Cannot make a Centrino 6205 adapter from a Lenovo laptop to work on Asus desktop

[DDimitrov]

I extracted a WLAN adapter (an Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 made for Lenovo) from my Lenovo T530 laptop and tried to put it in an Asus desktop (H87M-Plus or P77M-LE with Win7 64-bit). I used for this purpose a specialized PCI-e card (Fenvi 101), which provides a mini-PCI-e slot (to put my WLAN adapter in) + 2 external antennas. However, no matter what Centrino 6205 drivers I tried (either the latest drivers from Intel's site or latest drivers from Lenovo's support site), I got Code 10 device error in Windows' Device Manager. The device is recognized in Device Manager as "Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205" but an yellow exclamation mark is put on it and Windows says "This device cannot start. (Code 10)".

One guy in another thread said that Intel WLAN adapters made for Lenovo (adapters with an FRU number, like mine) cannot be used on other computers and that this is controlled within Intel's WLAN drivers. Is this the problem I am facing? Could anybody confirm that?

[idata]

Hello ddimitrov,

Thanks for posting. Intel does not recommend end users install the various Intel® Wireless Adapter; you should always contact the system manufacturer or its authorized representative to check which adapters are supported by your computer. We can't confirm if WLAN adapters that were originally installed on Lenovo* computers cannot be used on other systems. However, custom integration of wireless adapters may lead to installation errors, connection issues, software error messages, and in some cases it may even be illegal. For more information, please check the following advisories: - https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005846/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html?wapkw=5846 Why Doesn't My Laptop Recognize My New Intel® Wireless Adapter?- https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005687/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking.html?_ga=1.33281086.1415059657.1457358642 Regulatory Information Regarding Hardware Installation or Upgrade Best regards,Eugenio F.

[DDimitrov · Accepted solution]

I performed further investigation by trying the fore-mentioned device in Ubuntu. I can confirm that it worked flawlessly in Ubuntu.

Obviously, the problem is in Intel's Windows driver. It is shame that for so many years Intel has neither fixed this issue nor provided clear information about it (if they had made such a restriction intentionally).