BIOS Whitelist?

[Thrust Augmentation]

I need to get a new wireless router & I'm looking at a few AC models, but with two laptops having N wi-fi cards in them I would want to upgrade these to AC as well.


I've checked the BIOS on both laptops to check that the internal PCIe mini slots aren't whitelisted & there is no reference to the slots in the BIOS's of either laptop. My understanding was that if the slots are whitelisted that they will appear in the BIOS, but will not be selectable / adjustable & if there weren't whitelisted they would be present / adjustable - so what does no BIOS entry mean?

[Bushfiva]

Sounds like an HP machine. Don't know how the BIOS menu appears, but there's a list of fixed BIOS images at the largely-dormant bios-mods (https://www.bios-mods.com/wiki/Index_of_Modified_BIOS_Images). That might give you some idea if your particular machine has a whitelist. I swapped out Dell's incredibly naff N card for an intel BT4+AC with no issues.

[Thrust Augmentation]

Bushfiva - both are Samsung's (R710 & Series 7 Gamer), I've had a look about the net for info on whitelisting for both models & their BIOS's but can't find much info.


Having a further read since posting it appears that whitelisting may not be apparent in the BIOS UI & will only be discovered if an unapproved card is installed in a whitelisted machine - does that sound correct?

Thanks.

[Bushfiva]

I can't help you from personal knowledge. Is the R710 an older desktop replacement notebook? Some of those Samsungs were made by Mitac, and the same chassis cropped up as a pile of brands including Eclipse. Mitac sold it as a bare-bones build-it-yourself notebook, so that particular version certainly wouldn't have a whitelisting BIOS.

I can imagine having a whitelisting BIOS in a machine and not having any reference to that fact in the BIOS menus.

So, I can't help: I don't know. But I do have a QCNFA335 (the original Dell turkey), and if the form factor is correct I'm happy to pop it in an envelope: it's not what you want, but it would be flagged by a whitelist.

There's a chance your old router might have a suitable card in it as a quick whitelist test.

[Thrust Augmentation]

Bushfiva,


The R710 was a desktop replacement (in 2010/2011 anyway..), but I'm not sure if it's one of the series / models that you mention. Intel's AC7260 card is somewhat cheaper than I had imagined, so if I can't dig out a different PCIe mini card to test for whitlist I think I'll just go ahead & get a couple of these on a PnPP basis (Plug & Possibly Play).


The old router & the even older router both have single, fully integrated boards & lots of dust inside...


Thanks for you offer & assistance - much appreciated!

[Bushfiva]

That's what I got. Be aware the description refers to two physically different formats: let's call them "large" and "small". "Large" will always work in a large socket, and small will always work in a small socket. Much of the time, small will also work in a large socket, but large will never work in a small socket. You might need pencil and paper :-) Anyway, as you note, it's all cheap enough to make a purchasing mistake. Also, I'm not aware of any ac routers that don't support n as well.

If your notebook is designed like many others, and all these addons are sitting on an internal usb2 bus, then you may not see much benefit from fitting ac cards in the notebooks, other than it being fun, of course.

Edit: I just caught your reference to PCIe Mini card. AC2760 is half mini or M.2 (or NGFF, whatever it's called today). Mini- to half-mini rules still apply as above. ac is still fun to try out because n can't get full throughput in urban settings (roughly speaking).

[Thrust Augmentation]

Just for anyone on the same boat, neither the Samsung R710 or Series 7 Gamer are whitelisted & Intel's AC7260 half, mini PCIe cards fits & works in both - the hardest thing was finding the correct drivers on Intel's site.....