Upgrading HP Pavilion Touchsmart 15-n022sa Wifi Card

[HarvsG]

I want to upgrade the Wifi Card from the currently disappointing Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter to the Intel 6230 Wireless N WiFi Bluetooth BT 3.0 Half Size PCI-E Card Dual Band 2.4/5.0 GHz 802.11a/b/g/n. I have heard much about the notrorious 'whitelist'. 

I have found some documentation: http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04438537 but none of the listed compatible cards have 5ghz, bluetooth and ubuntu support. 

Would this upgrade be possible?

SOLUTION:

The wifi worked and both antennas were present. The bluetooth, however, did not work until I did the following:

I followed the instructions on post# #50 here https://communities.intel.com/thread/31247?start=45&tstart=0 which involved taping pin 51 (the right most pin with the card with antenea ports face up ) and it worked a treat. Apparently this is also possible with software in the HP Connection Manager but apparently it is not supported on windows 10.

No driver installs were needed.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

HP removed the BIOS whitelists from their notebooks around 18-24 months ago, so the Intel 6230 card should work just fine.

What may be a bigger issue as that many notebooks with the Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter only have 1 antenna connected to the card, instead of the normal two.

I can't tell you which models do, and which ones don't, and the service manual will normally show pictures in the wireless card removal and replacement section of the card always having 2 antennas connected to it.

You would have to be willing and able to take the whole notebook apart including the display panel area, to install a second antenna (should one be required).

A dual band card won't work right with only one antenna connected to it.

[HarvsG]

I installed it, bothe antennea were already intsalled, it now works on 5ghz and 2.4, however, as of yet I cannot get the bluetooth to work.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Sorry that the bluetooth isn't working in Ubuntu.

Unfortunately, I don't know anything about other operating systems besides windows.

[HarvsG]

It is not working in windows 10 either

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I never tested my 6230 on W10.

Does the bluetooth radios icon show up in the device manager?

It probably doesn't work because there is no W10 bluetooth driver for the BT version 3.0 radio that card has onboard.

Maybe try the W8.1 driver...

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/23449/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-for-Bluetooth-technol...

I know the 6230 bluetooth worked on W7 in my 350 g1 notebook that did not list any intel cards as supported. 

I then upgraded to a 7260 in my HP 350 g1 and the bluetooth works fine on W7 and W10.

[HarvsG]

The driver did not work, but I followed the instructions on post# #50 here https://communities.intel.com/thread/31247?start=45&tstart=0 which involved taping pin 51 (the right most pin with the card with antenea ports face up ) and it worked a treat. Apparently this is also possible with software in the HP Connection Manager but apparently it is not supported on windows 10.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Interesting.

The connection manager software does not work on W8, 8.1 or W10.

[Ainars_LV]

I have a HP Pavilion G6 Windows 10 x64. Ralink Bluetooth can't be activated on some notebooks, so you need to activate it manually with a hardware "hack". Just get some Scotch Tape / Sellotape (in german "Tesafilm") and stick it on pin #51 (picture). Put the card back in the PCIe slot and have fun .
Info from here: https://communities.intel.com/thread/31247?start=45&tstart=0

Picture 1: http://www.bildites.lv/images/e3kzbaonefvvgk1hg9ax.png

My Picture: http://www.bildites.lv/images/mwaviigjph5puqoqing.jpg

[Badmoonrizn]

Try this. I worked for both my Envy DV7-7000 series notebooks.

I have a Samsung RC530 and a 7260.HMWWB. Bluetooth can't be activated on some notebooks, so you need to activate it manually with a hardware "hack". Just get some Scotch Tape / Sellotape (in german "Tesafilm") and stick it on pin #51 (picture). Put the card back in the PCIe slot and have fun .

I think this workaround works also for the 6235 and other Intel Wifi/Bluetooth cards..