Switch WiFi Card

[n8xk]

Hello, I have a Broadcom wireless card in a Compaq laptop that has stopped working again! (it works fine with WinXP). Rather than fight with this again, I thought it would be better to change it. I here Intel cards are better, can I just swap this card with a Intel card? Are the sockets the same?

n8xk

[AS]

Hello, I have a Broadcom wireless card in a Compaq laptop that has stopped working again! (it works fine with WinXP). Rather than fight with this again, I thought it would be better to change it. I here Intel cards are better, can I just swap this card with a Intel card? Are the sockets the same?

n8xk

dkms-broadcomd-wl has been recently updated causing some issue like you are describing, so far two solutions have been reported:

a) downgrade to previous version 5.60.48.36, to do so remove broadcom-wl-5.100.xx.xx and reinstall broadcom-wl-5.60.xx.xx.

b) some user reported a conflict with b43 related packages, removing all b43 packages solved the issue using  the new broadcom-wl-5.100.xx.xx

I would try solution (b) first, eventually (a).

AS

[n8xk]

Uninstalled all b43 in Synaptic, rebooted and the wireless radio came back on, (it has been off since the trouble started a few months ago), so I thought I was back in business.....but still no connection.
 I get a error message "unable to find ndiswrapper interface" when I try to install a driver from the Network Center. I tried installing from the list of drivers and the original driver from XP and get the same message.

I will need help to try option a), not sure how to downgrade the dkms-broadcom-wl

I think we are close!

[AS]

Uninstalled all b43 in Synaptic, rebooted and the wireless radio came back on, (it has been off since the trouble started a few months ago), so I thought I was back in business.....but still no connection.
 I get a error message "unable to find ndiswrapper interface" when I try to install a driver from the Network Center. I tried installing from the list of drivers and the original driver from XP and get the same message.

Delete completely your network connection from control center (you should not need ndiswrapper ...) and then try again.

I will need help to try option a), not sure how to downgrade the dkms-broadcom-wl

I think we are close!

Retry with (b) first.

To downgrade, simply open synaptic, remove brodcom-wl-5.100.xx.xx, reload, you should see the old one 5.60.xx.xx, install it and reboot. (broadcom-wl-5.100.xx.xx was in stable section, now pulled down and 5.60.xx.xx rolled back to stable section).

AS

[n8xk]

I deleted the network connection in the control center, then tried to reconfigure the connection. It always asks to install a broadcom driver with ndiswrapper. The installed version of dkms-broadcom-wl is 5.60.48.36 so no need to down grade. Not sure where to go from here.

I have had the same trouble with this computer two or three times over the last 4 years. I had notes on how I fixed it the first time, but do you think I can find them when I need them? NO! I need to keep my notes in a safe place!

Anyway, I thought changing to a Intel wireless card may be the way to go.

n8xk

[n8xk]

My Intel wireless card arrived today, but when installed I got a BIOS error message that the card is not supported. So I am back to trying to get the Broadcom card to work.