Belkin Wireless card

I was wondering if there was anything special you had to do to make your card work. I have a blue/white G3/450 and bought that precise card yesterday. I have the latest Tiger installation and even downloaded the latest Airport updates. The card doesn't even show up under 'PCI Cards' in Profiler. I tried it in two of my three PCI slots and Airport says there's no Airport connected.

Any ideas here?

- Mike

G3 450 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

hi mike

1.make clear, that your card is realy in to the pci slot. my belkin needed a little bit tenderness and power at the same time.

2.Maybe go to the same OS (10.4.5) included airport 4.2 as me.

deinstall your card first.
Update and AFTER that put your card agin in.

( I placed my card in the lowest (loking to the back ofyour standing G3) slot. But hower - other people here told - shoud not be a matter where you plac't)


good luck!
M


G3 blue&withe Mac OS X (10.4.5) (former 300Hz now) 450HZ

G3 blue&withe Mac OS X (10.4.5)

1.make clear, that your card is realy in to the pci
slot. my belkin needed a little bit tenderness and
power at the same time.

It's true! This was the first time I've ever failed to seat a PCI card properly. I'm no novice when it comes to expansion cards, but sure enough I was certain I had this card installed completely, only to boot up and find it not working. After double checking, I found that it wasn't even close to seated in the slot. It required very careful alignment and slightly more pressure than I was comfortable applying. Something about the way this model is made...Belkin, are you listening?

If your card is for sure inserted properly, make sure that you've tried a CUDA reset (the little gray button near the PRAM battery), a PRAM reset, and that your PRAM battery has got a charge (you can get a great deal on size 1/2 AA lithium batteries at batteries.com, btw. Even with shipping it's less than half the price of RadioShack). Does the card show in Apple System Profiler?

On 26 July 2006, Martin Heldstab, in response to a note from Kaiewa on the same day, wrote (slightly edited): “. . . bought the Belkin F5D7001DE. There is no need for installing software with Mac OS 10.4.5. (incl airport4.2.) just put the PCI card in, restart an use network assistant. Simple!

I need to make a wireless connection through a Linksys "Wireless G 2.4 GHz Broadband Router to a Blue & White G3 with OS X (10.4.8). If Martin Heldstab is correct, it would seem that all I need to do is install a Belkin F5D7001DE.

Is there any consensus on this?

Richard Hake

Several days ago, I emailed Belkin, asking if they had a PCI card that would provide a wireless connection to a Blue & White desktop G3 running OSX10.4.

On 10 October Marilu Santibanez <marilus@belkin.com> of Belkin’s Customer Support group responded:

“At this time we do not have a Wireless Desktop card that will work with a Mac O/S X.4. , and we do not have any plans in releasing one anytime soon.”

Richard Hake

I think by "do not" they mean "will not support or certify". I assure you I have 2 Belkin cards (F5D7000 & F5D7001) both of which work with Mac OS X (10.9.3).

The F5D7000 required drivers from Ralink, as it has an Ralink chipset, but the FD57001 works with the airport software, as it has a Broadcom chipset, and is the one I have decided to stick with.

After careful inspection of the box (with a magnifying glass if necessary) I have discovered that the boxes are accurate depictions, at least here in the UK. If you look carefully at the manufacturers name silkscreened onto the largest black on the card you should be able to identify the chipset manufacturer without opening the box - great if you are purchasing from your local store.

Hope that helps.

I've installed the 7000 in the slot right below the top slot. The green light is on and the card appears to be seated fully but it shows nothing in the system profiler and there's no indication it's working. I'm running 10.3.9. Suggestions?

I should also add that I installed the suggest Ralink drivers and nothing changed.

Rich - I may be mistaken, but I seem to recall that only certain versions of the F5D7000 chipset will work with the Ralink drivers. Something in the back of my mind says it's the odd-numbered versions. "Somewhere" in this forum, someone had posted an analysis of the various versions and how/if they worked in a Macintosh. I know v.3 works 'cause that's what I have and I selected it based on the above analysis. The version number can be found on the bottom of the box (don't know if it's somewhere on the PCI card, too), right next to the serial number tag, so that's another way you can determine what you're getting without opening the box. Mine reads "version 3001."

UPDATE: I searched a bit before I posted this message (using keywords "wireless belkin f5d700") and found the analysis I referenced above. Hopefully, it will help you with whatever version card you have. It was posted by someone from Ireland named "anyesb" and can be found at http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=2425387&#2425387

Best of luck.

Rich,

You should visually inspect your card and identify the chipset used. This example should help you out:

Click to Enlarge

Notice the largest black chip on the card. On this model (the 7001) it is marked as Broadcom and would most likely work correctly with the built in Airport drivers.

Report back with your chipset and hopefully someone with some experience will be able to shed some light on why your card is not working.

Of note though, I am curious to your card having a diode light-up. Neither of my Belkin wireless cards light unless there is a 'link' or 'data' activity. It sounds as though yours has a power light, more typical of TI, Atheros and Intel chips.

Hope that helps,

Jason.

Looks like I'll be selling this card as it's a version 5 card. 😟

Thanks for the info!!! 🙂

Soooooo...

Considering the mess of revisions with the Belkin products, does anyone know of a product that I can buy online which WORKS. I can buy a million Belkin products before I receive a model that works.

Again, I said order ONLINE. Works first time.

Rich - The only PCI card which - AFAIK - can be used directly with OS X (aside from the various Belkin versions we've discussed) is the Sonnet Aria. And I'm not completely certain about that. You can find them for $85 at MacMall, but, if they're anything like the MacWireless USB stick I originally used in my B&W G3, they need more configuring than the Belkin card. The problem is that Apple largely ignored the G3 when it came to wireless networking. I strongly encourage you to read this article (http://homepage.mac.com/techedgeezine/2005_0217-54g-inyourmac1.htm) because it may give you more insight into the issue and some additional alternatives. BTW, when you asked this question, I assumed we were talking about your "blue G3" and not your iBook. The iBook, of course, is Airport-compatible.