Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 and Dell Inspiron 640M/E1405

[ABCarr]

I'm looking to put an Intel 5300 in my Dell 640M. Certain eBay vendors state that their particular 5300 will only work in HP, IBM or Lenovo laptops. Is there any sort of BIOS locking in effect, or should any 5300 work in the 640M?

 

[Aluminum]

Any "generic" 5300 should work in dells. A lot of generic cards sold happen to be dell parts anyways, with a separate dell p/n as well.

The HP/Lenono parts are not interchangeable in my experience: Those cards require the branded laptop bios and its a two way street, the laptop bios requires the hardware id to be in its whitelist.

Its usually not a concern, the truly generic parts seem to be cheaper and more available with only a few exceptions.