Presario R3000: Unsupported Network Device Found

My daugther has a Compaq Presario R3000 notebook. It came with an
integrated Broadcom based mini-pci wireless-G card. Because I use an
Atheros based router (DLink Di-624) I would prefer an Atheros card. The
speed is much higher when Atheros to Atheros rather than Broadcom to
Atheros. I have made such a change easily before with a Dell and Toshiba
laptop.

Compaq prevents you from doing such a change. After installing the new
mini-pci card, at system POST, I get the message: Unsupported Network
Device Found. Please remove and restart system. This is at POST - system
hasn;t even booted yet. Clearly its a check upfront in the BIOS and in all
liklihood if I could bypass the check, it would work fine.

I understand Compaq wouldn't want to take any support calls from me on
this - fair enough, I dont use their support anyway. Anyone know of a way
to bypass this check ?

(In the mean time, I went back to the original Broadcom wireless-G. )