Can I upgrade the wifi card for HP 240 G4?

[leanh76]

Hello everyone in the community.

I have a 240 G4 and I intend to upgrade some things to make it run more stable. After upgrading the hard drive and ram, I also intend to upgrade the wifi card. But I have a problem that my HP will have a BIOS whitelist, which makes me not know which wifi card to upgrade so that my computer can recognize them. Also, because my BCM43142 wifi card is not running very well, I intend to replace it with a faster one.

I am thinking about whether I should switch to BCM94360CS2 or not, I also want to use hackintosh on my computer. But because HP has a BIOS whitelist, this makes my choice more difficult. Anyway, I got a wifi card for my laptop to make it run more stable.

So I hope everyone will give me advice and guidance, so that I can choose the right hardware.

Thanks.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There is only one model dual band Wi-Fi card that I know of that should work in your notebook:

Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11 ac 1x1 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 Combo Adapter (MU-MIMO supported) HP part # L17365-005.

The 14-acXXX model series is the HP consumer class notebook equivalent of the 240 G4.

They even use the same BIOS' files up to a point.

Solved: 5GHz WiFi Adapter upgrade - HP Support Community - 7845043

[Huffer]

Have you confirmed the existence of a whitelist? I don't believe your laptop does have one. A bigger issue you are likely to confront is that there may be just a single wifi antenna. Unless you add another, which is a major task to do, your upgrade options will be severely limited. 

The best wifi card offered from the factory was:

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 802.11 ac 1x1 WiFi + BT 4.0 Combo Adapter

That adapter is known to be incompatible with Mac OS.  So I think your first step is to open the laptop and see if you have one or two wifi antennae. If only one antenna the best card is  Realtek RTL8821CE 

Add-in driver modules are available for that card to run a Hackintosh:

https://olarila.com/topic/38468-kexts-for-realtek-8821ce-wireless-lan-80211ac-pci-e/

If you happen to have two antennae I am virtually certain you can use any wifi card of the correct M.2 format. 

Good luck

[leanh76]

That's right, because I also saw that my computer's antenna only had a shuttle, so I also ordered an antenna from the trading floor in my country. At first, I bought that antenna to replace my old laptop, but anyway, my old laptop is not used much so I will install it for my computer. And I can replace the antenna for my computer, is there much limitation? Because I am also a new user of HP computers, so I also have a few questions like that.

[Huffer]

As I said adding an antenna is no small task but once you have done so, as I also said, you can install any M.2 wifi card of the right size. Broadcom cards are best for Hackintosh like this:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313874448277?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1gzqXuvPIQNmqBr4-0foHQw...

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

@leanh76 

I don't understand why you would go through all the trouble to take the notebook apart and spend extra time and money to install a second antenna wire in order to install a Wi-Fi card that is no better than the one I posted (has the same throughput specs) and only needs the one antenna wire to work.

I have already provided proof that the RTL8821CE, though not listed in the manual will work.

Also, you cannot install any M.2 Wi-Fi card in your notebook.

Many folks have tried, and only one or two models not listed in the service manual will work-- the one I posted and the Intel 7265 AC.

Call it a quasi-whitelist.

Anyway, that's your decision.

[leanh76]

After I received your feedback, I would like to thank you both very much for guiding me to choose a better wifi card. Due to some difficult factors, I have not been able to choose a wifi card for myself, but you have given me some ideas, so I will choose my own way with your ideas.

So your guidance has helped me choose the right hardware for my laptop.

And thank you very much to you both. Paul_Tikkanen and Huffer 😊

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[Huffer]

No problem. Good luck