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Questions re:Adding wifi/Bluetooth card to mini PCIe slot

M

macmesser

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2012
921
198
Long Island, NY USA
I finally gave in and bought a wifi-Bluetooth upgrade (https://www.osxwifi.com/product/mac...uetooth+Antenna+Kit+-+External+Antenna+$24.99) for my '09 Mac Pro. I had been using a USB dongle for Bluetooth but lately I've been losing connections and it just got too annoying. The card I got features latest wifi as well, which will be new for this computer, which I bought used without wifi. The installation instructions are here but not entirely clear to me: http://jf9web.azurewebsites.net/mis...l done/osX wifi card install instructions.pdf

Some questions which I hope someone can help with follow:

1) Exactly where is the mini PCIe slot located? What will I need to remove to access it?

2) Even though there was no previous wifi card, should the three required antenna connectors be present, and if so, how do I know which is J0, J1, and J2? Since 4 antennae are needed for the new card (1 for Bluetooth, , one was included with the card. I'm guessing this is for J2. How do I confirm?

3) Since I never disconnected the old Bluetooth card, it should be connected to J3, the original antenna. So that is what should be connected to the new BT card. Correct?
 
tsialex

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,437
13,582
macmesser said:
Thanks for the link. The card I purchased should be pretty much plug and play (and pricey), if I can find the mPCIe slot, which I guess is where the original Apple Bluetooth card is installed.
Click to expand...
BT and AirPort Extreme cards are separated. AirPort Extreme slot is near the CPU tray male connector on the backplane, just remove the CPU tray.
[doublepost=1552008258][/doublepost]Bluetooth module:

MP51 - BT.jpeg


AirPort Extreme connector:

MP51 - AirPort Connector.jpeg
 
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M

macmesser

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2012
921
198
Long Island, NY USA
tsialex said:
BT and AirPort Extreme cards are separated. AirPort Extreme slot is near the CPU tray male connector on the backplane, just remove the CPU tray.
[doublepost=1552008258][/doublepost]Bluetooth module:

View attachment 825271

AirPort Extreme connector:

View attachment 825272
Click to expand...
Thanks. Is the wifi slot a mini PCIe slot? The card I have has both wifi and bluetooth. It's got 3 connectors for wifi and 1 for bluetooth. Installation instructions say use mini PCIe slot. (The BT piggy back is attached to the USB connector that was previously used for the separate BT card.)
 
startergo

startergo

macrumors 603
Sep 20, 2018
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mathepac

mathepac

macrumors newbie
Sep 18, 2017
21
9
Kilkenny, Ireland
I hope this is the right place to ask this question as I don't believe it warrants a thread all of its own.

I bought my MacPro 3,1 with El Capitan pre-installed and had the BlueTooth and WiFi icons showing on the menu-bar. I never tested if either worked, I was just aware that the icons showed.

I cloned the original SSD boot-drive supplied to an HDD and upgraded it to High Sierra. After rebooting and applying the recommended patches, I noted that the BlueTooth icon was still present but the WiFi icon was X'd out and when I clicked on it, it showed a message saying "ho hardware found". I contacted my supplier and they said that was because I'd upgraded beyond the point where OS supported the machine as configured and supplied by them. Which was fair enough I felt.

I cloned the HDD to a new SSD I'd purchased and proceeded to upgrade it to Mojave, after I installed a newly acquired GPU. Post install and customisation for 10.14.3, I noted the BlueTooth and Wifi menu-bar icons were as they had been after the El Capitan upgrade. I also noticed I had an extra item in System Preferences called "Patch Updater" which suggested to me that I install a couple of new/updated items. I did as instructed, did some other work and left the machine to have some food.

On returning I placed an order for the Airport Extreme card linked to above in the belief that it alone could restore my WiFi functionality. I've been running the MacPro on wired Ethernet since I took delivery. I downloaded Cinebench R20 to do some benchmarking having seen the release announcement on here. While that was downloading I got another message from my new friend the "Patch Updater" that another patch was ready to install. I installed it and rebooted and guess what I found? I once again had the BlueTooth and WiFi icons showing on the menu-bar and not just that, the 2.4GHz and 5Ghz bands were available.

I never bothered to look at what the hardware ID on the Airport mini-PCIe was when I had the case open but looking at System Information shows me this:

Is this strange or has anyone else experienced this phenomenon? Could I have saved myself 11euro?
 

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tsialex

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,437
13,582
mathepac said:
I hope this is the right place to ask this question as I don't believe it warrants a thread all of its own.

I bought my MacPro 3,1 with El Capitan pre-installed and had the BlueTooth and WiFi icons showing on the menu-bar. I never tested if either worked, I was just aware that the icons showed.

I cloned the original SSD boot-drive supplied to an HDD and upgraded it to High Sierra. After rebooting and applying the recommended patches, I noted that the BlueTooth icon was still present but the WiFi icon was X'd out and when I clicked on it, it showed a message saying "ho hardware found". I contacted my supplier and they said that was because I'd upgraded beyond the point where OS supported the machine as configured and supplied by them. Which was fair enough I felt.

I cloned the HDD to a new SSD I'd purchased and proceeded to upgrade it to Mojave, after I installed a newly acquired GPU. Post install and customisation for 10.14.3, I noted the BlueTooth and Wifi menu-bar icons were as they had been after the El Capitan upgrade. I also noticed I had an extra item in System Preferences called "Patch Updater" which suggested to me that I install a couple of new/updated items. I did as instructed, did some other work and left the machine to have some food.

On returning I placed an order for the Airport Extreme card linked to above in the belief that it alone could restore my WiFi functionality. I've been running the MacPro on wired Ethernet since I took delivery. I downloaded Cinebench R20 to do some benchmarking having seen the release announcement on here. While that was downloading I got another message from my new friend the "Patch Updater" that another patch was ready to install. I installed it and rebooted and guess what I found? I once again had the BlueTooth and WiFi icons showing on the menu-bar and not just that, the 2.4GHz and 5Ghz bands were available.

I never bothered to look at what the hardware ID on the Airport mini-PCIe was when I had the case open but looking at System Information shows me this:

Is this strange or has anyone else experienced this phenomenon? Could I have saved myself 11euro?
Click to expand...
If you can run it without patches, you didn't waste money. You should always try to run the cleanest and least patched macOS install possible, even if you need to spend some bucks here and there.
 
mathepac

mathepac

macrumors newbie
Sep 18, 2017
21
9
Kilkenny, Ireland
Thanks. The bad news is that AirDrop / Continuity / Handoff don't appear to be working but I'll check more thoroughly tomorrow.

Patch Updater also appears as an application in the Utilities folder
 

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tsialex

tsialex

Contributor
Jun 13, 2016
13,437
13,582
mathepac said:
Thanks. The bad news is that AirDrop / Continuity / Handoff don't appear to be working but I'll check more thoroughly tomorrow.

Patch Updater also appears as an application in the Utilities folder
Click to expand...
You need BT4.0 to have AirDrop between iOS devices and you Mac. To have Handoff and Continuity you need an AirPort Extreme AC card.
 
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M

macmesser

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 13, 2012
921
198
Long Island, NY USA
Now the instructions are clear and I see where everything is supposed to go, but I ran into some physical problems. For one thing, my wifi card did not come with mounting screws. Does anyone know what size screws I need to get for the airport mini PCIe slot, which has two threaded pylons? Second is tougher. The old Bluetooth card is fastened with one Philips screw which I could not loosen with a jeweler's screwdriver. I think it will require a longer driver with a wide handle so I can get some torque on it and at the same time apply downward pressure. Looking at the screw head, I can only hope that it's not too stripped. I'm thinking that if I can't get it out it should be OK to leave it as long as it's disconnected from antenna and USB. Correct? Third is that I pulled the little gold antenna connector off the old BT card, apparently in the wrong way, and there is a little white square of plastic from the card in it visible from the bottom and something must be in the connector as well. It looks like a little gold snap but must not work that way. Anyway, I will need to clear that connector, which will then be connected to the new BT card. Possible to replace that gold connector?
 
S

skizzo

macrumors 6502
Apr 11, 2018
260
83
if you are trying to remove the Bluetooth card you don't need to actually remove the whole thing....I think at least. try just unplugging the cable from the logic board to the Bluetooth card. it shouldn't matter which end you unplug. but unplugging it will give you the result of "removing" it from the system, as in it will no longer be connected or recognized
 
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