HP Probook 450 G3 WLAN WIFI upgrade

[arugal]

I have HP Probook 450 G3 notebook

It has WLAN WIFI card of BROADCOM (Model: BCM943142YHN_2) installed in M.2 slot.

It only supports 802.11n which goes upto 30 to 40 Mbps only.

I want to upgrade this card to support higher download speed.

My notebook has only 1 WLAN antenna cable

Please suggest me a good WLAN WIFI card which can support upto 200 to 300 Mbps (or higher) or 802.11ac / 802.11ax, keeping in view the fact that my notebook has only 1 WLAN antenna cable.

[Jupitero]

Hello.

Your HP laptop has a whitelist of HP approved WLAN adapters, so that limits the available adapters to a handful. HP does not publish the whitelist, but all adapters on either the Maintenance and Service Guide or the Quickspecs document for your laptop model should be fully compatible. As you can see, there are a couple of Intel AC adapters, the AC 3165 1x1 and AC 8260 2x2. The latter one would be superior but the Quickspecs document only states its status as TBD - so may not work. (because of the whitelist)

That single antenna cable is also an unfortunate bottleneck, and a second antenna could help your current predicament as long as the Broadcom card has two antenna terminals. The official way to upgrade would be to replace the whole display assembly to one with two cables ($$$) - or just scavenge a wireless cable from some broken laptop and route it around the display bezel for optimal reception/transmission. Wi-Fi antenna cables are also sold separately and they cost next to nothing. Installation takes some time and the routing inside the display hinge and bezels can be a bit tricky.

Another option would be to just disable the internal wireless and buy a USB adapter.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

@arugal 

Your notebook does not have a BIOS whitelist that I am aware of.

Most HP notebooks made in 2014 or later do not have BIOS whitelists.

The only cards your notebook won't support are CNVi cards...those listed at the link below:

What Are the Intel® Integrated Connectivity (CNVi) and Companion...

A simple direct swap to a dual band card with Bluetooth without the need of adding a second antenna wire would be this one:

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

The card has a maximum throughput of 433 MBPS on the 5.0 GHz Wi-Fi band with an AC router and an excellent signal.

[arugal]

Thanks indeed for such a detailed reply

You have mentioned RTL88221CE WLAN card that can rectify my issue

I have searched this card on internet

This card has been giving driver installation errors

Youtube has several videos showing how to correctly install driver and use this card

Please confirm if this card has any issues with driver installation on 64 bit versions of win 10 or win 11 or win 7

Moreover

Please provide me with links of proper software / driver of this RTL8821CE WLAN card for win11/win10/win7

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The card should have no problem with W10/W11.

I have two HP 255 G7's with that Wi-Fi card and I have not had any issues with it on W10 or W11.

It's not the best Wi-Fi card in the world but unless you want to go through the work to add a second antenna so you can install a card like the Intel AX200 non-vPro, you have to settle for it.

Here are the latest Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers for the card:  Good for W10 and W11...

Realtek RTL8xxx Wireless LAN Drivers 

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp150501-151000/sp150994.exe

Realtek RTL8xxx Series Bluetooth Driver

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp150501-151000/sp150596.exe 

[arugal]

 

 is this the realtek wlan card you are referring to?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Yes, that's the one.

[arugal]

Ok

I will give it a try

Will update you accordingly about the outcome 

Thanks for your support

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome. 

Looking forward to reading the results of your notebook's wifi card upgrade project. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I moved your post as you requested to the discussion that was locked.

I did not lock the post. 

All forum discussions are automatically locked after a few months.

I recommend you mark your last reply in that discussion as the solution so it may help others that may have the same problem find the answer.

Cheers,

Paul