Lifebook 729U (and maybe its siblings?) - swap out the wifi card?

[my03]

Anyone knows if Fujitsu employs white-listing on the wifi card? The 729 currently has an Intel 9560 and i'm thinking about upgrading this for a AX210 (i have done the same on my Lenovo W530 an my Y720 and it made a world of difference on those).

 

[my03]

As there is not much action going on here (which surprises me a bit), took the bottom of my 729u and snapped some photos:


https://i.ibb.co/6D5Vvrd/IMG-20240828-202525.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/18fcH9B/IMG-20240828-202531.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/nPLkss2/IMG-20240828-202536.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/ccFgz0n/IMG-20240828-202542.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/rGCP5DG/IMG-20240828-202557.jpg


I also ordered an Intel AX-210 card (V.Pro) so i'll soon find out if it supports it or not

 

[my03]

Wifi works a treat btw with ax210.

 

[Chip]

Anyone knows if Fujitsu employs white-listing on the wifi card? The 729 currently has an Intel 9560 and i'm thinking about upgrading this for a AX210 (i have done the same on my Lenovo W530 an my Y720 and it made a world of difference on those).

Good question, and it's great that you've already had success with the AX210 upgrade on other machines.

Fujitsu's stance on Wi-Fi whitelisting has historically been more relaxed than Lenovo's (which, as you know from your W530 experience, was notorious for it). Consumer and business Lifebook models have generally not been observed to enforce a BIOS-level whitelist that blocks third-party or upgraded Wi-Fi cards. This is in contrast to older Lenovo ThinkPads and some HP/Dell business lines that would refuse to boot or throw an error (1802, etc.) when an unlisted card was detected.

The Intel 9560 to AX210 swap is a straightforward M.2 2230 to M.2 2230 (or 2242 depending on slot) swap physically, so check which form factor is fitted in the 729U before ordering. The AX210 requires a CNVio2 interface -- and this is the more important thing to check. The 9560 uses Intel's CNVio interface, and the AX210 uses CNVio2, both of which are Intel-proprietary and tied to the CPU/chipset. If the 729U uses an 10th or 11th gen Intel platform, CNVio2 should be supported; if it's an older platform (8th/9th gen), the AX210 may not function even if it physically fits, since CNVio is not backwards compatible with CNVio2. A standard PCIe/M.2 card like the AX200 (which uses a standard M.2 Key E slot rather than CNVio) would be the safer cross-generation pick if the platform is older.

If you can confirm the CPU generation in the 729U, it will be easy to nail down exactly which card will work.

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