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2011 Macbook Pro Airport adapter upgrade

K

krypticos

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2007
237
0
hello all i have been doing research looking to upgrade my early 2011 15" MBP airport card. I had posted here asking if the card could be upgraded and was basically was told no. well i looked at teardowns of newer macs and found that the 2012 13" non retina MBP had the same looking connector. After find this out i started looking at this card more and found this post saying you need to have part number of BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX for bluetooth 4.0. i also found this post showing that his early 2011 15" MBP worked with this card.

So after finding that i did some ebay searching and found this its a replacement card not oem but looks like it should work and it has the correct part number. im looking to order this very soon and i will post back with results. if anyone here has had experience with this replacement card please let us know what you think.
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
krypticos said:
hello all i have been doing research looking to upgrade my early 2011 15" MBP airport card. I had posted here asking if the card could be upgraded and was basically was told no. well i looked at teardowns of newer macs and found that the 2012 13" non retina MBP had the same looking connector. After find this out i started looking at this card more and found this post saying you need to have part number of BCM94331PCIEBT4CAX for bluetooth 4.0. i also found this post showing that his early 2011 15" MBP worked with this card.

So after finding that i did some ebay searching and found this its a replacement card not oem but looks like it should work and it has the correct part number. im looking to order this very soon and i will post back with results. if anyone here has had experience with this replacement card please let us know what you think.
Click to expand...

If your reason for this upgrade has to do with Yosemite then I don't think it will work. From what I have read on this forum, Yosemite checks against your model's stock Bluetooth and not what is currently installed. USB adapter also will not work.
 
hamiltonDSi

hamiltonDSi

macrumors 68000
Jul 29, 2012
1,588
273
Romania
Please don't get me wrong, I'm just trying to help you :

Are you sure you want to invest more money in your 2011 machine ?
I'm sure you know all about the dGPU problems with the Early / Late 15" / 17" Macbook Pro's...
 
K

krypticos

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 9, 2007
237
0
Altemose said:
If your reason for this upgrade has to do with Yosemite then I don't think it will work. From what I have read on this forum, Yosemite checks against your model's stock Bluetooth and not what is currently installed. USB adapter also will not work.
Click to expand...

yes it was for Yosemite. well maybe ill wait till after the update comes out to invest.

hamiltonDSi said:
Please don't get me wrong, I'm just trying to help you :

Are you sure you want to invest more money in your 2011 machine ?
I'm sure you know all about the dGPU problems with the Early / Late 15" / 17" Macbook Pro's...
Click to expand...


lol yea i know that the 2011 has dgpu issues but that is on the 2.2ghz model. thankfully i have a 2.0 with the lower end dgpu. i mean its barely better than hd3000 igpu. plus i use a program to force igpu use i hardly ever use the dgpu. also yes i will continue investing in it because i dont have the money to buy a newer one. i mean for what i do its perfect.
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
krypticos said:
yes it was for Yosemite. well maybe ill wait till after the update comes out to invest.




lol yea i know that the 2011 has dgpu issues but that is on the 2.2ghz model. thankfully i have a 2.0 with the lower end dgpu. i mean its barely better than hd3000 igpu. plus i use a program to force igpu use i hardly ever use the dgpu. also yes i will continue investing in it because i dont have the money to buy a newer one. i mean for what i do its perfect.
Click to expand...

Good idea. It is still in the beta phase so it could change. Why buy a new tool when the old one does what you need just fine?
 
N

nicklad

macrumors 6502
Jun 13, 2007
258
3
Nottingham, UK
If you want to do this at a sensible price with your 2011 MBP, I suggest to buy one now rather than later. The cards are selling out fast as the number available is very limited as they have come from 2012 MBPs.
 
Last edited:
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