Airport Extreme Card for Mac Pro

Lister1

Folks,

You may remember me being on this forum looking for advise on a mac purchase before Christmas. I ordered a mac pro and despite having to order an ADC to DVI adaptor(107 euro!) at a later stage for it to fit the monitor I still have one major problem.

To reduce the price slightly(make sure the credit card wasn't rejected) the airport extreme card was ordered as a separate item and not in built. The sales person told me I would be able to slot this in with no problems myself. Inside however there doesn't seem to be a slot for it(only one for a normal airport card). I have been on to apple support and have been told that I will have to bring the machine to a service store as its a job that is no longer considered a diy job(the reason why there are no instructions to do it in the manual on how to do this). He also said I could probably find instructions outside the apple site on the web if I wanted to try and do it myself but I would void the warranty.

So my question... If a mac pro was purchased without the pre-fitted airport extreme card would they have sold me a machine that was not airport extreme ready?


I'll try to post picture later of the card and also the machine innards so you can see for yourselves.

K.O.Kiki

Well, the machine is "ready" in-so-far as it has drivers built-in for the AE card, so it should work as soon as it's installed.
From reading this page of the Anandtech review though, are you doubly sure it's not a simple slot-in operation?

*edit*Also saw this on the "Airport Extreme card" listed at the Apple Store:

This AirPort Extreme Card is not compatible with the Mac Pro or the Power Mac G5 Dual and Power Mac G5 Quad computers introduced in October 2005. To add an AirPort Extreme card to one of these systems, please contact an Apple Retail Store or other Authorized Apple Service Provider.

So that could be the problem -- you were sold a card you can't install, after all!

Lister1

Ok,

I've managed to get a few pictures.






Does the card look compatible with the mac pro? To me the pins look different(and also look different to the slot in the picture on the AnandTech site. Try enlarging the last picture on this site. Note the word "airport" rather the airport extreme on the motherboard?

http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2816&p=5

Lister1

Any one willing to open up their mac pro for me to take a look at the airport extreme card for me? Is it the same as picture I posted here?

ZENER

You bought the wrong card I'm afraid. I have the Dual G5 2GHz Power Mac G5 and it takes the card you've bought. The MacPro takes a different card that can only be installed by Apple it seems or at least only they have the cards.

As said above it does make a point of saying that the cards are not compatible with the MacPro here on the Apple Store page for the Airport Extreme Card - near the bottom.

This site shows how the card fits the MacPro.

You shouldn't have a problem selling the card, try adverts.ie.

ZEN

Lister1

You bought the wrong card I'm afraid. I have the Dual G5 2GHz Power Mac G5 and it takes the card you've bought. The MacPro takes a different card that can only be installed by Apple it seems or at least only they have the cards.

I wasn't decided on whether to try the install myself due to the warranty issue but thought something didn't match up when I opened the case. Will be onto Apple in the morning looking for a resolution(sold the wrong thing not bought the wrong thing!). Will probably end up having to transport the machine into the apple store in Dublin(will have to scab a lift as no wheels myself and these machines aint portable). Thanks for clearing this up for me Zener, your help was much appreciated.


Edit: Bought through their telephone sales team and not picked myself through the web. Bad mistake for their sales staff to make which is a pity as the chap i was onto was very helpful.