Crosshair VII (WiFi) Help removing rear I/O cover

[Jaime59]

Hello

I need to swap out my WiFi card and can't figure out how to remove the I/O plate so I can remove the shield box covering the M.2 socket where the WiFi card is.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[jeordiewhite]

First off. You are going about it entirely the wrong way. If you wanted access to that area, you remove the shroud before you remove the I/O plate(you remove screws on the back of the motherboard to release it). All those ports would be in your way and wouldn't give access and the shroud is easier to take off.

Secondly, don't waste your time. Your wifi chip is soldered to the motherboard.  It won't do you any good to access that area. 

If you are serious about upgrading your wifi, consider a pci-e card solution.

[Jaime59 · Accepted solution]

Bad advice dude, the wifi chip isn't soldered, it's an M.2 socket and I didn't think I needed to say the shroud had to be removed first as it's quite obvious, anyway the problem is solved. View the pics.

First get a small flathead screwdriver and pop off the clip at the top of the shield, don't bother with the other clip at the bottom, I couldn't get it off easily and besides there is more than enough slack to separate them with the handle of a small screwdriver.

Now unscrew the the two screws holding the wifi case to the board.

Then disassemble the wifi case and remove/install your wifi upgrade. The hardest part of the whole procedure was getting those ****** little wires clipped back on, especially with fat fingers lol.

Now just put everything back together and you're done.

I upgraded mine to an AX210NGW WIFI6E mostly for the Bluetooth 5.3 and it works perfectly.