Hi
@pastrychef. I got curious about my MSI's CNVi slot when you mentioned that perhaps only Gigabyte blocks its use with other cards. It was a bit of a pain but I took my motherboard out in order to test it. Unfortunately, nothing worked on this MSI MPG Z390M Gaming Edge AC. Here are the detailed results:
Intel 9560NGW (preinstalled) - Windows: works 100%, macOS: no Wifi / Bluetooth detected but not really working
DW1560: doesn't work at all in either OS
DW1830: doesn't work at all in either OS
Original MacBook Air WiFi module in M.2 adapter: doesn't work at all in either OS
Intel AX200NGW: doesn't work at all in either OS
Intel AX201NGW: doesn't work at all in either OS
I have the latest BIOS/UEFI but there is absolutely no mention of either WiFi or Bluetooth in there. Still, I tried with both my usual "hack-friendly" settings as well as "optimized defaults" but that made no difference.
That last one, the AX201NGW surprised me since it's CNVi...or so I thought. Turns out there is a CNVi and a CNVi2 and Intel has no documentation regarding compatibility between the two. I was already aware of the "2" from looking up the part numbers and seeing the product specs on Intel's site but I thought I'd give it a go since it was only $23 on Amazon and I could return it.
While I was still waiting for delivery, I came across this thread on LTT:
To save everyone time I have summarised the conclusion we came to in the thread. Summary updated 12th January 2024. The AX201 (CNVIO2) can only work with Intel 10th Generation CPUs or newer! The PCIe cards (in title) can work with some CNVIo laptops, it depends if the manufacturer included PCIe s...
linustechtips.com
I was able to verify everything mentioned in the thread and learned a little more about the issue in the process. It appears that CNVi2 only works with 10th gen CPUs at the moment.