- Joined
- Jan 9, 2014
- Messages
- 117
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte H270M-DS3H
- CPU
- i7-7700K
- Graphics
- GTX 660
- Mac
Greetings to everyone.
Story about how i resolved the wireless issue with my laptop Lenovo Flex 2-14, i3-4010U.
Before when i bought the laptop i did quick research about board and components and seemed like everything was okay for hackintosh... , but home work was insufficient and i just did not imagined that 14" laptop comes already with M.2 aka NGFF (next generation form factor) wireless card. After opening laptop cover arrived "moment of the truth", there was sitting M.2 card BCM43142. Ebay helps, cross my mind... after couple of hours searching was already clear - no solutions. Only M.2 card which was reported working with OSX was BCM94352Z:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/1...ple-mini-cards-pcie-mini-pcie-adapters-5.html
Quick view told that this card will not fit to my laptop because of different key. For wireless cards are used NGFF A and E keys. Good introduce of NGFF harware described here:
http://www.orvem.eu/attachments/article/130/M 2 introduction.pdf
Seems like Lenovo using less available A key cards and BCM94352Z instead using E key. Searched all Lenovo supported / whitelist cards, offered as "genuine cards", no one of them not supporting OSX. Started googling how i can replace the M.2 card to half mini PCIe. Only solution which Google offered was Chinese company BPlusTech. Only suitable adapter board was P15S-P15F M.2 (NGFF) to mPCIe Extender Board http://www.bplustech.com/ExtenderBoard/P15S-P15F.html
I did order my board from US dealer MFACTORS, because of better postage costs, http://www.mfactors.com/p15s-p15f-m-2-ngff-to-mpcie-extender-board/
also all specs and documentation available on their site. BPlusTech NGFF adapter board supports both A and E key cards. Next big challenge was how to fit full size PCIe adapter with half mini card into the 14" laptop, which included already into the ultrabooks class. There is no space at all...
Next solution helps them who have normal 2.5" HDD or SSD, as my laptop came with 2.5" standard size SSD. Solution was upgrade the normal size SSD to smaller msata SSD using msata>sata adapter, saving free space in laptop disk drive compartment. That free space was the target place where i wanted install NGFF adapter board. Also i got 1 additional benefit, like saving some % of battery running lifetime, because msata SSD-s spends roughly 1/3 less power than normal sata SSD-s, just compared the drives wattage. Obviously nowdays more and more laptops starts use M.2 cards and also bigger models, like 15"... Depending of harware, 15/17 inch laptops may have more free space available "under the laptop cover" and maybe additional board fits just like that, leaving to the place normal SSD. Individual thing, everyone should check byself for solutions. I'm pretty much sure that smaller ultrabooks as 13" and 10-11" can't use this solution because they natively already using smaller msata SSD drives and the free space is limited.
Back to my upgrade or should we call that thing as downgrade ? Replacing the sata SSD to msata SSD wasn't also very easy, because of unsuitable adapter boards, 90% of boards in Ebay aren't suitable, just because of layout and dimensions. But... there was just one board which layout is good for such upgrade. Ebay offered NY reseller: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111431126054 , ordered that one to get urgent. Received, tested, wasn't good product, sometimes msata SSD booted, sometimes not, obviously cold solder problems etc. Next one ordered from Hong Kong, of course it took time to wait, but wasn't options, didn't find any of similar board anywhere else:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191341921782
This last one works perfectly, not problems or questions, it's just a simple board, no drivers needed, onboard electronics consists just from voltage regulator 5V to 3.3v and
two capacitors helping save from power peaks. 3.3v regulator is necessary, because 2.5" SSD-s running on 5v and msata SSD-s running on 3.3V. Some laptops may support 3.3v also (smaller like 13"), but most laptops sata board/connector giving out only 5v.
Depending of hardware, you may succeed with installation "out of the box", like replacing boards and installing OSX suitable wireless card, but you should consider that most laptop manufacturers protecting them bioses for third party cards usage, called as whitelist cards are only compatible. Other cards usage will be blocked by bios, as i had "headache" with mine. For that purpose you need to modify the laptop bios, removing whitelist at all, or adding your card to the bios whitelist.
Continues...
Story about how i resolved the wireless issue with my laptop Lenovo Flex 2-14, i3-4010U.
Before when i bought the laptop i did quick research about board and components and seemed like everything was okay for hackintosh... , but home work was insufficient and i just did not imagined that 14" laptop comes already with M.2 aka NGFF (next generation form factor) wireless card. After opening laptop cover arrived "moment of the truth", there was sitting M.2 card BCM43142. Ebay helps, cross my mind... after couple of hours searching was already clear - no solutions. Only M.2 card which was reported working with OSX was BCM94352Z:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/network/1...ple-mini-cards-pcie-mini-pcie-adapters-5.html
Quick view told that this card will not fit to my laptop because of different key. For wireless cards are used NGFF A and E keys. Good introduce of NGFF harware described here:
http://www.orvem.eu/attachments/article/130/M 2 introduction.pdf
Seems like Lenovo using less available A key cards and BCM94352Z instead using E key. Searched all Lenovo supported / whitelist cards, offered as "genuine cards", no one of them not supporting OSX. Started googling how i can replace the M.2 card to half mini PCIe. Only solution which Google offered was Chinese company BPlusTech. Only suitable adapter board was P15S-P15F M.2 (NGFF) to mPCIe Extender Board http://www.bplustech.com/ExtenderBoard/P15S-P15F.html
I did order my board from US dealer MFACTORS, because of better postage costs, http://www.mfactors.com/p15s-p15f-m-2-ngff-to-mpcie-extender-board/
also all specs and documentation available on their site. BPlusTech NGFF adapter board supports both A and E key cards. Next big challenge was how to fit full size PCIe adapter with half mini card into the 14" laptop, which included already into the ultrabooks class. There is no space at all...
Next solution helps them who have normal 2.5" HDD or SSD, as my laptop came with 2.5" standard size SSD. Solution was upgrade the normal size SSD to smaller msata SSD using msata>sata adapter, saving free space in laptop disk drive compartment. That free space was the target place where i wanted install NGFF adapter board. Also i got 1 additional benefit, like saving some % of battery running lifetime, because msata SSD-s spends roughly 1/3 less power than normal sata SSD-s, just compared the drives wattage. Obviously nowdays more and more laptops starts use M.2 cards and also bigger models, like 15"... Depending of harware, 15/17 inch laptops may have more free space available "under the laptop cover" and maybe additional board fits just like that, leaving to the place normal SSD. Individual thing, everyone should check byself for solutions. I'm pretty much sure that smaller ultrabooks as 13" and 10-11" can't use this solution because they natively already using smaller msata SSD drives and the free space is limited.
Back to my upgrade or should we call that thing as downgrade ? Replacing the sata SSD to msata SSD wasn't also very easy, because of unsuitable adapter boards, 90% of boards in Ebay aren't suitable, just because of layout and dimensions. But... there was just one board which layout is good for such upgrade. Ebay offered NY reseller: http://www.ebay.com/itm/111431126054 , ordered that one to get urgent. Received, tested, wasn't good product, sometimes msata SSD booted, sometimes not, obviously cold solder problems etc. Next one ordered from Hong Kong, of course it took time to wait, but wasn't options, didn't find any of similar board anywhere else:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/191341921782
This last one works perfectly, not problems or questions, it's just a simple board, no drivers needed, onboard electronics consists just from voltage regulator 5V to 3.3v and
two capacitors helping save from power peaks. 3.3v regulator is necessary, because 2.5" SSD-s running on 5v and msata SSD-s running on 3.3V. Some laptops may support 3.3v also (smaller like 13"), but most laptops sata board/connector giving out only 5v.
Depending of hardware, you may succeed with installation "out of the box", like replacing boards and installing OSX suitable wireless card, but you should consider that most laptop manufacturers protecting them bioses for third party cards usage, called as whitelist cards are only compatible. Other cards usage will be blocked by bios, as i had "headache" with mine. For that purpose you need to modify the laptop bios, removing whitelist at all, or adding your card to the bios whitelist.
Continues...