Looking for a mPCIe WiFi 802.11ac card compatible with XP

I can't seem to find much of anything on this, all I can find are 802.11n cards or 802.11ac USB WiFi adapters.

Maybe I could use a USB adapter if it's small and can take an external antenna with a U.FL/IPX connector. MHF4/IPEX4/IPX4 would also be fine because I can buy U.FL adapters for it.

 

These will be harder to find as a lot of manufacturers also locked their branded cards to only their laptops. A USB one will be much, much better. Worse case, run wired to an 11ac access point used as a wireless bridge.

 

Are you sure you don't mean laptops locking out cards? I've never heard of a card not working in other laptops.

 

It would have been helpful if you provided us with make/model of your laptop so we can help you better. Samir is right, not all mPCIe WIFI cards will work with every laptop. I was looking for 802.11ac to replace my Lenovo's built-in 802.11n but was informed at Lenovo's forums that there isn't any compatible adapter that will work with my model so I went the USB route.

Note this adapter from NewEgg:

https://www.newegg.com/fenvi-mpe-ax...m_re=802_11ac pcie-_-9SIADXZD9J1260-_-Product

Read the last line in the description:

Note:Not support IBM/Thinkpad/lenovo/hp laptop

Register on your laptop vendor website's forum and post the exact model to find out if there are any compatible 802.11ac mPCIe adapters that work with XP. Even if they can suggest a replacement I doubt it will be XP compatible.

Here's the easy way.

Buy a ASUS USB AC53 dual band adapter.

https://www.asus.com/us/Networking-IoT-Servers/Adapters/All-series/USB-AC53-Nano/

Windows XP SP3 has the drivers built-in (plug-n-play), no drivers to download.





Cheaper than buying an mPCIe card and at least you know it will work with XP.

 

Wow, built-in drivers--nice! Nice Compaq! I think I have one like that too as the latch is similar in the front.

 

They're only saying this because those laptops by default have only a few authorized WiFi cards, which for HP laptops were removed in a later BIOS update, and for ThinkPads, can be removed with a custom BIOS. They don't want to be liable for a dumbass shoving a card into a laptop with a whitelist.