MacFixIt – Troubleshooting Solution for the Macintosh
Odds and Ends: Tip for getting a cheap Belkin wireless card to work in older PowerBooks
Tip for getting a cheap Belking wireless card to work in older PowerBooks MacFixIt reader Martin HOlley has a tip for getting a relatively cheap wireless access card to work with older PowerBooks that do not support AirPort Extreme:
He writes:
“I don’t know if other people have had problems getting the Belkin F5D7010 wireless card to work with a mac, but thought I would pass this along. I have a 500mhz TiBook running 10.2.8, which does not work with the Airport Extreme card. Online I found that the Belkin F5D7010 PC Card is Mac compatable (and only US$19.99 right now at a national computer store, along with a US$9.99 belkin wireless router). The card came with no Mac drivers and no information for mac setup. Airport 3.04 and 3.1 would not recognize it.
“Belkin’s tech support and web site were no help with this issue. But the PowerBook saw the card as a RaLink Technology RT2500 (the real maker of the card) instead of a Belkin card. Went to their site (http://www.ralinktech.com) and, yes they have a Mac driver. Installed thatand now works like a charm. A few hours of frustration dealing with the card, but for an older powerbook a US$30 802.11g wireless network is hard to beat.”
10 replies on “MacFixIt – Troubleshooting Solution for the Macintosh”
I have a F5D7010 Version 4100. Belkin stated that it wouldn’t work with OS X at all, that only version 3xxx would. However, with AirPort 3.1.2 installed, it not only works like a native AirPort card, but also performs as well, if not better than one (a friend of mine at work’s iBook only gets a 67% signal according to the Yahoo AirPort widget, where my card gets 83% in a PowerBook G3 Wallstreet 250.) And yes, I agree – wireless G in an old PowerBook does indeed rock.
I must have some very new version, because the F5D7010 card I just bought at Best Buy, which on Best Buy’s product description says it works in Mac OS X (although not on the product box), does not recognize at all.
I found a website that tells you which third party wireless notebook cards work with Mac OS X. It listed this Belkin as a native contender. But mentioned that it had a broadcom chip.
Reading the previous post about someone having a Ralink chipset, that would work too.
Except my PowerBook recognizes the cardbus card as “Atheros communications” so I must have some fresh version, though there is no “v__” listed on the product box. It still is numbered F5D7010.
Any suggestions?
I just answered my own question. I have a version 5000. Very new. I read on some other sites that you need to have an older version, a version 2000.
The v3000 uses a Ralink set.
v4000 I don’t know.
I know my v5000 uses Atheros.
So, hope this helps others trying to use a Belkin F5D7010.
Can any help with a driver for a Mac G4 OS 10.2.8 to run the Belkin wireless card F5D7010 (version 5000)?
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I too purchased the Belkin F5D7010.
It came with a set of instructions saying that I could use AirPort software to get the thing going.
I’m using an older PowerBook G4 running 10.3.9 with the AirPort software as up to date as possible.
The instructions said make sure that no AirPort card was installed (there isn’t).
But because of this (according to the so called Help Pages) AirPort doesn’t appear in either Network Preference or Internet Connect and doesn’t appear on the menu bar.
So I followed the advice above.
I downloaded a driver from Belkin and the one from Ralink (they turned out to be both the same thing with a little bit of window dressing to tell them apart).
Neither work.
The card works well on my PC laptop.
But I’ve had no joy at all getting the thing to work on my PowerBook.
Which is annoying as I have two of the things.
Is there anyone out there who can help me out?
I’m about to loose patience.
The other half’s older PowerBook must have come with a card installed as it works brilliantly off AirPort.
To add insult to injury, now internet connect is showing with the wrong icon and when I click on it it bounces but will not open.
I’ve tried to restore it as a download but Apple doesn’t supply it.
I dread doing an entire OS restore, something goes wrong every time.
Does anyone know where I can get internet connect on it’s own from?
Purchased a Belkin F5D7010 v4000. I just installed STA_CardbusPCI-D1.0.4.0 UI-1.3.0.0_2006_11_23.dmg driver for the RT61 Wireless Card on my son’s Lombard running OS 10.4.11. Works great.
Try the orangeWare driver for Atheros based chipset in 10.3, 10.4, 10.5
I Purchased a Belkin F5D7010 v7000. How can it wordk with an Apple Powerbook 3G Mac OS 10.3.9?
Thanks for any reaction.