Mac Pro 3.1 and WiFi

So, I just bought an early 2008, 8-core (2.8 GhZ) Mac Pro 3.1 (1186). I also bought the Airport Extreme WiFi card to put into it. Unfortunately, I cannot for the life of me find the antennae that are to be connected to the card. I've watched a video and viewed pictures on numerous sites; I know what the antennae look like but I'm not convinced they're even physically present. So, my questions:

1. Will the WiFi card be able to do anything at all without the antennae, and

2. If I need to get antennae a la carte, where would you recommend looking?

Thanks in advance,

Matt (newbie)

Thw wires are there...you just need to keep looking for them. They should be in the upper left corner of the case. They may be bundled together & stuffed in a crack or crevice...or may have gotten placed or slipped behind the logic board.

- Nick

Thank you, Nick! I was thoroughly unable to find them so I bought another antenna board and took it to a shop to have them put it in. When it comes to removing things other than hard drives I don't really feel comfortable just yet. Hoping to get it back with WiFi signal soon!

Matt

They are there...they are part of the wiring for the computer. They sometimes have little black labels on them as well (if they haven't fallen off during the years).

Here's an article (with photos) how to do it. BELIEVE ME...the wires are there. You should be looking in the upper left corner of the Mac Pro case.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

They are there...they are part of the wiring for the computer. They sometimes have little black labels on them as well (if they haven't fallen off during the years).

Here's an article (with photos) how to do it. BELIEVE ME...the wires are there. You should be looking in the upper left corner of the Mac Pro case.

- Nick

Click to expand...

Thank you. The guy at the shop hasn't been able to find them yet either, or hadn't as of yesterday. Crazy that they'd be so tucked away. I'm in no big hurry, though - my goal is WiFi by Christmas.

On a semi-related note, though, my A1181 MacBook and A1186 Mac Pro run the same version of OSX (El Capitan). Can I just stick the hard drive of my laptop into the desktop, or is it more complicated than that?

Your 2008 Mac Pro will run - unmodified - will run up to El Capitan so it should work just fine. El Capitan will be the newest version you will be able to run. One of the nice things about OS X is you can move the hard drive to another apple machine and it will run off of it.

Lisa

Thank you, everyone. Unfortunately, as far as I know, the computer-shop guy has not yet found either the location of the antennae that are (or should be) in there or the location where the board should be installed containing said antennae. I'd really like to get the machine back - even at 9 years old it's the fastest and most powerful computer I've ever had and I want to, well, actually be able to use it!