Upgraded my Mac Pro to include Wifi & Bluetooth!

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There! Done!

Trust me if you’ve ever attempted this, then you know not only just how difficult this whole process is, but to not only get it working was a major accomplishment!

And I only lost ONE of the screws.. Sigh they are just too small, I finally broke down and got an eye glass repair kit after losing one of them (no idea where it went to, I shook the case like crazy then it stopped rattling, so its either wedged somewhere good, or I’ve thrown it somewhere around here….).  The trick was to use a small plastic sleeve to jam the screw almost all the way in, with enough of the stem showing so I could carefully get a few twists of the tread into the hole…

But of course I didn’t start it out that way, instead I thought it’d be easier to clip on the antennas to the wifi card (BCM94311MCAG) first, then slip it into its slot, then screw it down, but since it goes in at an angle, it forces itself up & out so you end up fighting it.  This is where I lost the one screw during installation.  The ‘trick’ was to use my iphone’s camera light so I could see what I was doing, then try to press down on the wifi card while trying to screw in the board using one of the plastic sleeve things from the repair kit.  Surprisingly after enough false starts I got it to thread and was able to finish screwing it in with the driver.

The Bluetooth module (A1115) was much easier, as it is just a simple daughter card, that you just push onto the board, then screw in.  Because its not actively resisting you, it was much easier to get into place, and screw in…. I just hope mine lasts ok as its only got the one screw.

As always have a clean work area, and take your time.  Working with stuff this insanely small is going to take longer than you expect..

5 thoughts on “Upgraded my Mac Pro to include Wifi & Bluetooth!”

  1. The tech guy here at work always magnetizes all screwdrivers. He swears by it. And for the most part it seems to work well, I use his tools and I just “attach” the small screws to the screwdriver and put the screwdriver to where the screw is supposed to go, even sideways or up. Works for really big screws too.. such as in 19″ racks when you need to reconficure the rack and you have to feed the screw through a sideways small opening before it reaches where it’s supposed to go.
    Sometimes it may be a bit inconveniant with a “sticky” screwdriver, but for those occasions it’s just to keep a few non-magnetized screwdrivers around.

    But that trick with the plastic sleave is neat.

    As for a clean work area (including the floor! Or anywhere where something could fall down), yes I couldn’t agree more, and I keep forgetting that a little bit too often. 🙂

    -Tor

    • Heh I don’t know how many times 18″ rack screws pop out of the rack and onto the raised floor, roll over to a vented tile and fall down into the abyss…

      The best screwdriver I used had these little ‘grabbers’ to physically hold the screws onto the driver, although I couldn’t imagine something so small for these screws… Sadly the TSA liked my screwdrivers more than I did 🙁

  2. “And I only lost ONE of the screws”

    A greater misfortune is when you have your project assembled and you notice you have 4 extra screws.. eh, what the ? where? oh well… it seems to be working.. 🙂

    • Yep, it booted up, and my keyboard & mouse are working like they should (its funny how addicted to scroll wheels I’ve become over the years! When the apple magic mouse just acts like a regular mouse it just sucks…!

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