Replace MacPro 4,1 wifi antennae wire?

Question

Replace MacPro 4,1 wifi antennae wire?

Hi all.

I just installed an upgraded airport card in my mac pro 4,1. In the process, I managed to ruin the connector for antennae #2 during repeated fruitless efforts to connect it to the card. The other three (two wifi, one bluetooth) antennae are connected fine and working, but what can I do about #2? Can I attach some other antennae to that connector? Is it reasonable to try and replace the existing one and does anyone have any links to diagrams or advice on how to do that? Any and all advice, links, ideas welcome.

I have already asked OSXWiFi folks (who sell the upgrade kit) for advice and am waiting if they can help, but the folks on this board are usually better than most company service people. :-)

Mac Pro, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jun 13, 2019 9:36 AM

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Answer 1

Jun 14, 2019 9:12 AM in response to Javier Bonafont

I share your pain.

I fitted an upgraded WiFi card to a MacPro5,1 and damaged the connector on the Bluetooth antenna extension cable. Fortunately it was on the extension cable and even more fortunately my kit had a spare cable.

With regards to your situation, the built-in WiFi cables are buried deep inside the Mac Pro. One option would involve (somehow) getting an official cable and dismantling your Mac to remove the old one and to fit a new one. I have not seen these cables listed but one would presume they exist. Cannibalising one from another possibly dead Mac Pro would be an option.

Remember a Mac Pro with the original card does not use all three WiFi cables meaning one would be spare.

The other option would be to remove the broken connector and to fit a new one. Again the connector exists and I am sure some Chinese company sells them so that other companies or people can make up cables.

If you were able to get another extension cable i.e. a spare from OSXWifi then you could cut one end off and solder it to your damaged cable.

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Answer 2

Jun 14, 2019 9:47 AM in response to John Lockwood

Thanks. So yes, the original mac pro wifi card uses only two cables, but the upgrade AC card needs three. As a matter of fact my wifi is working just about as well as before right now, which makes sense as I am using the same 2 antennas i was using before (#1 and #3), but that is hardly the 'upgrade' I was trying for.

As I failed utterly in finding any useful information on where Antenna 2 is located or how to get at it, or even what it looks like, I've decided on just attaching a cheap new antenna to that third card connector and jury rigging it somewhere in the enclosure to see if that works before doing a random total teardown of the machine. From what I understand, the original placement of the antennas in this all metal case has been an issue since day one anyway, so I figure its worth a try to ignore the stock antenna.

So just in case anybody knows or has any insight, where in the mac pro case might be the best place to position one of those small flat copper wifi antennas? My default plan is to just play hit and miss and see if placement makes any difference, but if somebody knows for a fact that I should stay far away from the hard drives, or as close as possible to the front fans, or whatever tidbit of information, send it my way. I will report back after installation if I have any useful news.

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Answer 3

Jun 13, 2019 9:41 AM in response to Javier Bonafont

I just want to clarify that I ruined the connector ON THE ANTENNAE WIRE, not on the card. I realize I could do a complete teardown to get better access to the cable and solder on a new connection, but those things are so **** tiny and if I'm going to have to tear everything apart to get close enough to the connector, I want to know what I'm doing first and if there are better/easier ways. I know some guy on this board asked this question a few years ago and then later posted that he had succeeded in replacing the wire without issues, but that thread is closed and there were no details on how he did it.

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Replace MacPro 4,1 wifi antennae wire?

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