Before we begin I want to tell that you are doing this at your own risk and this will be voiding the warranty of your netbook.
Here are a list of compatible cards I have seen mentioned online but I have only tested and verified the Dell 1510.
- Dell 1510 Tested and working with 10.5.8
- Dell Wireless-N DW 1500 mini PCI
- Any Broadcom mini PCI
- If you know of more comment or email me and I’ll update.
Steps for card installation
Ground yourself so you don’t short anything internally
Flip the machine over and remove the battery
Remove the ram cover, ram, and the silver screw.
Remove the 4 screws in each corner
Flip the machine back over and open the lip.
Time to remove the keyboard
The keyboard is held in place by 4 tabs the top directly above the F1, F6, F10, and Insert.
With a flat head screwdriver or something else very thin click each tab and the keyboard will popout slightly.
Once popped out slowly pull it out from top corn to top corner. (Warning there is a ribbon connecting the keyboard to the track pad so don’t just rip it out like a gorilla.)
Once the keyboard is loose lift it up from the bottom to expose the ribbon connector. If you haven’t worked with ribbon connections before don’t worry it ain’t no thing. It was my first time to and after about 30 secs I had it under control.
To release the ribbon you will see 2 black connectors on the left and right side. Carefully push them out towards the monitor.
The ribbon should immediately release.
Cool keyboard is out now time for the fun part.
Remove the 6 screws that are holding the shell and trackpad.
Once all 6 have been removed flip the trackpad, blue ribbon connector up. (Note this ribbon connection is different then the keyboard connector. It needs to be flipped up).
Once screws and ribbon have been removed and released start prying thing case off. This is a major pain in the ass and you have to be a gentle giant not to just hulk the top off and break the plastic clips. I would recommend using a credit card and run it around the entire crease to help loosen things up. You will also have to focus on the tabs that are under display. There are 4 in total and harder then the rest of the tabs to loosen up.
Once the top is off you will see all the internal components of the machine. I celebrated with a beer at this point.
To access the wifi card you will need to release the ribbon for the SD card reader which is another flip up like the trackpad.
Once the cable is out of the way simple unscrew the wifi card and it should become very loose and easy to pull out of the board. Gently tug the antenna off the wifi card. Removal complete.
Get your OSX 10.5 compatible card, connect the antenna to it and insert it back in the board. Once the card and antenna are secure and screwed in reconnect the SD card ribbon.
Rebuilding
- Re-secure the case and make sure you have enough slack to connect the trackpad ribbon.
- Flip the ribbon connector down making sure the ribbon is fully connected.
- Fasten the keyboard ribbon back in and drop it back into the case starting with the bottom.
- Flip the case back over and install the remaining screws, ram, and battery.
Wifi Card Installed Time to See if It’s Working!
I fumbled a few times at this stage and missed something very basic that sent me into a kext loop that wasn’t needed.
While booting the machine go into the Ausu bios and make sure that WLAN is enabled. My wasn’t and I thought the 10.5.8 upgrade had broken the ability for the card to connect to a network.
I booted in Chameleon with -v -f and noticed a few lines of code showing the airport id and that the card was enabled. I think they are displayed right before all the voodoo.kext files load.
Another good sign that the card is working will be the blue wifi light always active on the bottom right of the machine.
OSX should immediately recognize the card. My system acted a little funky until I did a restart. Menus were bouncing around and keyboard and trackpad weren’t working. I also doubled checked that my ribbons were securely fastened.
After restarting everything was back the system was back to normally and I was connected to my router.
Possible Things to Trouble Shoot
Many people have had wifi issues after upgrading to 10.5.8. Apparently Apple stopped supporting certain cards. Here is a kext from 10.5.7 that should enable the support of your card if it was working in 10.5.7.
Good luck with the card swap.
Any Idea if a Dell Wireless DW 1510 PCI Express Half-Height Mini Card would work? These are the only ones find available…
I am assuming only half-height cards fit..
also at some point in your install did you have to break a warranty sticker?
Thank! looking forward to doing this!
Comment by Vicko — August 22, 2009 @ 4:06 pm
Sorry about the last post misread your post and thought you were using a dell 1500. cleary you’ve demonstrated the 1510 is working
Comment by Vicko — August 22, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
Thanks for your comments Vicko. Yes you have to break the warranty sticker. I guess if your really slick you can get away pealing it off from left to right.
Comment by J.P. — August 22, 2009 @ 5:02 pm
find any extra usb pins on the board to solder a bluetooth microplug for built in wireless? the had some guides on how to do that with things like the aspire one and dell mini. might be a worth while addition.
Comment by The Jack of Clubs — August 23, 2009 @ 12:35 pm
ok… so i’m a little confused, because i’m not knowledgeable on mini pci vs mini pci-e and i’ve been trying to find info, but cant…so…
the dw 1510 is mini pci-e and tested working
but the dw 1500 is mini pci also working
so does this mean that mini pci-e and mini pci – as long as they’re half height – are interchangeable, or that a computer with a mini pci-e slot is backwards compatible with mini pci?
furthermore, can i infer that since all broadcom mini pci will work, and since the 1510 is mini pci-e, that all broadcom mini pci-e will work as well (as long as it’s half height)?
sorry for the long winded question, i just hate not being able to find an answer when i research, so i have to resort to bugging you guys.
Comment by mike franklet — August 28, 2009 @ 7:15 pm
I am also curious about full hight mini PCI. I have three of those. But I got too scared with I had to take the top off.
Comment by Dennis S — August 29, 2009 @ 5:43 am
I think as long as it’s half height and broadcom your good, just pop it in and see what happens.
Comment by J.P. — August 29, 2009 @ 10:08 am
No not half-height. Original Apple cards from Mac Pro which fitted into a the first generation Macbook Pro (RIP) with two antenna. I did see a picture of some have a full height into it. I am also considering adding the antenna from the dead mbp as the signal with original card is so weak. Due to one antenna? I cannot see my Airport Extreme running 802.11n only.
Comment by Dennis S — August 30, 2009 @ 5:06 am
the above problem is in Ubuntu not OS X
Comment by Dennis S — August 30, 2009 @ 5:14 am
OK, this is a later response. I just got a 1005HAB and just got done installing a Mini PCIe broadcom in it. Its a full height mini, not a half height, and everything works great! You have to use some snips to remove 2 plastic tabs that will get in the way of laying the card down, but it fits after that, and it works great.
Comment by Phoenix — October 25, 2009 @ 12:12 pm
It looks like there is enough room to install a full height pcie card?
It would not be able to screw into place but electrical tape could solve that.
any thoughts?
you guys agree?
Comment by wes — October 26, 2009 @ 3:49 pm
now I see the post above mine!
good news, glad the full size card work!
Comment by wes — October 26, 2009 @ 3:51 pm
Just wanted to say I found another card that works great. The MSI Wind U100 (apparently the posterchild for netbook hackintosh usage) uses a realtek RTL8187SE full hight card, and I swapped my 1005ha’s atheros card with a friend who owns a Wind. I had to snip out the little plastic tabs like the previous poster said, but it fit with no problems and works great on 10.5.6. Also other versions of the wind have ralink cards, and those reportedly work as well, i’m sure they’d work on the 1005ha. Both require drivers of course. Thanks for the great guide btw!
Comment by Murdercitydevil — October 28, 2009 @ 3:35 am
Has anybody got the battery meter working on the 1005HAB? I can’t no matter what I try. Any advice out there?
Comment by tedstur — October 29, 2009 @ 6:15 am
Dennis S: Your problem is that the original card doesn’t work on the 5ghz spectrum, only uses 2.4. I had to reconfigure my airport extreme to 2.4ghz and now it sees it perfectly on ubuntu. However, I’m swapping card since the atheros is giving me a pain in the ass (drops connections in ubuntu, doesn’t work on osx and sure as hell i’m never going back to windows).
Comment by Rola — November 5, 2009 @ 7:31 am
I can’t get the top off?!?!?
Comment by jigglywiggly — December 12, 2009 @ 7:09 pm
rofl i am a dumbass i forgot to gget the bottom screws out works good nowe
Comment by jigglywiggly — December 12, 2009 @ 7:33 pm
Thanks for the tuto dude ! Was very easy following your instruction ! Now it’s time to switch my netbook on and see if everything is working. (wifi with dell card included !)
Thanks again !
Comment by woashad — January 21, 2010 @ 3:13 am
Where did you guys get your cards from?
Did you get 802.11n running?
Comment by Red Leader — February 25, 2010 @ 7:35 pm