mini PCI-e 5V or 3.3V

[charliemarquez]

I have a miniPCI-e HSDPA modem wich works well using 3.3v. However, if I try to plug it into another motherboard I have it seems that the input voltage is 5V and the modem enters into a "protected mode".
Is there a way, using linux, to adjust the output voltage of a miniPCI-e slot? Or it is a BIOS issue?

 

[InvalidError]

Power supply on PC connectors and slots are usually hard-wired to the appropriate PSU supply rail. External interfaces like USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, etc. usually have current-limiting circuitry which may have programmable limits but not programmable voltages.

The Mini-PCI interface has power pins for both 3.3V and 5V so this should not be a problem.

One thing to keep in mind with wireless stuff: many WiFi and cellular modules are vendor/BIOS-locked to prevent people from transplanting wireless modules between devices (mainly wireless module and antenna combinations) that aren't FCC-approved to work together. If you plucked that HSDPA module from a prebuilt device or system, it may very well be locked to a subset of that vendor's products.