S10 4333-36U - 2nd mini pcie slot question (WWAN)? What interface does it use? [ Editado ]

[MonkeyDLuffy]

Hi all,

I have an S10 4333-36U from Best Buy and I was happy that it had an extra mini pci-e slot (3G Sim + WWAN) at the bottom. 

To my excitement, I blindly bought a Broadcom HD Crystal Decoder (BCM970012 / BCM70012) from ebay and it is minipcie.  According to the datasheet of this HD decoder, it uses the real pci express.  Doing some research (I know, I should have done this before buying) .. I found out that there is a "possiblity" that the extra minipcie slot of my S10 is not a real minipcie!  They were saying that it uses a USB 2.0 interface, instead of the pcie lane - which will make my Broadcom chip useless - if proven true.

So guys, do you think that the extra slot on the S10 is really using USB interface???? .. I really hope it is not!

Or maybe someone can confirm that the broadcom chip will still work even though it is plugged in to the 2nd minipcie slot rummored to be USB interfaced.

Thank you!

[Steep]

I understood that the slots can use either pcie or usb depending on what card is in them.  I too bought a crystal HD card for my S12 Intel but it won't work. It's visible in device manager but the Intel 945 graphics chipset cannot see it and so cannot use it, don't know if it's a driver problem or a chipset limitation. If your S10 uses the same chipset that's why it won't work for you.

[MonkeyDLuffy]

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, I use the same chipset.  However, most of the netbooks that has the Crystal Broadcom HD uses the same chipset as well (Like the HP mini 110) - and it works.  There are also other EEE/NC10/Dell users had it working with the same chipset.

Have you tried installing the latest driver from Broadcom's website?  Are you also using the correct software to play movies - because I believe it is only compatible with ArcSoft TotalMedia™ Theatre (OEM edition) - they also say that the latest Media Player Classic supports this too, you just have to configure it.  Some also claim that the Flash 10.1 beta is also compatible.  XMBC is still in development and I believe the latest update will support this chip as well.

Latest official driver release from Broadcom - http://www.broadcom.com/support/crystal_hd/

BTW, have you tried swapping the Broadcom HD Decoder with your stock WLAN slot?  The stock WLAN minipcie slot definitely uses the x1 lane because the Wifi will not work for sure. 

Thanks for your input.  It is sad that yours did not work.  I still am hoping that mine will work when I receive the card.  If it will not work, I guess I'll sell it on ebay where it belongs

Thanks again!

[Steep]

Yes, I've got the latest drivers and Arcsofts Totalmedia, still no joy though, not tried swapping slots though I'll give that a go but from what I read on the net it's a chipset problem.

[Steep]

Actually, thinking about it that would not make a difference, the card is installed and 'working' it's just that the graphic chipset cannot use it or access it..

[MonkeyDLuffy]

Thanks again for you input.

I guess it is then true that the chipset cannot access it at its fullness because it might really be using a USB interface instead of a pci express slot.  The only way to really know is for me to have the Broadcom card and check it right away.  I'll update this post in the future as soon as I get the card - which is 2 more weeks.

[cacabuda]

Hello,

1)

In some forum like that people say that you have to use HP mini110 drivers (for BroadcomHD)

2)

Are you under XP or 7?

Because in these link there is a guy using this slot with S10-2 and crystalHD working and a discussion with a another guy that used HP driver working finally with windows7 as HP drivers didn't install in XP

3)

People suggested in some forum (here) to put the BroadcomHD in the slot of the BroadcomWifi and to buy a cheap miniPcie Wifi card (alimented trough USB)

4) Could you try and confirm if 1)+2) or 3) is working for S10-2 ?

Thanks

[MonkeyDLuffy]

Hey man .. Unfortunately I don't have an S10-2 and I don't have my Broadcom Card Yet (still in transit).  I have an S10 that has a secondary mini-pcie slot on the bottom (my first one is internal).  The S10-2, I think, that the 1st and 2nd mini pci-e slots on the bottom.  I actually am on tripple boot, XP, OSX, linux mint.  But it does not matter because Broadcom already officially released a drivers for Windows.  I could always use the HP driver if the Broadcom driver fails.

You question number 3 is correct.  Just incase my Broadcom HD card will not work on my spare minipcie slot, I have no choice but the use my internal one (where my Broadcom wifi resides) and find a different minipcie WLAN that has a USB HOST interface.  Right now I could only find one but I'm not sure if it will actually work.  I'm planning to make my own hardware mode involving a minipci-e to usb blank board and then buying a small Wireless N dongle.  I'll pry out the Wireless N dongle and attach it to the minipcie board and solder it.  My blank board is still on the way from China so it might take quite a while.

By the way, this answers your question about the S10-2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gjqt5ZSSDE4&feature=related

Good luck.

[cacabuda]

**bleep**,

I believed Peter arrived to make working HDBroadcom on 2nd pcie and that's not the case!!! Bad news. I already knew that replacing Wifi card by HDB would work (Peter has freeze problem, i believe he should have use latest official HDB drivers rather than putting HP drivers that are made for XP on Win7), but this is not acceptable!!! I don't want to loose Wifi!

Some people say Lenovo 2nd pcie port is locked by bios and that there is a whitelist of accepted materials.

If someone has made working a pcie usb wifi card on S10-2 then tell it.

I hoppe solution 3 works...

MonkeyDLuffy :

- you say question number 3 is correct: you know 3) will work?

- if you do what you plan, please feedback

Good luck too

[cacabuda]

Hi,

Me again ^_P

I'm hesitating : i don't know if i will buy an USB wifi key or if i try to buy an USB pcie wifi card and put it in 2d slot.

I'm pretty sure there is no problem with first solution but the second???

(using one free mini pcieslot to spare one usb slot)

What to do?