Network and M.2 SSD upgardes

[ashubisht]

Hi All,

I want to upgrade two parts of my HP Ptobook 440G3.

1. Network card: The current network card (RTL8723) has lot of issue connecting to my WiFi router (TP-Link 8980 series dual band). It sometimes completely fails to connect to WiFi or says its connected but no internet. In both cases, its unable to open any page including local/ router page. I have to try 5-6 times disconnecting and reconnecting it in order to work. Its a non-persistent issue as it does work sometimes. In any case, this controller does not support 5Ghz band, which I want to use. I am preferring card which can work on both the bands and with abgn mode.

2. Storage: The laptop does have M.2 SSD slot, which I want to use for better performance and increased storage. However, the manual only tells limited information and I am not able to find detailed product specification which can be used to determine compatible SSD. Moreover, the manual only says 128/256GB SSD, which seems to be pretty smaller storage for my usage. I am preferring for 1TB (preferred) or 512 GB (atleast) SSD.

As I read articles in internet, I found incompatible wireless card may stop bios load and there are many variants of m.2 SSD, which are incompatible among themselves and incompatible ones (even though they fit in slot) may stop bootup of system. Any help in providing models compatible with this laptop will be really helpful.

Thanks.

[RDAB_GT]

Hello!

I'm sorry to hear of your Wi-fi troubles.

As for storage, I recently added in an SSD to my Elitebook (different model, though). There should not be a problem adding an SSD bigger than that mentioned in your product manual. In my case, I added a 512 GB PCIe SSD when the product PDF only mentioned a max of 256 GB for M.2 PCIe (512 GB M.2 SATA is mentioned, however).

It looks like your Probook only supports M.2 SATA drives, though.

I suppose the only way to be absolutely sure is to buy one and install it yourself! And get one from a store that has a consumer-friendly return policy 😃

I'm sorry I cannot be more helpful, just thought I'd chime in and tell you of my own experience upgrading my Elitebook. 

[ashubisht · Accepted solution]

I didnt realise my post had a reply. The wifi issues were due to Realtek drivers compatibility with windows 10. I have tried latest driver, old driver and almost every version from windows 8 to latest and none of them reliably worked.

When I rollbacked to WIndows 8, it worked like a charm. I dont know how long will it take for HP or Realtek to release a stable functional driver. Anyhow, I was planning to upgrade controller card to tap 5Ghz frequency band.

The Intel AC 8260 works with this model given the fact you may need to add one additional antennae wire as HP probooks come with single antennae. Without it, either of Bluetooth or Wifi will work depending on which pin the antennae wire is connected.

For storage, I confirm M.2 2280 1TB SSD does works with this model. For 1TB SSD, I bought Western Digital Blue. Looking at spec and design, I believe the alternatives (Transcend EVO and Crucial MX300 1TB will also work with this model)

Thanks...

[RDAB_GT]

Hi again!

I'm glad you managed to solve, or at least narrow down the cause of your wifi problems.

Congrats on the SSD installation! Do you run dual storage now? And did you manage to make the SSD the bootable drive? As for my own experience, it was fairly simple - I just decided to reinstall Windows on my computer (it was fairly new, still, so it didn't have too many documents and programs on it at the time).

How do you find life with the SSD? To be honest, I don't feel it to be greatly faster - although synthetic benchmarks do show a great difference between the HDD and the SSD. Day to day, it doesn't like it's a great change. I'm still glad to have done the upgrade though!

Good luck going forward!

[ashubisht]

Hi RDAB_GT!

Well, for me theres a great deal of difference using the SSD, specially when using Windows 10. I already have a SATA SSD and this is a secondary SSD installed. As I prefer running virtual mahines, SSD gives a great performance.

Yes, for general computing, browsing, music and videos once OS is loaded, ther wont be much difference in regular HDD and SSD as there's not too much IO involved. Definitely, you wont be hearing any  bearing or motor sounds using SSD. One issue I faced with M.2 drives is the heating issue. I realised M.2 heats much more than a regular SSD because of its compactness. Sometimes, it does have burning effect as it reaches 80 degree C.

Coming to dual boot, I did clone SATA SSD (Samsung EVO 850) to M.2 SSD. That ofcourse doesnt bring boot entry to bootloader but I can select the OS by choosing which boot device to boot from by pressing Function keys in BIOS. As I prefer running in VM to avoid restarts and quick navigation (and other reasons), I didnt feel to dual boot the machine. But given the compatibility with M.2, I believe there should be no issue. For cloning I didnt use any of Samsung or WD utility as they are known to have issues on copying protected/boot/ hidden drives. You may use EASEUS/ AOEMI or any other utility specifically designed for this. Again SSD to SSD migration was pretty quick.

The probook doesnt support M.2 NVMe drive IMHO, which would have given blazingly fast speed than any of regular SSD. The drives mentioned earlier (WD, transcend 850 evo, crucial mx300) being compatible are B&M key SSD drives. Do enlighten me if your SSD is a different key SSD or tell me the model so we can know if it supports other key SSD.

[RDAB_GT]

Hello again! Thanks to the reply.

I don't use my laptop for anything strenuous really, not even for gaming. It is just your usual browsing, emailing, streaming machine for every day use. It is an Elitebook 745 G3 and I got a great deal for it off an online retailer. It was to replace an aging (7 year old!) Lenovo notebook.

If I'm being brutally honest with myself, I'd say that the SSD installation didn't change a lot in terms of boot up speed. I reckon because originally the computer was pretty 'clean' and fairly new. I want to say that from power on to login screen, it may have taken 12, 15 seconds max. WIth the SSD perhaps it goes there in 7-8. These are all ballpark figures I must say. In any case, I don't switch off my computer in general. I just let it hibernate/sleep when I'm away from my desk.

I am thoroughly happy with my purchase, to be frank. I was quite wary of buying HP, seeing as how they have a bad reputation with their consumer level products - I had been using Lenovo products for the longest time. I am quite impressed with this Elitebook so far. I upgraded the RAM myself to 16 GB and I actually realised later that it had an empty M.2 slot in it - even after opening/reopening the case many times (minor problems with the RAM installation) I had never noticed the empty slot.

The SSD I installed was a Samsung EVO 960 PCIe NVME 512 GB. I cannot remember what key it is, just that it wasn't the one with two 'empty' notches. The spec sheet of my notebook does imply that it can use M.2 PCIe drives, but the max capacity on the list was 256 GB. M.2 SATA drives were also listed and the max capacity listed on there was 512 GB. 

I was worried that there was a BIOS limitation of some sort that may have prevented me from using a 512 GB M.2 PCIe SSD. Unlikely, I know, but with these sort of things you just have to make sure before you commit to a purchase. In any case, I need not have worried - it worked out well.

I should have migrated the boot drive from the HDD to the SSD though- in the end I decided to reinstall Windows 10 instead. A fresh start, you might call it.

May I ask, do you use the HP Support Assistant program on your computer? 

[ashubisht]

Hi,

That means Elitebook does support PCIe NVMe M.2 ssd. I use the double cuts M.2 SSD, even though the slot in my laptop is for single cut only. I disnt want to take risk as all review website either says Probook may doesnt support NVMe or have no information. Specs also says nothing.

Yes, I do use HP Support assistant.

Regarding reputation, I believe its because of their pathetic customer support. I really had bad experience with HP customer support where they actually made a fraud. Its a pity when customers are more technically sound than the so called "backend team experts" and even greater pity when it comes from company like HP. Only problem was that at time I didnt have any proof and the issue is now more than a year old, otherwise I would have taken some sort of action. I suspect my account or this post be deleted in some near future.

[RDAB_GT]

You did the right thing by not risking it on the PCIe SSD. If it doesn't explicitly say so on the product PDF, then you cannot assume that it will work. 

I have a question about HP Support Assistant. What does it look like on your computer? I ask this because after I did my SSD upgrade and reinstallation of Windows, it looks like I have lost the ability to log in using my HP Support credentials. I made a post about this here 

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Software-and-How-To-Questions/No-longer-have-the-option-to-si...

but so far have received no replies.

I generally like to keep my computer free of manufacturer software, but in the case of HPSA I don't mind it as much, it is pretty useful to have one place where I can see the state of my computer and all the related information. Before my Windows 10 reinstallation HPSA was very personalised, showing my name and everything. It also managed to detect my connected HP LCD monitor - which was puzzling to me since it was only connected via a VGA cable (how does it even get that info?)

This doesn't affect the usability or performance of my machine, of course, but I am nonetheless a little dismayed that the software experience is now a little more generic. 

Any thoughts?

I try not to rely on customer support as much as possible - that's the best way to go about it! That's why I went IBM (Lenovo) all those years ago - I was convinced that their products have better build quality. This means less chance of failures/defects, and less hassle with support. Although my Thinkpad's HDD did fail within six months of purchase and getting a replacement was a bit of an ordeal ...!