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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Laptops & Notebooks > General Discussion > [Solved] Installing a external antenna on a Dell D600 laptop

[Solved] Installing a external antenna on a Dell D600 laptop

Forum Laptops & Notebooks : General Discussion [Solved] Installing a external antenna on a Dell D600 laptop

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bennybomb   02-01-2011 at 07:49:21 AM

I have a dell d600 latitude laptop that I am trying to figure out how to install a external antenna to. I was reading another post on here where someone said the wireless card antenna terminals were marked MAIN and AUX.,which is true,my question is then I should be able to follow the Aux. wire to the opposite end and somehow connect an external antenna,am I thinking right?? I am not sure where the internal antenna is.Its not behind the screen!

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Anonymous   02-01-2011 at 08:20:05 AM

Internal antenna on laptops is usually around the screen. I would think you could use any additional connector on a mini-pci wireless adapter to connect an external, though they use a very tiny connector plug.

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bennybomb   02-01-2011 at 08:32:59 AM

ok,so your saying to conect the external antenna the the aux. post???

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bennybomb   02-01-2011 at 08:34:42 AM

and you was right the antenna is a flat wire around the screen
thanks

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Anonymous   02-01-2011 at 08:42:02 AM

I'm not recommending you do anything as this is a highly unofficial mod and Dell will not honour any warranty if they think you've done it -- but if you examine the mini-PCI card you may find it has more than one antenna connector.

I only know this because I managed to salvage an Intel wireless card from a smashed Philips laptop I found by the roadside (presumably ejected from a car by a disgusted Philips customer) and put it into one of Dell's large Pentium4 laptops. As I recall there were two connectors on the Intel card.

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mavroxur   02-01-2011 at 09:35:12 PM
Best answer

If i were you, i would not screw with the internal antenna. Get a PCMCIA / USB WiFi adapter that supports external antennas, and go that route. There is not clean and easy way to route the internal antenna (from the MiniPCI WLAN card) to an external connection without modifying the laptop. I've done it before, and the parts are available on eBay (to go from the mini connector on the wlan card to an rp-sma chassis mount) and actually had a laptop with an rp-sma on the back of it for a weird project i was hired to do, but i don't recommend it.

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bennybomb   02-01-2011 at 10:22:27 PM

ok,I sure thank you all of you for your help,actually I am just pidling with this laptop,trying to learn about how there put to getter and whats - what.I took the screen out to see if the internal antenna was behind it,so now I think I am going to pidle somemore.I have extra wifi cards and wiring harness out of a acer,thought I would try and rigg something up,probably won't work but I will learn trying right? thanks again

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mavroxur   02-02-2011 at 04:59:27 AM

Don't try cutting and splicing the antenna leads. They're coaxial, and VERY thin. Almost impossible to splice and terminate yourself. eBay is a good source for pre-terminated pigtails for mini-PCI and mini-PCI-e cards.


Message edited by mavroxur on 02-02-2011 at 05:02:04 AM
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bennybomb   02-02-2011 at 02:32:42 PM

ok, thanks for the advice. I pulled me a pigtail out of an old aspine 3000,actually its the anntenna wires that run up,around your lcd screen,it will hook right up to my wireless card,I just have to figure out where I want to run the wires to get maximum signal.I use this dell as a desktop.You think if I run them out the side and sodered a piece of heavy brass wire between the 2 leads that used to run up each side of the lcd, would that work,thanks again

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mavroxur   02-02-2011 at 10:04:57 PM

You can get pre terminated pigtails that go from the U.FL connector that's on almost all miniPCI and miniPCI-e cards straight to RP-SMA. You could just then screw on a regular WiFi antenna.

And no, soldering them to a piece of random-length brass wire won't work. Antennas are length-tuned to the frequency they operate on.

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bennybomb   02-03-2011 at 12:31:01 AM

Amazing,I was just found a piece of wire to do that exact same thing.I have a external wifi antenna so I think I'll look for a pigtail and do it the right way,thanks for everything,its a big help

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