3rd party Airport card

da8iwr

Registered
Hello everybody, i have never been here before and would like to say hello firstly.

I have just bought a Motorola Wifi Card WN825G, for my Titanium Powerbook 550, which has OSX 10.2.8 installed. All the forums say this is the best card for Macs, and is supposed to be even better than the original card from apple.

I have used wireless networks before on my pc laptop, but I have never installed or used airport before and I’m struggling a little here.

When I put the card in the PC Card slot on the side of my Powerbook, it doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t light up or change anything in the settings at all. The power light doesn’t light up, and neither does the link light.

So I walked into a dept store today with the card and asked if I could use it in one of there demo PowerBooks, and the same thing there. But it worked fine in the PC laptops.
This is the second card I have bought, and the first was the same so I sent it back thinking it was the card at fault, this card they tested before sending out on a pc laptop and they knew it worked, but they don’t own a Powerbook to test it.

When I go into the network settings from the preferences, it only shows

Built in Ethernet
Internal modem
IrDA modem port

It has no airport, I have updated all the software as much as it will let me and it made no difference. So I assume it will only show airport if it thinks there is a suitable device fitted to the machine.

Also as the card doesn’t work on even a brand spanking new Powerbook, I don’t think it is my machine, and I really don’t believe that there is 2 bad cards in a row, when the guy that sold me it said he has sold from a box of 100, 65 or so, and I saw the half filled box, and he said there was no probs with any others, so I am either very very unlucky to get the only 2 bad ones in a row, or it is something I’m doing.

The guy i bought it off has been superb in trying to help, and has offered me a full refund if we cant get it working, but I really want to, as I don’t want to buy a new apple one, as it is too expensive.

I found in this forum something about if it is a V2 card, but I think it is a different make
http://www.macosx.com/content/faq.p...rd-For-Older-Powerbook-G4-Using-Os-X-104.html
This is according to the Motorola model number WN825Gv2, so is this what the prob is?

AHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Does anybody have any idea what im doing wrong, or if there is something i can do to fix this problem.
 
Mac OS X has support for wireless broadcom and radlink chipsets built in or through radlink's extra driver packages on their site. Basically my understanding is that you can add WIFI cards that are using these chipsets without installing any other drivers, now keep in mind that the regular airport cards use these chipsets already thats why. Chances are your model card being revision 1 is a different wifi chip than the revision 2 of the same model, the only way to be sure would be to get a hold of the drivers the card uses in either linux or windows and see if it specifies in the readme file. I don't know if this applies to your problem in any way at all and you are probably better of waiting for someone with more experience in this situation.
 
Hey cheers guys for the help so far.

The list you sent hasnt got my card in it, does that mean it isnt compatible. As im supprised on how much info there is on the net saying this card is compatible?
 
I had the exact same problem as the OP. I used the method I used on my 17" Titanium G4 Powerbook when it wouldn't connect to a WiFi for the first time. You must go to the name of your main HD; usually "Macintosh HD" > Library > Preferences > SystemConfiguration

Then you must delete

"com.apple.airport.preferences.plist" and "NetworkInterfaces.plist"

Then power down your computer with the card NOT INSIDE. And for good measure you can remove the DC power cord and remove the battery for 30 seconds, tho this step itself with the battery out is not necessary. It's mostly about deleting those two pref files.

After deleting the two .plist files and powering off the computer; insert the airport card and boot up. Problem solved ::wipes and claps hands together::
 
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