Maximum PC

Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but this is driving me nuts.

First, a little background. I got a laptop for 25 bucks because it had some problems. I fixed it, then bought some upgrades. Memory, new wireless card, etc. I installed the memory, but the bios did not see it all, so I updated the bios to the most current one. Bam, all memory there. Then I removed the original wireless card and installed the new one. Booted up, then got the error "104-Unsupported wireless network device detected."

It does this because there is a whitelist of accepted wireless cards embedded in the bios. Only these specific cards can be used. Any other card installed and the laptop will not boot.

Lots of research later I found a couple websites explaining how to modify the bios to either remove the whitelist or add the new wireless card to the whitelist. I tried it, and bricked the laptop. Lots more research later I found a way to recover the bios. So I did.

I tried again, adding my wireless card to the bios. I flashed it again, and it bricked again. Recovered it again, tried again, and it bricked again.

I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I followed the guide exactly, or rather as exactly as I could, because it is for a different laptop.

Anyone here have any experience doing this? Any suggestions? I really want to use this laptop, but the original wireless card does not work and having it tethered to the LAN sucks.

Here are the websites I used:
http://www.rechner.org/b1800_bios.html
http://www.richud.com/HP-Pavilion-104-Bios-Fix/

you might start with some specs of the laptop, no one can help without knowing what they are dealing with. using something from another laptops fix is not a very good idea. the second link is dealing with DOS and win ME, is that what you are running?

The laptop is a dv9208nr. I was only using the guide to get the general idea of what to change in the bios.

I have a dv9010us which may be a little older than yours since mine only offered a vista upgrade with win xp installed, but trying to work with a fix that was designed for dos and win me, was not a good idea. vista is the operating system, dos just runs me on top of it. you are not dealing with dos anymore a dos fix does not apply.

did you tear apart the notebook and install a new wireless in the computer itself? or use the express card slot for a wireless card? (what you should have done) or use a usb wireless key. did you try to use a faster wireless than came with the machine?

Did a little Googling and found this guy had success and how he did it. Read the whole thing, he is a good writer and you will get a laugh or two....

http://www.richud.com/HP-Pavilion-104-Bios-Fix/

Nasty

The laptop came with Linux Mint on it. I wiped it and installed XP Pro. Had to do some digging for some of the drivers, as HP only supplied ones for Vista. But XP runs great aside from the wireless card not working right.

The wireless card is located right under one of the three removable panels on the bottom. I did tear the laptop apart, but I did it to re-flow the solder on the over-heated GPU. And to install a new heatsink assembly and fan.

Nastyman, yep that is one of the two sites I used. It is quite funny.

If anyone would actually want to open the bios up and poke around, the original broadcom wireless card is:

Vendor ID: 14E4
Device ID: 4311
Subsys: 1363103C

And it is located in BIOSCOD1.ROM I believe. Stuffs gotta be backwards, so its E414 1143 3C10 6313.

The new Intel card I want to add is:

Vendor ID: 8086
Device ID: 4235
Subsys: 10018086

So its 8680 3542 8680 0110. There are quite a few wireless cards in there, so I just replaced one near the end and left the working (original) card in.

I can't include the exe bios file as it is too large, but what I do is go on HP's site and download it, then use 7-Zip and unpack the exe. Everything is inside it.

one thing you could try, since your machine is very similar to mine, same screen, processor, keyboard, sound, speakers, gpu etc. mine came with win xp, try using drivers for the dv9010us, only difference I can see is your processor is slower, tL50, mine is a tL56.

worst comes to worst - logitech makes a key fob type wireless USB stick wifi thingamabob for 20 bucks. it works fine on my craptastic 2002 HP pavillion craptop.

Here's a page full of el cheapo dongles from newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory ... s-Adapters

an off the wall question, my machine has a switch on the front to turn the wifi off, does yours?

It does have a switch to turn the wireless off and on. I have made sure it is on. It sees my wifi, but cannot connect. Maybe I will try the drivers for the other model. But what bugs me is it cannot connect in linux either.

But the reason I am messing around with the bios is because I spent 35 bucks on this card, plus a little more for a third antenna. Then I installed the third antenna in the screen and snaked it down with the other two original antennae.

I just don't want to waste my money.

I guess I'm the kind of person who keeps on fiddling until it's fixed.

Well, I found this:

http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-H ... ega-Thread

and this:

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thread ... post510245

Both remove the whitelist completely. And they work. I can now boot with the new wireless card installed.

But when I have the Windows XP hard drive in, it will not boot up completely. The sliding progress bar gets glitchy, then it reboots. Over and over. I slap in the hard drive in that has Fedora on it and that boots, but the little light near the wireless switch stays red, even though it is in the on position. If I slide the switch on and off the laptop will hard reboot.

Does this mean that the new wireless card is not physically compatible with the motherboard?

It could be your wi-fi router that is the problem. Do you have the latest firmware update for your router? Have you logged on to the router and made sure nothing is blocking your laptop from using the Internet...do you need certain ports open for the wi-fi card to see the Internet?

Flash the bios back to the latest bios update and check the above from there.

Nasty

Just checked my wireless access point and found it to be in 802.11n mode only. I know I changed it to mixed n/g/b mode, but for some reason I think the settings change when I'm not looking. Ticks me off.

I just set it to mixed and b/g mode with the original card installed and it still will not connect to either. It sees my ssid, but cannot connect.

Windows XP will not even boot with the new card installed, and the physical light shows that the card is off (red light instead of blue) even when the switch is on.

Try booting into windows and then insert the card.

Nasty

Put the new card in and it blue screened almost immediately. The old card actually connected though.

I guess you will have to buy a card on their "white list" in order to run the laptop and connect to the interwebs....or plug in the cable. Hope you can get your money back on the card that doesn't work.

Nasty

Well I got past the white list with the most current modded bios. I don't get that unsupported wireless device error with the new card installed. But for some reason when it is in there the laptop does not work properly. Windows will not boot, blue screens when hot swapped, etc.

I would have thought that the mini pci-express standard would be the same since it's inception. I thought that a current card would work in a motherboard from 2007/2008.

It obviously is not compatible with your system. I would try and get my money back or call the new wi-fi cards manufacture and have them get it running for you over the phone. Who knows, you may have a defective card and don't know it.

Nasty

Maybe I will get in touch with Intel. Or try to. See if the card is actually bad.

Thanks for your help.