Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
PCI-E Wifi for Power Mac G5?
- Thread starter tevion5
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I bought the cheapest TP LINK PCI-E wifi card for around 10 on Dabs so hopefully it will work.
If you don't mind me asking, what is so bad about USB adapters? Just to let you know, many wifi adapters find the need to "support" PPC but cause crashes due to issues with Leopard or Tiger. Unfortunately, I tried three, and the only one that worked well was a G speed dongle from Belkin.
To solve this I took a blue Linksys WRT54G and used DD-WRT to use it as a wireless bridge. If you have one of those around, you could do that and not run the risk of dealing with terrible drivers and use the Ethernet port.
Cards with a Prism chipset should work. I don;t recall off-hand what other chipsets do, as I don't use WiFI on tower systems, so I never bothered to check. Some Broadcom chipets may work as well: The main thing is to source a card from 2005-2006, as newer chipsets will not have drivers support directly.
Ohter than Prism2, Atheros, Realtek, and Ralink make/made supported hardware, or hardware for which you can find drivers.
If you want 802.11n, that will be far more difficult than 802.11g.
Here is a RealTek driver that you may want to download:
http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/realtekrtl81xx-osx-driver.html
I believe this works in 10,5; but I am not certain if it does on 10.4.
This list is at least a decent guide, to use as a beginning point for an 802.11g card:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.5.8#Wireless
Likewise, see this page for 802.11n:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/802_11N_Mac_reports.html
Ohter than Prism2, Atheros, Realtek, and Ralink make/made supported hardware, or hardware for which you can find drivers.
If you want 802.11n, that will be far more difficult than 802.11g.
Here is a RealTek driver that you may want to download:
http://lnx2mac.blogspot.com/p/realtekrtl81xx-osx-driver.html
I believe this works in 10,5; but I am not certain if it does on 10.4.
This list is at least a decent guide, to use as a beginning point for an 802.11g card:
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCL_10.5.8#Wireless
Likewise, see this page for 802.11n:
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/feedback/802_11N_Mac_reports.html
Hello.
One solution is to use a wifi router with DDWRT firmware, put the router in client mode and connect to wifi.
I'm using this solution.
If you still want to use a PCI-E board, you can buy a MINI PCI-E to PCI-E adapter and use a mini PCI-E wifi with broadcom chip supported by 10.5.8
This solution could not check.
eg
http://dx.com/p/mini-pci-express-to-pci-express-adapter-card-with-2dbi-antenna-45893 #. UvJ9QrTyDiw
regards
One solution is to use a wifi router with DDWRT firmware, put the router in client mode and connect to wifi.
I'm using this solution.
If you still want to use a PCI-E board, you can buy a MINI PCI-E to PCI-E adapter and use a mini PCI-E wifi with broadcom chip supported by 10.5.8
This solution could not check.
eg
http://dx.com/p/mini-pci-express-to-pci-express-adapter-card-with-2dbi-antenna-45893 #. UvJ9QrTyDiw
regards
I'm just going to put my two cents here. If you absolutely want a cheaper alternative, yes you could probably find a card. I had one that worked, but that was a while back and I don't remember the name. But, you can flash some Linksys cards, just google flash link sys power mac g5.
I am actually using a mini-PCIE to PCIE wifi adapter card (withe 3 antennae) in my G5. Coupled with an original airport extreme card from a macbook I have full airport compatibility and plug n play functionality with leopard. Both components are not hard to come by and relatively cheap, so why not go for this solution?
Thorns-
its been a while since you posted, but I hope you get notification to this...
what card did you get to plug the airport extreme into?
thanks
Kevin
Here's my experience with my late '05 DC 2.0 G5. I used an Apple mini PCI-e card along with a cheap adapter from China. The part numbers of everything I used are in the thread
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1779572/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1779572/
thanks. I read the thread and I think that's what Im going to do...
I found the two items through your links.
the antennas, they are universal then? antennas off a router will work on the pci-e card? I have a gigabit router that I replaced, it has antennas, I can just use those? that leads me to believe I could use the extended antennas meant for router A to be used on router B to extend the range it has, is that true?
Kevin
I'm not sure what the antenna connectors are called, but they are the standard universal ones that have been on every router and PCI Wifi card with an external antenna I've ever bought. Basically, they are just a coaxial connector, not unlike a TV cable.
that's what I thought they looked like when I was installing them on the new router. Coaxial....
that's awesome news.
Thanks
Kevin
i got the PCIE - mini card. the miniPCIE wireless card came as well. I installed them and 10.5.8 doesn't see it at all. since i installed 10.5.8 on this machine without a wireless card, do i need to put the OS install disc in again, or did the airport drivers get installed but its just not working right?
sorry for asking for help, I'm just not sure why its not being found by 10.5.8
Kevin
As I recall, I actually ended up doing a fresh 10.5 install to get it to work. I'm not actually sure why I needed to do this, and it could probably be done also by transplanting the appropriate kexts into your current 10.5 install...
One quick question-how does the card show up in System Profiler?
One quick question-how does the card show up in System Profiler?
thats one of my worries about all this, it doesn't appear in the system profiler
I made sure i got the cards you mention....
a Apple Broadcom BCM94321MC 802.11n Mini PCI-E Wireless LAN Card
and a for full + half size 802.11n wireless wifi mini pci-e card to pci-e wlan adapter
the boadcom is full length, and there are mounts on the adapter card for full and half-length, the mounts for the half length seem to be touching the Broadcom card when i want the broadcom card to lay flat. i hope thats not a problem.
Kevin
If the coin doesn't appear in system profiler, that's more than likely you're problem.
When I have cards that just(for whatever reason) don't have the correct drivers/extensions/kexts they appear in system profiler. As I recall, the Atheros card I had that I couldn't get to work appeared as a generic "PCI-e ethernet adapter" or something to that effect.
You may want to remove the whole card and adapter, then reseat the card card in the adapter. It won't hurt to clean the contacts on the WiFi card while you have it out. I typically use absolute ethanol or denatured alcohol(high percentage isopropyl alcohol will work also) with a clean, lent free cloth. Rubbing the contacts with a pencil eraser(very mild abrasive) can also help-if you are going to do this I'd suggest following up with a solvent cleaning. Let everything dry, and be sure it's seated securely in the adapter card.
Then, make sure the adapter card is securely seated in the PCI-e slot in the computer.
When I have cards that just(for whatever reason) don't have the correct drivers/extensions/kexts they appear in system profiler. As I recall, the Atheros card I had that I couldn't get to work appeared as a generic "PCI-e ethernet adapter" or something to that effect.
You may want to remove the whole card and adapter, then reseat the card card in the adapter. It won't hurt to clean the contacts on the WiFi card while you have it out. I typically use absolute ethanol or denatured alcohol(high percentage isopropyl alcohol will work also) with a clean, lent free cloth. Rubbing the contacts with a pencil eraser(very mild abrasive) can also help-if you are going to do this I'd suggest following up with a solvent cleaning. Let everything dry, and be sure it's seated securely in the adapter card.
Then, make sure the adapter card is securely seated in the PCI-e slot in the computer.
I had removed the pcie card from the machine a few times. it didnt help.
i just removed it and then took the broadcom card off it too. i then took the plyers and removed the mounts for the half length cards. i put electrical tape over the holes left from removal and reinstalled the broadcom card. it fit this time without those mid way mounts. i put the pcie card back in the machine but in a different slot. booted and it was there this time. so i then shut down and reinstalled the pcie card in the last slot as i wanted it and rebooted. its still there now and working great. all good now!
im not sure if it was the mounting touching the broadcom card or not, but im not going to question any more...
and im pleased with my throughput too...
