Perfect MacBook Air : WiFi

This could become deprecated once I Leopardize (install Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard) my HP Mini 311 because its stock WiFi card works in Leopard and not in Snow. But while I'm still on Snow Leo; this is one of the changes that make my new netbook a perfect MacBook Air for me.

Since the HP Mini 100TU's WiFi card worked flawlessly in Snow Leopard (when the said Mini was still well and alive - I think I fried it when I stupidly let it run all night to do some torrent downloading), I decided to test drive it on my new favorite, the Mini 311. The 1000's card, a Broadcom4312HMG, wasn't a combo WLAN/BT so I transferred the 311' stock combo card,a  Broadcom4312HMGB in the extra pci slot so I still have bluetooth. Now this extra pci slot only has mounts for full height cards so I used tape to secure the module. See pic below:

Note though that I've already *flashed my unit with the hacked bios F.04 that unblocks or "de-whitelists" the 311's half-height pci slot- because I originally planned to get another Snow Leo compatible WLAN/Bluetooth combo card.


What You Need

1. Download hacked F14 HP Mini 311 BIOS courtesy of icelord.
2. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool SP27213.exe
3. USB flashdrive - preferrably 2 GB or less (you may experience issues with higher capacities such as 4GB or more)

What To Do - This set of instructions are based from the "hpmini311" google code page. Proceed at your own risk. 

1. Unzip 3651F14hack.zip. You'll get a folder named "3651F14" inside of which you see a "3651F140.fd" file. Rename this file to "3651.BIN"
2. Use HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool to format your USB flashdrive to FAT16 or FAT32 and copy "3651.BIN" onto the USB flashdrive.
3. Plug in your USB flashdrive contating "3651.BIN" file to your Mini 311
4. Disconnect power supply and remove the battery.
5. Press and hold simultaneously the "Windows" (the one with the Windows logo on it) and "B" keys.
6. Still pressing on the Win and B keys (do not let go), connect the power supply and press the Power button.
7. Count 5 seconds before releasing Wind and B keys. You'll hear beeps and the fan will whir up to faster (if not fastest) speed than usual. DO NOT shutdown your Mini 311 and make sure electricity supply is constant. The machine will shut itself down automatically. I repeat, your HP Mini 311 will turn off on its own when the BIOS flashing process is done. Patience is a virtue or you'll brick your precious 11.6" nVidia ION netbook you paid equally precious dough for.

And since it's already de-whitelisted (and the Mini 1000 is busted) I decided to rebrand the WiFi card with Apple vendor and product ID's so Mac OS X will see it as AirPort Extreme.

For what practical ends might you ask?

Update: Personally, I now think that rebranding should only be done when you experience performance issues with your 3rd party Mac OS X Snow Leo compatible WiFi cards. Among which, wireless N ones are almost definitely subject to performance issues because of the reason stated below. Other cards, b/g, in my experience are not subject to this discrimination by OS X so I don't particularly recommend you to sweat it out if all you want is a functioning b/g WiFi card. If you've O.C.D like me however, or if you're willing to take on the adventure, then by all means rebrand away! - at your own risk of course :D

Well, Mac OS X is a pretty snobbish operating system or it's actually Apple who designed it to be that way. Aside from closing its support only to specific models and brands of hardware devices it also discriminates between vendor and product ID's. If it's non Apple branded or certified as reflected in it being labelled as "Third-Party Wireless" in System Profier, Mac OS X uses another set of instructions to drive that piece of hardware but there may be limitations. If it's Apple certified/branded, it loads full set of instructions to get the most functionality possible and ergo richest user experience. What OS X uses to identify which is which turns out to be the vendor and product ID's in the device's sprom.
See chrand's post regarding this about wireless N and connection speeds at insanelymac.

In my current setup, I didn't have to get antenna extensions since the working WiFi card is placed in the half-height pci slot. The wireless button doesn't work and remains orange - I can't use it to turn of bluetooth which is comes from the stock wifi/bt combo card that has been transferred to the extra full-height pci slot.

Also the Dell 1510 (which is a Broadcom432B) will work brilliantly and can be rebranded the same way. You can use these ID's: SUBV:106b / SUBP:008d.

Oh, well so much for being "perfect" huh? ;)

I'm excited to install Leopard - which is up next on my to-do list for the HP Mini 311. I've already tried Leopard via EFI Vanilla but the machine just reboots all the time. A fellow forumer, mosslack, has pointed out that this is common phenomenon with the EFI booting method but that NetbookBootMaker/NetbooInstaller approach worked fine in his experience.

EDIT : I installed an Apple AirPort Broadcom 4328 wireless N card.