WLAN Card Plugged into a WWAN Card Slot (PCI Express)

[kjv1611]

Okay, this is something I'm curious about. Something I've done, and have had a couple of issues since, but not too concerned about for now.

Here's the whole story. I got excited and decided to go out and buy a couple of the latest Wireless N adapters by Intel for our 2 laptops at home. Well, I didn't look in them to see what I already had, and didn't remember, so I got the half-height cards.

So I happily go to swapping out the wireless G adapters, and putting in the new Wirless N ones.. OOPS! I was supposed to get FULL sized cards! Wow!

So, I sort of rigged things up for them to stay in place - remember this is my own personal stuff, I'd not even consider such for other people. My stuff - my risk.

Well, no problems with one laptop, but it had no WWAN slot.

My other laptop, the XPS M1530, has 3 slots - one for Bluetooth, one for WWAN, and then one for WLAN cards.. all PCI Express.

Another interesting thing is that since I put in this new card, which I thought was only WLAN, it's also picking up bluetooth... weird, but it seems to work. I think this is only the case on the XPS laptop.

So, is it possible that the WWAN slot is programmed differently than the WLAN slot?

Here are the problems I've had:
1. Windows will randomly freeze up, particularly when if I use the wireless heavy at all. Most specifically, any time I tried to transfer files to the laptop from another computer on my LAN.

2. Ubuntu has a hard time keeping a solid signal. Sometimes it seems to work fine, other times, not so fine.

When I got flustered with this issue, and was wanting to do a dual-boot Ubuntu install anyway just to do it... I wiped it down, and atarted over... The system runs better than before the reinstall, but then again, I had also tried a different bluetooth card (b/c I didn't have any before), and that didn't seem to work.. just caused conflicts with this other Bluetooth signal somehow coming from my wlan card.

The WLAN card is the Intel 5300 AGN wireless pci express card.

So, What to do... do I need to just bite the bullet, and eventually buy a full-size slot, and put it in the WLAN slot?

Oh, I didn't say WHY I put it in the WWAN slot, did I? I put it there, b/c since it's a half-height card, the antenna connections wouldn't reach in the WLAN spot (one would, just not all 3).. but in the WWAN slot, I can get 3 antennae to connect... one that was for WWAN, and 2 that were already there for WLAN... so that way, I didn't have to route another antenna.

So yeah, this is sounding like some kidn of Tim the Toolman event in wireless networking, but like I said - my stuff, my risk, so why not?

Any thoughts or ideas? Am I shooting myself in the foot using the WWAN interface? The short size card seems to work fine in the Toshiba. Not a single issue with that one.. and no mysterious bluetooth showing up..

 

[chielio]

Hi,

I have the same thing.... Working on my XPS1530 with ethernet cable connected. The Intel 5300 half-mini is in the wwan slot, using my old meccano set
But Ubuntu doesn't see the card.

Now I'm going to test it in the wlan slot without the antennas connected and see if Ubuntu will find the card.

Had you any luck with getting it working properly?

 

[chielio]

Still not luck with the wlan slot. Think it will just not work, maybe need to find a full size.

 

[kjv1611]

As an update, I got sorted out that the issue was my wlan card itself - must have been defective. Didn't bother with trying to return it, just got a newer model (since was going to get another anyway). Since trying the new one - I think Intel 6350n is what I ended up with, no issues. Another thing I had done was try to install a separate bluetooth card. But apparently the laptop has an onboard bluetooth somewhere that I just didn't see... it works without anything in the bluetooth slot.

Since puting in the 6350, the wireless works perfect with Win7 and Ubuntu 10 LTS, I believe is what I installed.

At some point in time, I may reinstall the Ubuntu part, b/c I messed up at least one thing - probably a simple fix, but I've not tried yet. Whenever I boot into Ubuntu, it says it can't find the home drive, and says I can hit S to skip fixing, or procede to fix it. Well, I once went to fix, and basically had a black screen with a cursor. Since I rarely do much anything in Linux or shell (so far), I just skip for now.

But browsing the web wirelessly has worked beautifully in both OSes since the switch.

The 6350 is only available in the half-height form factor, as well... so the half vs full wasn't the issue.

Also, in our other laptop (Toshiba U205), the previous one - 5350 or whatever it was that didn't work in the XPS - has worked fine from day one - not one issue. That laptop also is setup to handle full-height cards, only.. but the half-height cards work fine. You just have to make sure it's in there securely without the screw.