Are the internal mini cards pretty much universal?

I've got an Inspiron E1505, and it has a "Dell Wireless 1500 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card" in it (came stock with the laptop in Dec 2006)

I want to upgrade it, but I'm not sure if the mini cards I'm seeing online would be compatible

5/8/2011 10:24:08 PM

Whatta you looking to upgrade to? Presumably, you can go to that vendors site and get the driver for it

5/8/2011 10:41:21 PM

maybe this one

sometimes my computer doesn't want to connect to the router downstairs, but the other laptops in the house have no issue


ive been thinking about getting a new laptop, but there's nothing wrong/slow with the one i already have ... it's just old and everyone i know has gotten a new one since 06

5/8/2011 10:45:19 PM

Only thing I can think of is check to see how many antennas you have that plug into your current card...

5/8/2011 11:35:10 PM

i dont really know what that means so ill probably refrain from effin w/ it

5/8/2011 11:36:57 PM

There's wires, with little gold snaps... those are the antennas. They connact to that row of three gold/white circles on the top of the card you linked. Go to pull your current card out and you'll see some. You may only have two, but most have three, now...

5/9/2011 12:07:09 AM

here's what I have in there now (just took a pic)




here's the pic from the Amazon page of the one I was looking at ...



looks like they would connect similar enough

[Edited on May 9, 2011 at 7:17 PM. Reason : ]

5/9/2011 7:16:00 PM

yeah, but the one on amazon has three antennas. is there a gray wire tucked into a sleeve somewhere? trace the white and black wires back as far as you can without taking shit apart, there may be a gray wire bundled with it.

my laptop originally had a card like that, the one i replaced had three antennas (used for MiMo, i think)... there was a gray wire tucked into like a straw type sleeve.

basically, if you dont have the third antenna, you may not be getting anything out of that wireless card. you may be stuck with standard b/g/n... you could get gains out of it, but you'd obviously not be using it to its full potential...

[Edited on May 9, 2011 at 7:24 PM. Reason : .]

5/9/2011 7:21:07 PM

the one i have in now has N though right?

Quote :

"Dell Wireless 1500 Draft 802.11n WLAN Mini-Card"

5/9/2011 7:22:39 PM

i tweaked my reply... i left n off. re-read the last paragraph

5/9/2011 7:25:09 PM

so since the new card might only have 2 wires to attach as antennas, the real benefit would only come if there were a 3rd antenna connection

would a new motherboard basically be required to get that connection for a 3rd antenna?

5/9/2011 7:27:52 PM

i dont know how the antennas are really set up, whether you'd be able to hack another one in. i dont know if it's a simple wire or if it leads to an array of some sort.

its possible the card has a better chip on there that gets you a little more range...

but realistically, i think you're correct.

perhaps someone else knows a bit more, im not a tww certified expert.

5/9/2011 7:32:29 PM

hmm one guy on the Amazon reviews page looks like he found a 3rd, unused antenna in a Dell 1505

Quote :

"After deciding to upgrade and researching alternate Wifi cards, I realized I needed to determine how many antennae my laptop had. I accessed the wireless card (very easy to do on the XPS M1530) and discovered the Dell 1505 card had 2 antenna connections, and there was a third antenna sitting there unused. That explains the signal strength issue. "

nvm looks like he's referring to the XPS having 3 antenna and was talking about the actual mini card from a dell 1505

looks like this guy was able to add a 3rd antenna: forum site

5/9/2011 7:33:53 PM