HP Pavilion 17 e182-sr WiFi replacement. Ralink RTL3290

[dmitriy1morozov]

Hello! I am searching for a replacement for my 3-year old notebook and I want to know the best fit. My concern is that the current WiFi/Bluetooth module has some bottlenecks while connected both to WiFi and Bluetooth in Windows. E.g. listening to online streaming and passing it to Bluetooth speakers cause some lags sometimes. If I change to a wired connection no lags detected. I want the best option for my notebook which will be supported by motherboard, win10 and Linux Ubuntu. 

Another concern is that Ubuntu doesn't see the Bluetooth adapter at all. I found that the drivers for Ubuntu don't exist at all. So to conclude:

- I am searching for a MIMO 2x2 best wifi solution adapter for my HP Pavilion that will match motherboard, win10, Ubuntu

- It should support separate channels for WiFi and Bluetooth. So Bluetooth audio won't lag

- It should be compatible with Ubuntu (both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) and proprietary drivers should exist

Suggestion: I found a card Intel AC7260 (don't know the specific model index as there are plenty of them) which is quite popular and known. So I assume there should not be any problems with compatibility. 

Please advise. Thank you much!

[Huffer]

The Intel AC7260 card is the best you can get. However, Linux bluetooth compatibility is a problem. 

Generally you have to manually configure the driver and firmware and possibly even rebuild the kernel to get bluetooth.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/601276/ubuntu-14-10-intel-wireless-7260-bluetooth-not-working

http://www.zdnet.com/article/hands-on-using-bluetooth-on-linux/

[dmitriy1morozov]

That's rather bad news.

I already tried another ubuntu driver for Ralink 3290 which seems to enable my Bluetooth BUT Bluetooth somehow cannot communicate with devices correctly. First of all, it sends a correct token number and the device connected via Bluetooth receives it without any corruptions (I checked with my Xperia z1 phone). But somehow an error saying that incorrect ID received appears. There is no benefit from working Bluetooth chip which cannot communicate with devices correctly(.

Additionally, this custom driver didn't fix the stability issues for Wi-Fi connection. Sometimes Wi-Fi network interface is somehow disabled. I found a solution to enable it and set up a script which will forcibly enable it at a boot time (it is really a hot-fix, not a perm solution resolving the cause but at least it works). 

Another big concern now is that the driver somehow interfered with wired driver and no ethernet connection could be established at all. That is another branch to investigate now, lol)

So, to conclude. The chip is anyhow 1X1 not MIMO. In any case, I won't gain stable Bluetooth signal, say downloading a file at a full speed, when both devices are in use. So even after I set it working almost stable in Win10 environment, there will be hardware-related lags. The only easy and encompassing solution would be a new Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip. 

[dmitriy1morozov]

Hello. Sorry for one more reply. I just discovered that Intel 7260 is not compatible with HP notebooks. Here are couple sellers claiming that:

https://goo.gl/RbjaAy

https://goo.gl/z1FCXG

Also, let me know if there is any whitelist magic should be applied to my HP model. Thank you very much!

[Huffer]

This is not correct but is pretty complex. For pre-2013 HP laptops there is a whitelist in the BIOS which keeps the system from POSTing if a non-HP and nonapproved card is installed. So sellers offering wireless cards not branded by HP have to put that disclaimer. It is becoming less needed as fewer and fewer of the older laptops are out there. So it is NOT that the 7260 does not work with HPs. Certain older models can only take the HP version of the 7260.

[dmitriy1morozov]

Thank you very much. That's very optimistic! Recently I upgraded my BIOS to April's 2017 from this page:
https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-17-e000-notebook-pc-series/5375409

Since HP is getting rid of this ridiculous whitelisting feature, should I get a good fortune with new BIOS? I am half my way to AC7260. Great thanks for your valuable replies. This pushes me towards experimenting and improving my workstation.

[dmitriy1morozov]

T

Thank you very much. I will go forward upgrading my laptop. Once upgraded I will post if the card works fine.

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

That is a non-HP version of the card but your laptop is too new to be concerned about the whitelist. The wireless card should work fine. 

[dmitriy1morozov]

So after a week of using Intel 7260 I got a stable Bluetooth connection in Win10, Wifi works fine as well. Also, I got stable Wifi signal and software support for Ubuntu 16. The only problem remained is that Ubuntu has some latency in bluetooth signal broadcasting. Fortunately I can manage Bluetooth adapter settings and have access to it in Ubuntu, but still have to find a trick to make it LL (low latency) the same as Windows does. Thanks everyone for help. This thread may be closed.