Xiaomi Mi Notebook Air

[dodvip123]

Still no progress for now. It's working pretty good but I still have a hard time trying to patch files for battery and making power management work.

I'll be able to test hdmi output later today though so I'll update my post with what's working or not.

have you tried installing a WLAN card such as the BCM94352Z?

 

[dodvip123]

Hi,

I'd surely would try it out...
But it seems I have a Rev. B NoteBook, so no additional WWLAN slot available.
I get the WWLAN written... but the slot is missing. Unsoldered

Too bad.

Regards.

have you tried it on the primary SSD slot?

 

[CleanPenguin]

have you tried it on the primary SSD slot?

Hi,

Nope.

I need that second drive... but if that allows the installation of a fully working macOs I may get rid of it and replace the main drive with a 512GB unit

So here are my questions :
- are we talking about the NVMe slot or about the second M.2 SATA slot ?
- what card should be compatible with macOs Sierra ?

Regards.

 

[dodvip123]

Hi,

Nope.

I need that second drive... but if that allows the installation of a fully working macOs I may get rid of it and replace the main drive with a 512GB unit

So here are my questions :
- are we talking about the NVMe slot or about the second M.2 SATA slot ?
- what card should be compatible with macOs Sierra ?

Regards.

We are talking about the NVMe slot which is a PCIe slot(?). The BCM94352Z NGFF WLAN card is compatible with Sierra.

I took the risk and ordered both the laptop and this adapter for the PCIe slot: https://www.benl.ebay.be/itm/191573387476

They should arrive by Thursday. I will post updates if any.

 

[CleanPenguin]

Hi,

Hum... I think that sacrificing NVMe for a Wi-Fi card isn't the best option
Here, on the NVMe drive, Win10 boots in like 6 seconds !

Regards.

 

[dodvip123]

Hi,

Hum... I think that sacrificing NVMe for a Wi-Fi card isn't the best option
Here, on the NVMe drive, Win10 boots in like 6 seconds !

Regards.

Maybe you can try the m2 sata slot and test the difference in speed?

I would rather have working WiFi and Bluetooth than a boot time that is slightly faster.

 

[xavier.seignard]

@dodvip123 I'm very interested in your results about wifi/bluetooth. I hope you'll end with a working solution.

Regards

 

[dodvip123]

Okay I might have a solution, but it is not ideal and for now only theoretical...

The goal is to install a compatible WLAN card in this laptop: BCM94352Z (Dell 1560)

There is no WLAN M.2 slot in this laptop, there is however;

• a WWAN slot (M.2 B keying) [only first revision of the laptop]
• a NVMe slot (M.2 M keying)
• a SATA slot (M.2 B keying)

The BCM94352Z requires a M.2 slot with A/E keying, but there aren't any.

I've found this adapter to take care of that problem: http://www.delock.de/produkte/G_65699/merkmale.html

The first NVMe slot has M keying which provides PCIe interface - used for the Wifi part of the WLAN. M keying does not support USB interface - used for the Bluetooth part of the WLAN (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2). So even if the adapter works, we won't have Bluetooth from the BCM94352Z, only Wifi. We would also give up the NVMe slot for internal Wifi and only have the SATA SSD slot left.



For functioning Bluetooth, I've ordered the BCM20702 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B007MKMJGO/?tag=tonymacx86com-20).

I will provide further updates on this when I have everything on hand.

 

[xavier.seignard]

Thanks for your investigation @dodvip123 !

Did you received the laptop? Do you think it would be doable to unsolder the internal wifi card? and replace it?

 

[dodvip123]

Thanks for your investigation @dodvip123 !

Did you received the laptop? Do you think it would be doable to unsolder the internal wifi card? and replace it?

Scheduled for tomorrow. It could be doable but I have no experience with soldering so I don't know