Will a laptop boot if I remove internal Wifi-card and detach antenna wires ?

[user33331]

Hello
Buying and tinkering with newer laptop wifi cards:
Will a HP or any brand laptop boot if I remove a internal Wifi-card mini pci-e half size and detach antenna wires ?
- Will it show always something like "notice: no wifi-card installed" on boot up or in Windows ?
- Or will it boot normally ( Like if a 1pc of RAM is removed or added ) and everything is normal just wifi and card is not there in Windows like if I would detach a PCI Wifi-card in a desktop computer ?

What is also the difference between 2-wire and 3-wire laptop wifi cards ? Will they work together compatibility ?
- Lenovo has: a black, grey and white wire.
- HP has: wires marked as (1.)black=AUX and (2.)black=MAIN.

 

[Arrakis9]

It will work fine without it. Just make sure you un plug the battery before you remove it.

 

[eidairaman1]

Hello
Buying and tinkering with newer laptop wifi cards:
Will a HP or any brand laptop boot if I remove a internal Wifi-card mini pci-e half size and detach antenna wires ?
- Will it show always something like "notice: no wifi-card installed" on boot up or in Windows ?
- Or will it boot normally ( Like if a 1pc of RAM is removed or added ) and everything is normal just wifi and card is not there in Windows like if I would detach a PCI Wifi-card in a desktop computer ?

What is also the difference between 2-wire and 3-wire laptop wifi cards ? Will they work together compatibility ?
- Lenovo has: a black, grey and white wire.
- HP has: wires marked as (1.)black=AUX and (2.)black=MAIN.

Yes it will boot without it it's not a critical component of the system like a processor or Ram.

Also handle all Electronics with ESD precautions

 

[user33331]

Can I put a newer AC wifi card to a Lenovo T61(2008) it has "a whitelisted BIOS" (=accepts all brand mini pci-e cards) but it has 3 pcs antenna wires and the new cards have 2-connectors ?
1 TR1 ( grey )
2 TR2 ( black )
3 RO ( white )

1 AUX ( black )
2 MAIN ( grey )

The AC-one would make the internet faster.
What does the white wire do ?

 

[eidairaman1]

This will help

https://thinkpads.com/t61/

https://blog.insanegenius.com/2016/12/23/circumventing-thinkpads-wifi-card-whitelisting/

 

[user33331]

Ok. Some site suggested leaving the 3rd white wire disconnected.
I'll start toying with different mini pci-e cards.

 

[eidairaman1]

Ok. Some site suggested leaving the 3rd white wire disconnected.
I'll start toying with different mini pci-e cards.

There you go

 

[Bill_Bright]

Any reason why you want to physically remove this device? You could just disable it and not worry about it.

 

[eidairaman1]

Any reason why you want to physically remove this device? You could just disable it and not worry about it.

He want's to upgrade the wifi card from N to AC which requires a custom mobo bios from Middleton to disable the hardware white list.

Hopefully the other line doesn't act as a EMI pickup

 

[Bill_Bright]

He want's to upgrade the wifi card from N to AC which requires a custom mobo bios from Middleton to disable the hardware white list.

I still don't see why the the old card needs to be "physically" removed.

 

[jsfitz54]

Hopefully the other line doesn't act as a EMI pickup

I've seen special plastic caps or small clear tubing used to cover the ends of the antennae wire to terminate unused wifi wires by oem's.
The OP should wrap/insulate the unused wire, so as not to cause a short.

 

[eidairaman1]

I've seen special plastic caps or small clear tubing used to cover the ends of the antennae wire to terminate unused wifi wires by oem's.
The OP should wrap/insulate the unused wire, so as not to cause a short.

Yup in the telco networking business we had coax terminating caps to shunt emi from affecting the rest of the hpna layout in a home.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Coax terminating caps are different as they typically are "loaded" (present a 50Ω or 75Ω load). The plastic caps found on other connectors are really just called "dust caps" for obvious reasons, though they may also be used to help protect exposed pins from getting bent.

 

[dorsetknob]

I still don't see why the the old card needs to be "physically" removed.

to Physically fit the Replacment Card ( bill has Doh headslapping moment )

 

[Bill_Bright]

LOL - you're right. I was not thinking about a removable "card" (even though that is what the OP said) since most (NICs) network interface cards are integrated these days and not really "cards". I'll go away now.

 

[theFOoL]

Removing the antennas or the card wouldn't matter. It would still boot but you'd have no Wi-Fi. My HP 8460P has 3 wires but my card only has two places to attach. Not sure why it has 3 but maybe it has a similar model with a Wi-Fi card that uses 3. HP's Elite Books use only specific Wi-Fi cards. Most are black listed in the BIOS