I recently managed to install a Mini-PCI Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG card in my laptop. There were a few points I figured I’d share however, with respect to how to do it. It requires steady hands, especially when connecting the antennas to the card.
To get at the Mini-PCI slot, you have to go under the keyboard, which means completely dismantling the laptop. There’s a very good guide on this site. Follow that guide up to step 7 — you probably can leave the DVD-ROM, RAM and HDD in place, but it’d be very prudent to ensure the power is disconnected and the battery is removed.
With the securing strip… the guide says to use something thin… you’ll find a flat-blade screwdriver probably won’t work unless it’s particularly fine on the tip. I found a box-cutter knife worked well. It’ll be a right mongrel to shift however, better to work from both ends towards the middle. (And a secret… it’s also a right bastard to get back in-place when you’re done too.)
The guide mentions to take off the cover to the mini-PCI slot… it hides under the keyboard under where the T key would be. This is where the wireless card goes. Don’t install it yet… you’ll find it easier to attach the antenna cables with the card removed.
The said antenna cables can be found above the keyboard (under where the securing strip was) near where the F8-F10 keys would be. They’ll be neatly bundled up under a piece of black tape. Remove this tape, then carefully unroll the cables. Beside the mini-PCI slot, there’s a small conduit where the cables are to run, with slots for the cables to be fed through — feed it through there. You’re now ready to attach the little plugs onto the sockets on the card.
With the card in one hand, position the connector of one antenna cable (doesn’t matter which) over the socket on the card, then hold it down with your finger. Then, using some needle-nose pliers, carefully clamp down on card & plug, to push it home. Repeat for the other antenna connector. This is what it looks like mid-installation (click to enlarge):
Now once both connectors are attached, you can insert the card into the mini-PCI slot. In my case, I found one of the cables was a little short — it’s worth noting that the wireless option for the TE2100 is normally an Atheros-based card, which probably has the sockets in different positions. To rectify this, I clipped a little plastic out of the conduit that runs beside the socket, so the other antenna cable could be fed through without getting pinched under the cover.
Now… just reverse the steps you followed to get the laptop open in the first place. When you boot up, your OS should automatically see the new card, and will either start using it immediately, or ask you for drivers. In my case, Gentoo Linux saw it straight away — and after recompiling a few modules, I soon had wireless up-and-going using the ipw2200 driver.
Windows 2000 sees it, but won’t talk to it for some reason, but as I use Linux 99% of the time, this doesn’t bother me — I’ll just have to use a Cardbus card under Winblows. For the record, the Intel IPW2915 drivers are installed (from Intel’s site), however the device comes up with a warning in Device Manager, asking me to start the troubleshooter … clicking properties yields a message about the device not being in the registry (or something to that effect, can’t be bothered rebooting to find out). If anyone knows how to fix that… please let me know.
But yeah… I’m happy to have modern wireless capabilities on my laptop — that works better under Linux than under Windows. (How’s that for role reversal? 
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