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daniele tabanella · Sep 10, 2003, 05:37 AM

hi, i wonder if it's possible to remove the airport card from the 17 and use in the 12 powerbook. I've got both two here, and the 17 it's almost disassembled, but i can't find the card, maybe it's solded?

thanks in advance

Daniele

AssassyN · Sep 10, 2003, 10:46 AM

Hmm, well technically both of those PB's use the "AirPort Extreme" card, however, it's impossible to purchase a 17" PB without AirPort Extreme already built-in, thus it's probably (though I'm not totally sure) soldered in some way to the motherboard. In the case of the 12" PB, it's an option, so it's an easily accesible slot. If however you DO find the actual card within the 17" PB, it should work perfectly fine in the 12" PB.

crispinwilliams · Sep 10, 2003, 11:19 AM

There was a rumour on some rumour site ( I can not remember which) that stated that there was a problem with the 17 inch powerbook production.. since the traces on the pcb were getting pulled off by the airport extreme card. This implies that the airport card is soldered in - and you should be very cautious going anywhere near it..

cteselle · Sep 10, 2003, 01:49 PM

My airport card was bad in my 17" so I took it in to the Apple Store to see they could replace it right on the spot. Well they showed me the take apart sheets, and the card is actually located under the pcmcia card cage. So you basically need to take the whole thing apart to gain access to it. Poor decision on apple's part, but anyway. The apple store then decided they didn't want to risk swapping it out themselves, and had it sent in for replacement.

Good luck getting it back together if you decide to go that route.

ibook_steve · Sep 10, 2003, 01:50 PM

The 17" does use a standard Airport Extreme card. However, it is soldered to a flex cable that attaches to a small connector on the motherboard. Unsoldering and removing the card from the flex basically destroys the flex, so you wouldn't be able to use it in the 17" again. Why in the world would you want to do this? If you can afford a 17", it would be a lot easier to simply purchase an extra Airport Extreme card.

Steve

daniele tabanella · Sep 10, 2003, 04:25 PM

i've found it, and it's soldered. So it's almost impossible to use it in a 12" pb.

i'm going to buy one.

thanks to everybody.

Daniele

AssassyN · Sep 10, 2003, 04:42 PM

No problem, and thanks for confirming this for anyone else interested...and BTW, welcome to the MacNN Forums!