Chas045,

Are we dealing with a Desktop Computer or a Laptop? Some Laptops have Access Panels on the Bottom to change the Hard Drive, Memory or Sometimes WiFi Card. I've worked on a few HP Laptops and that doesn't always seem to be the Case. With some HP Models, you must remove the Keyboard and you gain access there. Just worked on a Dell Laptop that I had to remove the Keyboard to gain access to the hard drive.

If this is a Laptop you can purchase a WiFi/Bluetooth Card on Ebay (used) for a great price. I had to replace the WiFi/Bluetooth Cards on my New Acer Laptops once I had upgraded to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8. The Cards wouldn't work even with New Drivers (or Old Drivers). The Used Cards I purchased worked without a hitch and only cost around $2.50-$2.80 a piece (shipped)(BTW, I ordered a Different Model Number of WiFi/Bluetooth Card). I put one of the Cards I took from these New Acer Laptops and put it into my Old Acer Laptop with Windows 7, it worked just fine. I now have Bluetooth in my Old Acer Laptop and no longer needed to use a Dongle!

BTW, My Old Acer Laptop had a Panel to Remove on the bottom with Access to the Hard Drive, Memory and WiFi Card. My New Acer Laptops, I had to remove the whole bottom part of the laptop (17 Screws). Once the 17 screws were removed I had access to the Processor, Hard Drive, Memory, WiFi/Bluetooth, Battery and mSATA Slot.

Thanks guys. Yes, bugspop, it is a laptop (netbook). I finally found the manual and see that the service door for a card has a screw hidden by the battery. I also see that there are reasonably priced HP specific cards on ebay. Snidely; if I hadn't already mailed the questionable dongle, I would have tried moving everything around, but I didn't consider it partly because my speaker had worked cleanly with the i-pad.

Glad you found the Access Screw chas045.

I've never worked on a Netbook! I've worked on just about everything else (iPods, iPhones, iPads, Tablets Android/Windows, Laptops, , Desktops, Android/Windows Phones, etc...), just never a Netbook. I think I've worked on just about everything (Cars, Refrigerators, Washers, Dryers, Lawn Equipment, Plumbing, Electrical, Drywall, Roofing, Printers, TV's, etc... ). I just can't afford to pay someone else to work on my stuff!

Just an FYI. Replacing a WiFi Card isn't really that hard. Usually getting to it is the hardest part. Most of the time it's only one screw securing the WiFi Card to the motherboard! #1 Make sure you've Unplugged the Netbook and Removed or Disconnected the Battery before starting. Also make sure to Ground yourself when messing around inside the Netbook.

Bugspop: I think a netbook is just a laptop without a hard drive, so you've done those too. Yes, the card appears to be easily swapped thru the bottom door.

Cool, sound pretty easy chas045. BTW, some of those Netbooks had Hard Drives and others used Flash Drives. Guess it all depended upon how much space you needed, what OS you had, etc... Maybe it was the Older Netbooks that used the Hard Drives and the Newer ones that use the Flash Drive?

Sorry, I mis wrote. I meant that the net books didn't have a dvd read/write. I had to get an external. Yeah, it just has a regular hard drive.

My New Acer V5 573p-6896 Laptop (15.6") doesn't have a DVD/RW either. It's an Ultrathin Laptop and could possibly harbor a Slot Load DVD/RW, but Acer didn't feel the need. Now days everything is being loaded VIA Download or USB Flash Drives including the Operating Systems.

"but Acer didn't feel the need"

More likely it was to save costs to keep down the final cost of the model. Does it have high or low end components - microprocessor speed, hard drive size, how much RAM, etc. ? That will answer the question of why.

Snidely, It could be a cost savings, you just never know? I really didn't mean that statement in the context you took it to mean!

Operating System Windows 8
Processor Core i5-4200U, 1.6 GHz dual core with max turbo boost of 2.6 ghz
Memory 4 GB (Soldered in) with 1 free DIMM Slot that can take up to 8 GB support up to 12 GB
Hard Drive Capacity 500 GB 5400rpm
No Optical Drive Type
Screen 15.6" FULL HD 1920x1080p In-plane Switching (IPS) LED Backlit
Touchscreen Yes with 10 point Multitouch
Graphics Card Intel HD4400 integrated graphics (shared)
Network 802.11 a/b/g/n (supports 5 ghz), Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 4.0 +HS
Memory Card Reader Secure Digital (SD) Card
Webcam Yes
Microphone Yes
HDMI Yes
VGA Yes
Total Number of USB Ports 3 (2 USB 2, 1 USB 3)
Operating System Windows 8 64 Bit
Battery Lithium Polymer (Li-Polymer)
Battery Capacity 3560 mAh (the voltage and watt hours are not listed)
Maximum Battery Run Time 6.50 Hour
Maximum Power Supply Wattage 65 W
Dimensions Height (Front) 0.79", Height (Rear) 0.90", Width 15.0", Depth 10.1"
Weight (Approximate) 4.85 lb

1. All the Specs I've read show this Processor as a Dual Core, the Laptops themselves show up in the BIOS and in Windows as a Quad Core Processor.
2. The Specs also show it has a VGA Connection, these laptops don't.

3. It does have an mSATA Slot they didn't even mention in the Specifications anywhere I've looked, not even at the Acer Website.
4. I have upgraded these Laptop from 4gb to 12gb RAM. I've also upgraded them both with 256gb mSATA SSD Drives. Last but not least, they've been upgraded to Windows 10!