AOD150-1165 Second MiniPCIE Slot

Has anyone been able to use the second Mini PCIe slot in this model? I attempted the tape on pin 20 fix with a wifi card without any success. No detection at all. I'm currently on bios version 1.13. I haven't tried to modify the Wifi switch either.

 

You've probably already checked it, but my suggestion would be to make sure it actually is pin 20 you've taped. I made this mistake when first installing the 3G card in my D250.

 

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZKlSQm2j7...D0A/D4R-JH1Kjs8/s1600-h/DSC00055+(Custom).JPG

Thats the pin I taped. From the various posts I've read it seems like pin 20 has more to do with the 3g cards (which are mostly USB) then straight up PCIe devices.

Doesn't look like the second PCIe slot will do me much good unless I want a 3g USB card.

"On the A150 Aspire One the Second Mini PCI slot (3G) is USB only no PCI bus wires. I tried to add the pci bus wiring but could not get it to work and so installed the broadcom in the wifi slot. Then used a VNT6656 USB WiFi adapter because it has two antenna connectors." from http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=689132

I think this card will work correctly in the second mini PCIe slot.
http://www.mini-box.com/802-11-b-g-Wireless-Lan-PCI-E?sc=8&category=1245
According to these specifications pin 20 is W_Disable so the tape solution should work maybe...
"Pin 20 is High voltage to enable Radio operation, Low to disable Radio operation."
http://akamai.globalsources.com.edg...urces.com/IMAGES/PDT/SPEC/371/K1003701371.pdf

 

have you tried it without taping?
also is your bios up to date?
on the d250, i believe we had to tape pci-e devices until a certain bios update, then it was enabled for pci-e devices.

i dont know about the d150 (have a d250), but if it is locked to usb only devices, you can pick up of those tv tuner cards. those are also usb devices.

edit: also, the pin you taped is pin 20. so you are taping the right pin.

 

That's strange, I'm running the latest avaiable BIOS from the Australian Acer website, I had to tape pin 20 or it wouldn't show up in device manager, I spose i didn't file my switch down to slide to the left yet, but that's best left for in the future when i have time

 

the d250's required taping/switch modification (either one) for usb based cards. pcmcia was not active until firmware 1.06 or 1.07 (1.06 worked for my d250, 1.07 for my wife's)
ever since 1.07 i could not get the switch to activate usb cards at all, but it's ok since my broadcom card lives there!

 

Well I received the Qcom Q802XKG 802.11 b/g Wireless Lan PCI-E today via UPS Ground. The card cost $14.95 and the shipping was $7.92 for a total of $22.87. I am happy to report this card works in the mini PCIe slot under the top panel.



I had to do the pin 20 tape fix to get the radio on but other then that no modifications were necessary. Conveniently, a link to the driver is on the product page at mini-box.

Does anyone know a reputably website to buy a BCM70012 at? eBay doesn't have many of them available right now and they are more expensive then they were last week.

 

wow, i got mine back in december for $30 free shipping, which was the standard price, i think i might have gotten it for a few bucks less. now theres none under $50. guess more people have been buying them up for systems with a 2nd port. only thing i can say is keep searching also try searching for 970012 instead of just 70012. they are the same thing, I think the card is a 970012 and the chip itself is the 70012 (70012 is printed on the chip, 970012 is the sticker on the card.)

 

The seller on eBay that was selling them for $25-$27 sent me a refund last week.
His storage was flooded by rain while he was on Chinese New Year vacation.
Most of his stock was damaged.
He did not say if he was going to get any more.

I will just wait for another great deal on the card.
I sure won't pay $50 to $99 for one.
I was going to use it in my Atom powered nettop.

 

and i bet most if not all chinese sellers were using this same distributor. which is why there is only a couple left at big prices.
stock will come back.
it works like this: broadcom orders 10,000 units from the manufacturing plant in china/tiawan. the plant makes 10,000, then another 1,000 during the unreported graveyard shift. the extra 1,000 goes out the back door, everyone gets their cut, and then they show up on ebay and the streets of china. the broadcom card is still being put in a lot of netbooks and nettops. i give it another month max for them to get back in stock.

 

Sorry to bump this thread, but I was wondering if anyone knows where to buy that Qcom wifi module online? I bought a Crystal HD card for my AOD150 and found out that the internal pci-e slot is for usb only. So, I'm going to do what smileyscout did and install the Qcom card into the internal pci-e slot and re-route the antenna wires, and install the crystal hd into the original wifi slot on the underside.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

New user here and stumbled upon this thread via google search.

I'd like to add the Broadcomm HD card to my AOD150. But, I'd also like to add wireless n and internal bluetooth. I had planned on getting a mini PCI-e unit for the job. But, after learning that the second mini PCI-e is USB interface only, that kind of quashed those plans.

Now, I am considering an adapter like this, which is a mini PCI-e card with a USB A type female connector on it.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/lapt...ter-for-USB-disk-wireless-fiwi/579563690.html

I am kind of hoping that since the USB bus wiring is present on that second slot, it this adapter will function. But, since this card technically has a PCI-e interface, I do not know. Can anyone provide any insight? Or should I just be the test dummy and try it out?

 

For what it's worth, this worked:

I ordered a mini PCI-e to USB 2.0 adapter card from eBay

http://www.ebay.com/itm/290746815483?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I learned that this PCB was initially created for the Asus EEE PC 900 901 902 series, which like the AOD150 has a second mini PCI-e slot with only USB wiring for a 3G card. So, I took my chances that the adapter card would work in the second slot on my AOD150.

I paired it with the Cirago BTA7300 wireless N and Bluetooth 3.0 combination USB adapter and plugged it in.

Pictures attached. Notice that I still used the tape trick on pin #20.

Unfortunately, there were two major draw backs:

1) the BTA7300 sucked battery out of my AOD150 pretty quickly. This I could've dealt with and maybe eventually gotten a larger battery but:

2) the signal strength for the BTA7300 (both wireless N and bluetooth) were weak. I was lucky to get 36 Mbps out of the wifi. If I had soldering skills, I would take the plastic cover off and solder two u.fl jacks onto the PCB so that I could plug in the AOD150's stock wifi antennae. Unfortunately, I don't.

So, I think that I am going to be returning at least the BTA7300 and probably the PCI-e USB adapter if they accept it (I snipped the legs to make it the length of a full size mini PCI-e card) and go a different direction.

It was a cool idea while it lasted.

 

Just an update:

I ended up digging a little more and found that SparkLan now produces a wireless N half mini PCI-e card in USB interface:

http://www.sparklan.com/product.php?func=view&prod_id=209

I picked it up, along with a half mini to mini PCI-e extender from embedded works:

http://www.embeddedworks.net/pdetail.php?mn=wlan&mid=mwlan2401&prod=wlan442

re-routed the antennae to the top side as smileyscout did, installed the card there (with tape on pin 20), and the Broadcom Crystal HD card in place of the stock wifi card.