Do-It-Yourself AirPort Extreme Card Install in Power Mac G5 Quad--Not!

Surprise, surprise. There is another change in the Power Mac G5 Quad from its predecessors, i.e. in addition to the red glow from the front grille on startup, the chime sounding through the built-in speaker even with headphones attached to the front jack and the change from the T-type AirPort antenna to a strip--all good ideas so far. We found out about the additional change the hard way when we went to install our AirPort Extreme card. It is not possible, at least not now, for a user to install one!

Previous Power Mac G5s have a slot under the optical drive and a nearby antenna wire with connector for installing an AirPort Extreme card as shown in this Apple instruction sheet. One just slides the card into the slot and snaps on the antenna wire. Our new Power Mac G5 Quad has the slot but the antenna wires are bare. The ends of the wires are tinned but there is no connector to snap into the AirPort Extreme card's antenna port.

We don't think this is a manufacturing slip-up in our Quad because its manual is missing the usual passages describing installation of the card. It merely notes that one may be "...installed by an Apple Authorized Service Provider or at an Apple Store retail location." In fact, Apple's Discussion Board (see here) mentions that there may be an entirely different AirPort Extreme card (Part No. MA252) for all the dual-core Power Mac G5s but none are available.

AirPort Extreme ready it is not, at least not yet. Ah, the virtue of patience...and the depth of one's pocket. [Bill Fox]