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macxtal · Sep 30, 2003, 08:13 PM

Much drama when I got my AE card today. Should just plug in and go, right? Well, the card doesn't seem to want to go in all the way. I'm thinking to myself, that's wierd - not like apple. At all.

So I plug in the little Antenna thing - and I'm thinking to myself, it's difficult to work with and slips. Apple should have put a connector on here, or something, to make it easier to install. A few people are watching me, and they're suprised.

So I look at the little pictures again, and notice some tab thing on the antenna cable. OH ****, there's no tab. Three guesses where it ended up, and the first two don't count?

Yep - there's a little white tab of plastic stuck way down by the miniPCI connector. *swear* The powerbook dissassembly pictures that were posted to Slashdot last week show me I'm REALLY s-o-l, because the connectors design makes it impossible to access without taking every single thing out of the powerbook case.

Anyhow - remaining calm - I fashioned a little hook out of some coathanger wire and was able to extract the tab.

Thankfully, no damage happened to the connector or the airport card, and after removing the plastic, everything worked flawlessly.

I don't see this mentioned elsewhere, and I am REALLY upset that this could happen. I'm calling apple tomorrow to express my concern, but it's something to be aware of. I don't know if it happened to anyone else.

videian28 · Sep 30, 2003, 08:32 PM

I learned that you have to press VERY hard to get that thing in lol

macxtal · Sep 30, 2003, 08:36 PM

Mine slid in very smoothly with that god forsaken piece of plastic removed.

schk · Sep 30, 2003, 08:59 PM

I don't get what happened...the clear plastic tab on the end got folded in and slid in with your card? You mention there's a tab on the antenna cable, but there's nothing on it at all. You're just supposed to slide the clear tab over the antenna cable, then under the AE card.

The AE card was extremely simple installation. Slid the card into the slot, when it stopped, I just gave a firm push like installating a PCI card and it went in flush. Plugged in the antenna and that was it. The way the plastic tab is attached, it should have been like curving over and downwards so there's no way it could get shoved in unless it was somehow bent backwards.

macxtal · Sep 30, 2003, 09:02 PM

It's the white tab on the antenna cable. It fell off in transit; I didn't notice until the card wouldn't go in, making a real mess.

macxtal · Sep 30, 2003, 09:04 PM

For those of you who have never seen a white tab on your Airport antenna connector - I'd bet it's stuck in your miniPCI slot.

videian28 · Sep 30, 2003, 09:07 PM

ahh yes, that would cause a large problem

schk · Sep 30, 2003, 09:09 PM

Which laptop did you install this in? My 12" PB looked exactly like the install pics in the PDF on apple's site and there is no tab or anything on the antenna cable, only the metallic end connector. Now you got me all paranoid

videian28 · Sep 30, 2003, 09:15 PM

there should have definatly been a white tap on the antenna wire end

macxtal · Sep 30, 2003, 09:19 PM

This is an Al 15.. the tab is in the pictures printed on the battery compartment if you look carefully. It's inexcusable that it was not secured better.

It certainly is needed, you need pliers to remove the antenna connector safely without it - unless it falls off in transit.

schk · Sep 30, 2003, 09:22 PM

Originally posted by macxtal:
This is an Al 15.. the tab is in the pictures printed on the battery compartment if you look carefully. It's inexcusable that it was not secured better.

It certainly is needed, you need pliers to remove the antenna connector safely without it - unless it falls off in transit.

I'll open up and check it again, it's some small loop around the antenna cable? The pictures on the PDF tell you to use a stick to get the plug out, so I dunno. brb, gonna take out the battery and check.

schk · Sep 30, 2003, 09:45 PM

Was the piece very hard plastic or soft? I don't remember taking it off at all. Anyways I did see the diagram on the battery and I think I was wondering what that little thing was in the picture. Luckily I looked into the slot and nothing is in there, I don't see any place it could have slipped into either. But anyways, good to mention this as it seemed to have slipped past me with no consequence.

macxtal · Sep 30, 2003, 09:57 PM

It's a small white piece of plastic; it appears to be thick tyvek or some other untearable plastic. Looks like a twisttie minus the wire with a hole in the middle where it fits over the connector.

You'd never see it in the PB unless, like me, it prevented the card from entering the slot properly.

I'll post up a pic tomorrow.

schk · Sep 30, 2003, 10:09 PM

Originally posted by macxtal:
It's a small white piece of plastic; it appears to be thick tyvek or some other untearable plastic. Looks like a twisttie minus the wire with a hole in the middle where it fits over the connector.

You'd never see it in the PB unless, like me, it prevented the card from entering the slot properly.

I'll post up a pic tomorrow.

I see, I guess mine didn't come with the tab at all. The cable is annoying to detach using the "stick method" as Apple tells you to in the PDF as opposed to if it had that thing attached. I can imagine trying to fish that out of the slot was even more annoying, I'd probably flip out. From the picture on the battery, you can't even tell what the hell it is or what its supposed to do, which is why i didn't bother looking for it when I didn't see it.

If you are gonna talk to Apple, I guess you should tell them to at least update their online documentation as that is where it tells people to look in the manual that comes with the card. No one is gonna pay attention to the craptacular diagram in the battery bay if they have no idea what the hell that tab thing was supposed to be like me.

iomatic · Oct 1, 2003, 01:07 AM

That plastic tab was on my unit, removed, and the card still was a little wierd to get in. Even afterwards though, it still doesn't work (see previous post). Off to Apple, without even a forward replacement.

GRRRR
or
*sigh*

as others have mentioned. After the wait, only to be disappointed...

RealMac · Oct 5, 2003, 08:42 AM

I just got my Al 15" yesterday and installed my airport extreme card. Unfortunately for me, it's not working out of the box. I will be making a trip to the Apple Store after work today for sure.

InterfaceGuy · Oct 5, 2003, 10:51 AM

Well my white tab broke loose from the cable when I first pulled it. Now that I think about it there really was no way for it to break loose which meakes me think it came loose in transit. I had a little trouble getting the cable out. Also I didn't have the card pushed in as far as it should go but as far as I could push it and the cable didn't seem long enough to reech the connector. So after pushing a little harder I found it went even a little further in.

RealMac · Oct 6, 2003, 01:03 PM

Brought in my powerbook the day after I purchased it. Looks like I will be getting a replacement PowerBook. Just waiting for them to get a shipment in. I had the stock combo model and added an airport card myself, along with memory (both have been taken out).

Link · Oct 6, 2003, 04:44 PM

haha owchies. Reminds me of the one time my friend brought his imac to my house and I stuck an airport card in it so he could get on the network easily... right?

Well there was this stupid plastic tab that the antenna was on and somehow when we were taking the card out the dumb tab fell into the imac.. argh it took us like 5 minutes to finally get the darn thing out lol