HP Omen 30L Wifi Antenna and RGB Controller

[Axis9102]

I am in the process of upgrading and modifying my HP Omen 30L that was purchased in 2020. The original parts include a Moriah 3 motherboard, Ryzen 7 3700x, GeForce 2060 Super GPU, 16 GB Hyper X Ram, 256G WD Black M2 SSD, 1TB Toshiba HDD, and a 500W Bronze-rated PSU.

My question today:

1. I noticed the wife card has two cables that lead to the front panel and eventually terminates into two metal flat plates that can be unscrewed. Are those the antennae?

2. The motherboard has a header called LIGHT_BAR and it is connected to the separate RBG controller. I think this is the only header that sends all lighting sync instructions to the controller and from that point onward the instructions are distributed to all the terminal RGB lights. Is that understanding correct? Unlike the popular aftermarket motherboards that come with JRGB and JRAINBOW headers, the LIGHT_BAR header on the Moriah 3 is the only RGB-related header, is that understanding also correct?

Thank you!

[Bill_To · Accepted solution]

Greetings @Axis9102 

Welcome back to the Forum.

1. Yes.

2. Yes again.

What upgrade are you doing? Sounds like,.. maybe a new PC case.

You might find this YouTube video interesting if you are doing a case swap.

Regards

[Axis9102]

Thank you Bill.

Hi, it's good to be back. You might find this strange, but I am replacing everything inside the case. I might as well build a new PC from scratch, but I love the Omen case.

I have seen that video, but I'm not sure if DanKam has addressed the wifi card and RGB controller issue.

New question: there is another header located above the Power + - header, called LED + -. It looked like a front panel cable but it actually runs to the RGB controller, I think? Anyways, it is two pin. What does LED + - do?

Thank you,

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Axis9102 

My pleasure.

You're probably better off doing a new case when replacing the MB.

It looks like you want to use the HP case while doing a retail MB upgrade. I was out in left field on this one.

You're going to lose some functionality when doing this. I guessing the WIFI antenna may be unusable unless you get a MB which supports a M.2 WIFI card. Maybe use a HP M.2 WIFI card having the antenna connectors on the card.

I have integrated WIFI MBs. I don't mess around with M.2 WIFI stuff. So I don't know what options are available.

I would say the proprietary HP RGB is probably cooked.

Two pin MB headers generally do the front panel power button or front panel LEDs.

I have no idea what the two pin MB header on your HP MB does if it connects to the daughterboard RGB controller. This would seem to be HP proprietary stuff.

Regards

[Axis9102]

Bill,

The last time we chatted, I planned to just upgrade the GPU to the dual-fan RTX 4070.

But the more I think about it, the more I want to replace all the parts. So, I decided to go with an AM5 board with R7 9700x, DDR5 RAM, and 4070 Super. 

So, here we are, hehehe.

1. My new motherboard is an MSI B650m and it comes with a built-in wifi with antennae coming out from the I/O shield, just like yours. So, I think what I'll do is remove the existing HP wifi card and the old antenna altogether and store them elsewhere.

2. I will keep the existing HP proprietary RGB control module. Where it normally connects to the LIGHT_BAR header on the Moriah 3 board, apparently I can connect to any 9-pin USB header on the new motherboard. Next, I can install OpenRGB which will recognize this module, according to other users. In theory, the top-mounted LED bar, the ring fan at the front, and the Omen diamond logo light should continue to function.

I found this information on YouTube that was from 2 years ago - it seems back then there were many Omen users opting to upgrade.

I'll let you know how my project goes.

Thank you!

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Axis9102 

My pleasure.

That sounds like a good plan.

I just got a Asus dual fan 4070. I really like it

The 4070 Super should be, well,.. SUPER!

Let the Forum know how the HP RGB stuff works out.

I have a MSI B550. I don't use the MSI Center software. You're better of using Open RGB.

I have disabled the MSI download function in the BIOS.

Make sure you do the AMD Sinkclose BIOS patch if your new MB's BIOS doesn't have this.

Regards