On Feb 24, 2010, at 8:53 PM, Herbert Goodfriend wrote:
I would like to install an AirPort Extreme card in a recently acquired PowerMac G5 Dual 2.3GHz. Apple Knowledge Base (<http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3096 >) says that the machine will only work with a special combination AirportExtreme+Bluetooth2.0+EDR card.
My early 2005 dual 2.3 G5 uses a normal Airport Extreme card. I too was confused about this. I used an Airport Extreme card I salvaged from a base station, it worked perfectly. I since moved onto a PCI 802.11n card since I couldn't find an 802.11n card that fit the slot (is this a standard interface that perhaps a laptop card fits?). I also thought the Bluetooth was tied into the card, but my G5 shows and active Bluetooth in Network even without the Airport Extreme card. Yesterday I got interested enough to see if it was "real", so I decided to see if it could find my iPhone, and to my surprise it found it, so it for certain receives. I got it to "pair" with my iPhone using the Bluetooth Setup Assistant, BUT, after it paired I couldn't get it to "connect", the spinning thing just spun indefinitely. Perhaps the Airport card is needed to "enable" the Bluetooth? It's strange that the Apple KBA would seemingly misled on this.
I think have located the card for sale. It seems to be the same one that works in iMac G5 (A1126), but according to the description it requires another part ("runway card") to work in a PowerMac G5. I cannot find the "runway card" anywhere.
No. Mine I took directly from an Airport Extreme base station, it was a "standard" Extreme card, the same as most of the laptops and iMacs use, and it fit directly into a standard slot in the front beneath the DVD drive. The antenna wire is pre-installed close by and you only need to plug it into the card. No special runway card is needed.
I guess that the backup plan would be to get a PCI-X wireless card.
You don't need a PCI-X card, the PCI-X slots are fully backwards compatible with any standard PCI card. To my knowledge there aren't any PCI-X wireless cards. Any Broadcom or Atheros chipset card should work as native "Airport", perhaps needing with a tiny amount of tweaking. Most others such as Ralink, can also work with extensions, but aren't recognized as "Airport".
-- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
