Adding Bluetooth to an Acer Aspire 5251-1513?

PCidiot9
PCidiot9 Member Posts: 3 New User
edited October 2023 in 2020 Archives
Hello. I want to add a dual band PCIe wifi card to an Acer 5251-1513. I tried an Intel 7260 but it locks up on boot. I was wondering if anyone has tried this before with some success. I have done this on several laptops but having trouble with the Acer. Anyway thanks for the help or advice.

Answers

  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Assuming same form factor as the previous card... maybe there's a WiFi white-list in the firmware and that one is not in there?

    Bluetooth is usually wired via USB, even if the card if PCIe like that one, there's wiring for it to be connected to an internal USB port. The slot in your model ought to have it, but I wonder whether it does.

    What is the original WiFi card that came with the laptop? I see there are indeed Bluetooth drivers listed on that product page, but I don't know if they were independent Bluetooth modules, or some sub-models shipped with PCIe cards that were dual WiFi-BT adapters. Make sure you're running on the latest firmware by the way, 2.14.
  • PCidiot9
    PCidiot9 Member Posts: 3 New User
    Thanks for your reply. It acts like a whitelist although many on here say Acer does not use one. The other posibility is that the processor is an AMD and I stuck an Intel 7260 in it. It may be just plain incompatable. The original wifi adaptor is  "EMS PN: QEM306CME01 MODEL NO. EM306" It is an Antheros. I took a shot in the dark and ordered a QCWB335 Dual Band adaptor off Ebay today. The guy said it came out of an Acer Computer although I couldn't get the Acer's Model Number but it also an Antheros. It was $5 bucks. Worth a shot. It does have the 2.14 Bios. I upgraded the bios when I went from a V120 Processor to a P650 CPU.
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    I hope that one works! Otherwise a Bluetooth stick it is, and it's not funny haha.

    Being an AMD system shouldn't matter though, as long as the interface was the same it should support any card, and they look like it. Your card was Broadcom made and the new candidate is going to be an Atheros one, which according to the support page for the model there were some shipping with cards of that brand (they're Qualcomm now after the acquisition, in case looking for drivers you stumble upon that name).

    But who knows, maybe the 7260 required more power than what the bus could provide, or maybe there was indeed a whitelist of hardware, ... let's hope for the best! Keep us posted ;)
  • PCidiot9
    PCidiot9 Member Posts: 3 New User
    Just for the record and for future reference, I bought an Atheros QCWB335 Mini PCi-e. It works great. I'm using Ubuntu 18.04LTS 

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