On Sat, 8/15/2026 2:16 AM, Mr. Chang Man-wai wrote:
On 8/12/2026 8:20 PM, Paul wrote:
The Wifi module is usually implemented as a
removable module. For well designed equipment,
ten minutes is sufficient time to unplug the
two antenna cables and remove the module from
its PCB connector.
In retrospect, before the arrival of wifi
laptops and notebooks, old ones could buy
separate wifi adapters or modules to use
wifi. I forgot the name of those slots.
It was not USB.
Now that USB ports are on every notebooks
and/or laptops, should wifi modules still
be embedded? Modern wifi USB dongles can
be very very small.
And you can lock USB dongles inside a
bay, like jet fighters' weapon bays. :)
So why can't everything other than
the motherboard in notebooks and laptops
be removable?
At one time, there were PCMCIA and Expresscard (two widths).
PCMCIA is the slower one of the two. That was a slot
in a laptop, where a module would slide inside.
The modern internal Wifi slot, has two interfaces.
It has USB2 (which is too slow). It has PCI Express lanes.
A Wifi adapter that has Bluetooth, the Bluetooth could
use the USB2 interface. Some Wifi chipsets are supposed
to coordinate the usage of one of the two antenna cables,
between the Wifi and Bluetooth, so they both don't
transmit at the same time. I've not been able to find
any evidence that it works that way.
*******
So why can't everything ... be removable?
That affects the ability to sell new laptops to people
when the old one is a bit slow. If all hardware could
be upgraded, there would be little incentive to buy
new cases, display panels, and so on. Your old TN panel
would be replaced with an IPS panel. The IPS panel
would be replaced by OLED. And so on.
On cheap devices, they solder the RAM down so you
cannot improve it (without a hot air station and
a lot of skill). On good quality PCBs, you can
change the chips three times, with a hot air station.
On cheap PCBs, the substrates fall apart when you
hit them with hot air (foils lift off), and it's a
lot easier to ruin the PCB while removing the old chip.
The CPUs in laptops and tablets, can be BGA (ball grid
array) and those are soldered down too.
Intel at one time, was even interested in soldering
CPUs to desktop motherboards, but user feedback helped
prevent that from happening. There are some devices
like that, sold to businesses, and maybe Pegasus makes
something like that. But the enthusiast motherboard
business, such a development would ruin the hobby.
Paul
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