Simple question: can you upgrade a laptop's internal wireless card?

[Known Unsoldier]

Yay or nay?

 

[casper114]

I'm not sure if you can upgrade it but i know that we have to replace them every once in a while... which leads me to believe that it is possible. Dell laptops would be the one's that i would think would have the ability...

 

[SpeedZealot369]

I've done it in my e1505. Not sure about other laptops but I would assume so.

 

[Ayah]

As long as it's mini-PCI, it should be upgradable.

 

[corkyg]

Like Ayah says, it depends on the laptop. Ask before buying. With laptops there is no general one size fits all rule. The newer ones with PCIe /34 and /54 can probably handle that.

 

[WobbleWobble]

Likely, you will be able to. However, some laptops have BIOS locks that only allow you to use a certain wifi card.

 

[Known Unsoldier]

Obliged.

 

[Old Hippie]

As long as it's mini-PCI, it should be upgradable.

Winner!

 

[nweaver]

There are currently 2 standards, miniPCI (older laptops, like more then one year old) and miniPCI express.

Most are interchangable, but HP usually locks them so that they ONLY work in HP laptops/cards. Dell and IBM seem to be less worried.

I swapped my intel BG2200 for a 2915ABG when I got my laptop.

 

[Old Hippie]

Most are interchangable, but HP usually locks them so that they ONLY work in HP laptops/cards. Dell and IBM seem to be less worried.

Since the OP failed to mention specifics, I'll go with this. However, IBM seems to be getting picky also.

 

[benplaut]

IBM is very picky, but it's possible to put on a hacked bios flash and remove the restriction.

I did it for mine; nice and painless. Now i have A/B/G