Unofficial eMachines Forums

Here are instructions for installing or removing the internal WiFi antenna, which is mounted in the lid behind the LCD panel.

Use at your own risk.

Follow the Heat Exchanger Cleaning Instructions up to the step where you have flipped the keyboard forward, exposing the motherboard (stop before removing the fan).

Open the display and remove the 6 black rubber stops from the front bezel. It may take a small screwdriver or knife tip to pry them out. Don't scratch your screen!

Remove the 6 screws behind the 6 rubber stops.

Insert a small flat screwdriver in the screen release gap as indicated in the photo. When the screwdriver is inserted as shown, gently rotate the screwdriver clockwise and the front bezel should snap apart from the back plastic piece.



Gently work your way around both sides of the bezel until it is all unsnapped from the back piece.

There is an adhesive attaching the bezel to the metal frame of the actual LCD panel. Carefully pry the bezel free, working your way around the entire display.

Place the panel in a perfectly vertical position.

Remove the following 4 screws. Once these screws have been removed you CANNOT change (open or close) the position of the display. The aluminum pieces that attach the display to the notebook will bend if you try to change the position of the display.





You can now gently remove the plastic piece that covers the entire backside of the display. You will have to pull it straight back from the screen so the parts near the hinges will clear.

Here are the points that correspond with the WiFi antenna. Note the 4 plastic stubs indicated by black arrows, and the 4 cable guides indicated by red arrows.



Here is the antenna in place. Note the 3 pieces of masking tap used to help secure the antenna and cables. Also note the red at the bottom. That indicates the proper path of the cables, which are not lying in their track in this picture. The black cable should follow right beside the grey cable - it is not completely in place in this photo.



Detail of an antenna element. Note the two holes fit over the 2 gray posts. The masking tape holds the antenna in place until the display is reassembled (yes, the masking tape is used at the factory - it is not something I added).



Once the antenna is attached to the plastic panel, run the two antenna wires underneath the middle of the display.

Reattach the back plastic piece to the LCD panel with the 4 screws (2 on each side). Again, make sure you keep the display in a vertical position.

Attach the front bezel. The antenna cables will come out of the hole on the right, just as the video cable comes out of the hole on the left. Replace all 6 screws, and push the black plastic stops back in place.

This picture shows the route of the WiFi cables from the display to the hole where they go through to the bottom side of the motherboard, into the mini-PCI bay.



Once the cables are routed replace the keyboard (3 screws) and the plastic piece that contains the power button / quick launch buttons. Close the lid and flip the notebook over and replace the two screws in the middle back of the notebook.

Remove the mini-PCI door (left-most door on the bottom of the notebook) and install the mini-PCI card. It installs similar to memory DIMMs - insert the end of the card with the terminals into the receiving connector at a slight angle, then snap the card down into place. There are two metal latches that will lock it into place.

Attach the antenna wires to the two jacks on the mini-PCI card.



Replace the mini-PCI door.

Install drivers and you should be good to go!

Dan East

Thanks for your description! Dan.

I have a minipci wireless card with a pair of short internal WiFi antenna (2.5 inches) in my 5305. It works only in a short reception range of wifi signal (5 m maybe). I always want to improve the reception by using a longer internal WiFi antenna extended into the LCD but don't know how to do it. After reading your instruction, I have confidence to do that now. However I have a question, where did you get the long internal WiFi antenna?

tsl0721

The m5310 model came stock with integrated WiFi - that is all factory.

You probably already know this, but those wires are not just single conductor wire, but are actually shielded two conductor coax. I have no idea where to get something like that - maybe [url=http://mouser.com]Mouser[/url] carries it.

Dan East

May 20 2005

Great Job Dan! You make it look soooo easy! As for the Wifi antenna wire and elements, I've yet (over 1.5 years) to find anyone who sells the complete unit (elements, wire and U.FL connectors).

However, I was able to find a place (I'm sure I mentioned it in one of the other POSTS on WIFI antennas) that did carry the COAX with the the U.FL connectors (the tiny conectors on the end of the WIFI cable, and female counter-parts on the Mini-PCI card) on each end. I'll try to find the name of the place (they had a site, but I ended up calling the guy anyhow) again, in case it's not in the previous POSTs, or you can google U.FL, as that how I originally found it :).

Anyhow, as I remember I bought two sets (2 cables each @ $19.00 USD), one was slightly thicker than stock, the other was slightly thinner (go figure!). I ended up using the thicker cables because of better splicing odds (and because my old eyes WERE not going to be able to see the TINY, TINY, shielded wire running through the midst of the outer braided cable :))

It was tedious to strip the outter insulation, then the inner of the secondary wire (you need a VERY light wire stripper), but once done for both cables ( for each cable you HAVE to make sure both wires, braided, inner shielded, have good splice connections, and make sure to reshield the inner wire with either electrical tape, or some non-conductive coating), and spliced to my original WIFI cable "stubs", signal kicked right in, and has been working flawlessly ever since :).

Now, for some reason, most laptop tech support departments, don't seem to want to discuss the built-in antenna much (although I was FINALLY able to get a much SHORTER version of the double-ended U.FL cable from Dell), and most electronics places have never heard of U.FL cables/connectors, or simply don't carry them. BUT, with some research, I'm sure that you can find the whole rig!

I must apologize, as once I got mine working, my motivation for continuing to try to locate the WIFI antenna elements/complete assemble went back to zero :), but do continue to post your findings! However, at this late date, I don't think I'm going to replace my spliced setup, with a new one, as I'm hoping to catch a used M6811 or like, at a good price.

Sorry If I've dribbled-on too long, and good luck!

bed.

Hello, I have a question concerning the internal WiFi setup. I just parted out a dead Toshiba that had internal wifi, but I kept the antenna and the mini PCI card that was in that notebook. I just picked up a M5309 and decided to install the antenna inside the LCD. I routed the wires through the casing and down to the mini pci card. Win XP detected the new device and I got the drivers installed. The problem is that I am either getting no signal, or a very poor signal when it does connect. The antenna that I used is setup very similar to what is shown the pictures above, except that the antenna ends are a bit larger that what is shown above. If I install a Cisco PCMCIA adapter I get about 4 out of 5 bars on my signal strength, and if I switch to the internal card I am lucky to get 2 bars. I tested this by sitting in the same spot and also by being in the same room as my access point (about 10' from the access point). Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, my antenna wires are black & white, and I noticed on the card there is a main and aux terminal on the card. Does it matter which wire plugs go into which port? Thanks!

Oct 10 06

Hi,

Sounds like you've got eveything set-up correctly. Sometimes the wires are white/black, grey.black, or worse, the same color :) In your setting for the wireless card (Right-click the adapter, Properties > Advanced...or something like that) See if there is a setting for "Blue Tooth". I remeber having to disable blue tooth, in order to get a wifi signal.

If that not the case, I'd check the connects, where they join the card. If the connectors on your wifi card are similar to the U.FL connectors, you can only remove/attach them so many time before they the start to loose their gripping force, and begin cause contact problems.

Hope this helps

Thanks for the reply. I decided to take the screen apart last night and reposition the antenna pads closer to where the factory ones go. I also switched the aux and main connectors and now I am getting a full signal. Not sure if it was a loose connector or the positioning of the antenna, but it seems to be good to go now. Thanks!