Upgrade Aspire 5920G (Santa Rosa) Wireless to N
- posted by Morris Lee on January 29th, 2010
- (32)
Not too sure why there are not much talk about the WiFi Link 5100 or 5300 compatibility for Santa Rosa with PM965 chipset, so now, I put it to a test for everyone! Guess what? it works!
This is the card, Intel WiFi Link 5100 (looks cheap……)
Remove the 9 screws to remove the back plate
the corner by the RAM close to the battery compartment, you will find the old Intel 3945 or 4965 sitting (image shows that the antennas are pulled off, forgot to take a picture of it, but you can just pull them off vertically, but gently)
After the 2 top screws are removed, you will see that the card will lift up by itself, don’t worry, it is not going into an erection. You can now safely pull it out from the angle it lift up to.
What it should look like when it is pulled off
Comparison between the old 3945 and the new 5100(5100 looks kind of cheap eh?)
slide in the new card like the angle you pulled the old one off
while pushing it down flat, screw it in place
After you have screwed it in, attach the 2 antennas like it was attached to the old card before, you can just push it on,they are clip on antennas.
Woohoo!! 300Mbps, if you don’t have the full speed, it is ok, sometimes it will lower it when it is not needed, just make sure the “Channel Width” is set to auto in your router (image from my DIR-615 D-Link router)
Also make sure you go into Device Manager (run devmgmt.msc) and under “Network Adapters”, find the card name, double click and go to the “Advanced” tab and change “802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4″ and “802.11n Channel Width for band 5.2″ both to “Auto”.
Morris Lee
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adm15 wrote, on January 29th, 2010:
That was quick! No problems at all huh?
Morris Lee wrote, on January 29th, 2010:
@adm15,
nope, no problem at all! worked right away with Windows 7, just needed to tweak that 40Mhz stuff with auto, which pushed to max 300m/s! hehe, soo happy now~~
Morris Lee
Vincent wrote, on January 31st, 2010:
@Morris,
Another great achievement you did in here. Congratz.
With such connection speed, does it means it will ensure a smooth connection while LAN?
Vincent
Morris Lee wrote, on January 31st, 2010:
@Vincent,
yes, it does help a lot when I transfer from my brother’s LAN to my Wireless now, Actually, I am copying something from him via 100Mpbs cable to my 300Mbps Wireless, at 30MM/sec transfer speed which is pretty decent, and it no longer kill my bandwidth when I transfer and browse the web at the same time.
Ferry wrote, on February 1st, 2010:
Hi Lee,
If you secure the Wireless Connection (from the router), how fast can you get?
Morris Lee wrote, on February 1st, 2010:
@Ferry,
Security should not affect the speed, if it does, there is a problem, and I am on WPA2 from the image show above.
Morris Lee
Ferry wrote, on February 2nd, 2010:
I meant the transfer rate, not the wireless speed.
Morris Lee wrote, on February 2nd, 2010:
@Ferry,
Nope, no problem, same rule apply, Wireless Security should bot affect the transfer speed or the wireless speed, it might have slight impact, but it is negligible.
Morris Lee
Tberg wrote, on February 8th, 2010:
Interresting
Where could you possibly find a wireless card like you found?
What are the pricelevels?
Tberg
Morris Lee wrote, on February 8th, 2010:
@Tberg,
Found them on ebay, it was like 17.70USD, shipping was free too.
Morris Lee
Tberg wrote, on February 12th, 2010:
@Morris.
Hi Mr. Lee.
I found the described card above here:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150407092710&ssPageName=ADME:L:PMR:GB:1123
However! The seller tells me that is is not compatible. i cant see no reason why it is not compatible with my notebook. The WIFI cards looks the same as yours and, some of the same stuff is wrote on it.
Is the seller wrong about it? Does it really fit, despite what he is saying? And how do you really determine?
We have the same notebook btw
(5920g)
Best Regards.
Tberg.
Morris Lee wrote, on February 13th, 2010:
@Tberg,
They may have different firmware for their cards, even though they are physically compatible, but firmware incompatible. This applies to a lot of laptop parts
Ask other sellers, one of them should work.
Morris Lee
Énio Fernandes wrote, on April 10th, 2010:
I’ve bought a 5300 but it has 3 antenna connectors and the laptop only has two wires.
Is it possible to acquire a third internal antenna?
If not is it alright to use only the available ones?
Morris Lee wrote, on April 10th, 2010:
@Énio,
yes, you can just use 2 of them, but I am not sure which one is optional. you can acquire a third antenna on ebay or something, you need to crack open the entire laptop to install it properly, so it is a lot of work.
Morris Lee
jav malik wrote, on May 16th, 2010:
Hi ive just done what was suggested to upgrade my acer 5920g wireless card to an intel wifi 5100, the only problem im having is the is not a setting to change the wireless mode to N. i have the vista 32 installed and the empowing technology software. ive tried my best but i cant find the options for N settings. im still getting 54Mbps, can you please help me?
Thanks
Morris Lee wrote, on May 16th, 2010:
@jav malik,
in order for you to get it, you must have a wireless N enabled router, not just the card.
Check if you have wireless N capable router first.
Morris Lee
Marc wrote, on June 24th, 2010:
Is the Intel 5300 compatible with this Acer laptop:
Acer 5920G-604G32Mi
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, 2.2 Ghz, 800 Mhz FSB, 4 MB L2 cache
15.4″ WXGA LCD 8 ms / 220 nit
up to 1791 MB Nividia Geforce 9500 M GS Turbocache
4 GB DDR2
320 GB HDD
DVD Super Multi DL
802.11 a/b/g WLAN
Intel WM3945ABG
The original wireless card is an Intel WM3945ABG.
Morris Lee wrote, on June 24th, 2010:
@Marc,
it should be, but you need to install another antenna. Check with the seller if the firmware on the card itself will work with acer first!
Morris Lee
Marc wrote, on June 28th, 2010:
@Morris: thanks for the reply!
Unfortunately here in Holland the sellers don’t know their products, and they all tell me they don’t know if their card is compatible
Dennis Quek wrote, on July 2nd, 2010:
Hi Morris,
I have an Acer Aspire 5920G and was wondering if you could recommend a seller that can provide intel’s 5100 network card that works on my notebook.
Tested installing one from a friend but the system hangs intermittently and cannot get speeds beyond 68mbps.
Dennis Quek
Morris Lee wrote, on July 2nd, 2010:
@Dennis Quek,
I don’t know, I am sorry. My 5100 was defective in a way too, I had to move on to the 4965, and I installed an extra antenna too. it is all working fine now.
Morris Lee
Rich wrote, on August 1st, 2010:
Hello
I have just opened up my 5920g and I found a 4965AGN with 3 antenna sockets but antenna on only 2 of them. Would it be of any benefit to me to follow these instructions and install a 5100. I have a new Linksys WAG320N and I can get 300Mbps on 5Ghz but at 2.4Ghz I am dropping back down to 144Mbps.
Thanks
Rich
Morris Lee wrote, on August 1st, 2010:
@Rich,
It wouldn’t be much different unless you are using Wireless N to Wireless N or Wireless N to Gigabit connection.
Would you kindly let us know which ones are actually connected to antennas? the 3 sockets are labeled from 1, 2, and 3.
Morris Lee
Rich wrote, on August 1st, 2010:
Hello
>It wouldn’t be much different unless you are using Wireless N to Wireless N or Wireless N to Gigabit connection.<
Please could you explain a bit more of what you mean?
I have antenna on 1 and 2. Number 3 is spare.
Thanks
Rich
Morris Lee wrote, on August 1st, 2010:
@Rich,
For usual home internet connection(the download speed from the ISP) is usually 7.5 to 10Mbps, which translate to about 900-1250KB/sec download speed, this is way below the bandwidth of Wireless N or even wireless G, therefore it is pointless to have it above that speed.
However, during a LAN connection, or WLAN(directly through your router and to another computer), while router is supporting usually 100Mbps(vs 7.5 to 10Mbps) you could get up to 12.5MB/sec (Wireless N 144Mbps @18MB/s @300Mbps 37.5MB/s or Gigabit 1000Mbps @ 125MB/s) so theoretical speaking, only if you are transferring file from LAN or WLAN, you will need that kind of bandwidth.
in simple terms, you have a water pipe that is pretty thick from you to your neighbour, but a narrow one from the water plant directly, therefore the amount of water you can get directly from water plant vs from neighbour, your neighbour can deliver more water to you.
Morris Lee
Rich wrote, on August 1st, 2010:
Hello
Thanks for clarifying that for me. I don’t generally transfer files over my network as I tend to use a USB key.
Rich
Morris Lee wrote, on August 2nd, 2010:
@Rich,
Then it offers almost no benefit to you to upgrade to 5100,
Morris Lee
Rich wrote, on August 2nd, 2010:
@Morris Lee
Thanks for all your help. Much appreciated.
Cheers
Rich
Marc Ros wrote, on August 7th, 2010:
Hello
Do you have facebook account?
top family vacation wrote, on April 14th, 2011:
The Best Family Vacation Ideas – For Family Vocations…
I really fondness the matter to you shared. Thank you pro rearrangement….
bitladron wrote, on October 10th, 2011:
Thought I would add my 2 cents worth to this thread.
I have just upgraded my Acer Aspire 5920 (not G) from an Intel 3945 ABG wifi card to an Intel wifi Link 5100. I bought the card (2nd hand) off Ebay for €3.50 at auction. It was salvaged from a Packard Bell easy note PJ-65 according to the sales blurb.
Followed the instructions in this thread and ensured my router was N compatible and configured to use it. No driver installation was required (I’m running windows 7 ultimate 32 bit, upgraded from Vista. I did a clean install of win. 7)
Initially after boot up, I received an error message saying that windows could not find a driver for the new hardware found (wifi link 5100) but after a short time (5 minutes), it did find it and installed it automatically. So, it’s working perfectly for me now. I am now seeing link speeds of upto 245Mb/s when before the max was 54Mb/s.
Excellent stuff. Thanks Acer Guy and other responders. I hope this helps somebody else.
Jaime wrote, on December 9th, 2011:
acquired a wifi link 5100 agn and can not find drivers compatible with windows 7. I get an exclamation mark continuously in the device manager. My windows 7 is 64x. Can you tell me where or how to fix this?