Laptop wifi booster mod:

**BackInBlack** · 10-19-2008

Takes around 30 minutes, plus the epoxy cure time. Gained me about 22db @ 25 feet...

No cost, other than the original purchase of the donor wifi card that crapped...

**02BlueGT** · 10-19-2008

Bonus, care to elaborate?

**Sabrewings** · 10-19-2008

I thought most laptops had the antenna running up into the lid anyway?

**BackInBlack** · 10-19-2008

All depends on the model. My Inspiron 5150 (and all of the 1100-5160 models) have the antennas in the base, behind plastic and metal shielding in some places. Most Toshiba laptops have flex cable antennas behind the LCD screen, shielded on one side. Internal antennas are not the greatest, and I wanted to get the most out of mine. My external antenna is attached to the main plug on the card, and the aux plug goes to the main internal antenna which is on the LH side, above my audio jacks.

**Sabrewings** · 10-19-2008

I have a Toshiba Tecra A8. Best WiFi capability in a laptop I've owned yet. I remember reading that the antenna was in the lid, and I thought they were all that way.

Anyway, nice mod.

**02BlueGT** · 10-19-2008

I get pretty good with my Thinkpad T30

**SyntheticShield** · 10-19-2008

So you just epoxied a connector to the laptop in order to bring the signal inside the case for better reception by the internal antenna?

**Sabrewings** · 10-19-2008

That wouldn't be very efficient, in my mind. He probably soldered the contacts for the antenna to the same contacts for the internal antenna.

**Blown97** · 10-19-2008

Good going man, I bet it works well. The only thing I could see you having a problem with is the connector and/or antenna catching on something and messin up what you've done.

But hey if it works

**BackInBlack** · 10-19-2008

Originally Posted by Sabrewings

That wouldn't be very efficient, in my mind. He probably soldered the contacts for the antenna to the same contacts for the internal antenna.

I'm going to guess that you don't know me very well.

I'm hardly a novice here...

I disconnected the secondary antenna lead from the mini-pci card and taped it to the side. I then used another antenna connector from another dead laptop to bring the signal out to the external connector, to which I screw on the external antenna. The original aux antenna and wiring is all intact and un-modified. The only alteration to the chassis was to drill the 1/4" hole in the secondary fan grill (which isn't there anyway, and leaves a lot of room to install a fitting). I have a half-dozen spare 5100 series chassis here, anyway.

Not that destroying this laptop would be a huge loss, but I have spent a LOT of time making this one out of a lot of other dead ones. Currently, it's a 3.06GHz /HT/1MB/533FSB, upgraded cooling, 2GB PC2700, 7200rpm 80GB, Nvidia 5200XT w/128 RAM. I fix computers on the side, and I have a LOT of spare parts lying around from dead laptops.