lyncd

July 2010 archive

Replacing MacBook’s AirPort card with an Atheros AR5BXB6 from an IBM Thinkpad

Four years of 85°C CPU temperatures took their toll on my friend’s MacBook. Her AirPort wireless card still functioned, but suddenly her wifi signal had become unusably weak.

I checked her system configuration, opened up her first-gen MacBook, and everything looked fine. But with plenty of others reporting similar issues, it was most likely the card had succumbed to heat. It could sometimes maintain normal wireless range for several minutes — when started totally cold — but after the system temps warmed up, would go back to only a few feet of range.

The model number printed on the AirPort card is an Atheros AR5BXB6. A Google Products search for “AR5BXB6” turned up these $13 Thinkpad pulls among others available online, and for $13 we figured it was easily worth a shot as a drop-in replacement, compared to the cost of a new Apple card. It turned out be only a little tricksier than that. more …

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