013
    #37
  38. Deg12k

    Deg12k Notebook Guru

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    Does anyone have a picture of where this goes on the R3?
     
    Deg12k, Jun 23, 2013
    #38
  39. Bob_760

    Bob_760 Notebook Enthusiast

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    [​IMG]

    My R3 has WWAN and WLAN so both slots are populated but on my Red R3 I put the PM3U in the empty WWAN slot
     
    Bob_760, Jun 23, 2013
    #39
  40. Deg12k

    Deg12k Notebook Guru

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    Thanks :)

    Do you not need the WWAN card?
     
    Deg12k, Jun 23, 2013
    #40
  41. Bob_760

    Bob_760 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Not all of them have the WWAN card, I plan to use mine someday but if you don't you can swap it for the USB module. That is a picture of my black R3, I put the usb module in my red R3 which I gave to my mother.
     
    Bob_760, Jun 23, 2013
    #41
  42. Deg12k

    Deg12k Notebook Guru

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    Does anyone know of a UK seller for this? I have tried googling and ebaying but no luck so far.
    I think this would suit me better than another USB slot as I don't tend to use mine at the same time.
     
    Deg12k, Jun 24, 2013
    #42
  43. ejohnson

    ejohnson Is that lemon zest?

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    ejohnson, Jun 25, 2013
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  44. aku1990

    aku1990 Newbie

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    aku1990, Jun 24, 2014
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  45. Forge64

    Forge64 Notebook Consultant

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    So as someone who just bought one from that link, I figured I'd share my learning, even though I'm late. The connector on the card is USB3. The signal going to that port can be USB2, USB3, or NOTHING, depending on what's wired to that slot. There is no USB controller on the adapter card, so it's not USB3 by itself.

    In my M4800, the "1/2 MC (PP)" slot is NOT connected to any USB controller. The adapter card does NOTHING. In the WWAN slot, it's fully functional and USB3.

    In my E6530, the WWAN slot is wired to a USB2 controller. The card is 2 only. The 1/2 Mini slot there is not connected to USB at all.

    In my 6430U, the WWAN slot is connected to USB3. There is no 1/2 mini slot aside from the one the WLAN is in.

    My quest for something useful for my M4800's 1/2 mini slot to do goes on. No Unifying receiver internally today. :(
     
    Forge64, Aug 27, 2014
    #45