Half size PCI-E WiFi Dual band BT card for XP

[Sfor]

I decided to put Windows XP on an Asus Eee PC X101CH netbook. But I had a problem with the WifI adapter in it. So, I started to look for a replacement with Windows XP driver support.

My first choice was RTL8821AE. It has dual band WiFi and BT. I bought it, installed, but failed to find BT drivers working on Windows XP.

My next candidate is AR5B22. It is a bit slower when it comes to the maximum WiFi speed, but it has all the other benefits like dual band and BT. It seems there are the WiFi drivers support for XP. But the advertising ommits XP when comes to BT drivers. So it seems to be a little risky to buy it.

But perhaps there are other adapters with confirmed XP support.

 

[Sfor]

As for the AR5B22. I can not find any working 32bit WiFi driver for Windows XP and Windows 7. All I found are 64bit versions.

[Dave-H]

I'm in the process of doing the same with my Asus X102B netbook, which had a rubbish AR5B125 wi-fi card in it, 2.4GHz only and no Bluetooth!
I've bought an Intel 6235ANHMW card, which I believe and hope is a suitable replacement.
It does have drivers for XP, but the later APP6P-700973 card which I first considered does not.

[IntMD]

On 1/26/2021 at 10:29 AM, Sfor said:

As for the AR5B22. I can not find any working 32bit WiFi driver for Windows XP and Windows 7. All I found are 64bit versions.

for the record, what are the hardware ids for the model (and what exact kind of AR5B22 is it)?

[Sfor]

On 1/28/2021 at 12:44 PM, IntMD said:

for the record, what are the hardware ids for the model (and what exact kind of AR5B22 is it)?

PCI\VEN_168C&DEV_0034&SUBSYS_020A1028&REV_01

I found a WiFi driver for Windows 7 32bit: Dell Wireless 1901 802.11a/b/g/n (2.4GHz and 5GHz). I have some doubts about how well it works, however.

I think I'll try the Intel 6235ANHMW.

[Sfor]

On 1/26/2021 at 5:34 PM, Dave-H said:

I'm in the process of doing the same with my Asus X102B netbook, which had a rubbish AR5B125 wi-fi card in it, 2.4GHz only and no Bluetooth!
I've bought an Intel 6235ANHMW card, which I believe and hope is a suitable replacement.
It does have drivers for XP, but the later APP6P-700973 card which I first considered does not.

I just installed an Intel 6235ANHMW card in my Asus X101CH. I found just the Windows 7 and newer driver on the Intel site. According to Intel declarations version 21.40.5 is the last one with Windows 7 and 8 support.

[Dave-H]

This wireless driver works for me on XP -

https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/NETWORK-CARD/INTEL/Intel-Centrino-Advanced-N-6235-PROSet-Wireless-Driver-Software-15-8-0-for-XP.shtml

This Bluetooth driver works too (using the XP download of course) -

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/drivers/essentials/intel-bluetooth/

HTH.
Cheers, Dave.

[gerwin]

To confuse things: "AR5B22" is the name of the card, "AR9462" is the name of the chipset on the card. 2.4 and 5 GHz support. 2-stream
802.11a/b/g/n and BT 4.0.

Picture: https://www.ebay.nl/itm/Atheros-AR5B22-AR926X-AR9462-Dual-Band-BT-4-0-Wireless-WiFi-MINI-PCI-E-Card-W023/302025876358

Plain driver for Windows XP x86, search for  "AR9462_xp3264-10.0.0.274-whql" and select "netathw.inf".

I cannot comment on bluetooth because I never use it for anything.

For Wifi they work fine in Windows XP, but I sometimes had trouble with the Asus Laptop Wifi on/off toggles, where they don't always obey.

[Sfor]

On 3/7/2021 at 1:36 PM, Dave-H said:

This wireless driver works for me on XP -

https://drivers.softpedia.com/get/NETWORK-CARD/INTEL/Intel-Centrino-Advanced-N-6235-PROSet-Wireless-Driver-Software-15-8-0-for-XP.shtml

This Bluetooth driver works too (using the XP download of course) -

https://www.techspot.com/downloads/drivers/essentials/intel-bluetooth/

HTH.
Cheers, Dave.

Everything seems to be fine with the driver, but I'm unable to detect any bluetooth device. I can detect it from another Asus X101CH with RTL8821AE and Windows 7. But every attempt at connecting failed. I have to find a driver for Windows 7 in order to test if the adapter is working correctly.

[Dave-H]

Is the Bluetooth device being displayed in Device Manager OK?
There should be an "Intel Centrino Wireless (Bluetooth Adapter)" entry under "Bluetooth Devices".
There should be a Bluetooth icon in the system tray and a "My Bluetooth" icon in "My Computer" too.

Edited March 8, 2021 by Dave-H
Addition

[Sfor]

On 3/8/2021 at 2:28 PM, Dave-H said:

Is the Bluetooth device being displayed in Device Manager OK?
There should be an "Intel Centrino Wireless (Bluetooth Adapter)" entry under "Bluetooth Devices".
There should be a Bluetooth icon in the system tray and a "My Bluetooth" icon in "My Computer" too.

Everything seems to be fine in the Device Manager. Bluetooth icons are present where they should be.

Since the Asus X101CH have just one antenna I had to connect it to the main connector. The auxilary antenna is not connected.

[Dave-H]

I added a second antenna to my netbook, which actually was designed for a full-sized laptop, so the wire was far too long!
It's marked as an "aux" antenna, but what the physical difference is between a "main" antenna and an "aux" antenna I have no idea, they look pretty identical to me.
I don't think that the main antenna is for wi-fi and the aux antenna is for bluetooth, AFAIK.
Both should work just with one antenna connected I would have thought, although probably with reduced transmit and receive power.
I'll do a bit more research on this.


 

[Dave-H]

Well I've had a quick look, and needless to say I found no definitive answer about dual antennas!
I found one reference which declared that the main is for 2.4GHz wi-fi, and the aux is for 5GHz wi-fi, but I don't actually think that's correct.
Most others said that using two antennas just gives better performance, and the module uses the one with the best signal.
It does seem that the card will work perfectly happily on wi-fi and Bluetooth with only one antenna connected, so I don't think that having only one antenna is causing your Bluetooth issue.

[verta]

On 1/26/2021 at 11:34 AM, Dave-H said:

I'm in the process of doing the same with my Asus X102B netbook, which had a rubbish AR5B125 wi-fi card in it, 2.4GHz only and no Bluetooth!
I've bought an Intel 6235ANHMW card, which I believe and hope is a suitable replacement.
It does have drivers for XP, but the later APP6P-700973 card which I first considered does not.

Just ordered a Intel 6235ANHMW  and grabbed the files from the link you provided,. a replacement for my intel 5100agn, which keeps dropping and horrible drivers support for Windows XP. I also ordered a low Bracket so it fits the laptops mini pcie slot.

[Dave-H]

I hope it works for you.
I've now changed my netbook, to a Lenovo IdeaPad, which already has a Bluetooth capable module fitted.
The 6235ANHMW would be better though, but unfortunately the BIOS will not allow it to work as it's not in Lenovo's BIOS 'whitelist'!