OMEN 15t-dh000 CTO, AX201NGW question.

[BeastModeBMW]

In an effort to upgrade my device's WiFi, I came upon an AX201NGW WiFi-6 card and decided to install it as I read it was compatible. Well after I installed it, my laptop refused to power on, and the power button would light up red for about 3-5 seconds, and then it would just turn off. After I tried many times to get it to boot, I swapped the previous WiFi card back in, which was my RTL8822BE crappy one, and low and behold the laptop started right up. It did boot with a CMOS 502 error and something about BIOS, but the screen quickly went away.

Question: Is this AX201NGW card not compatible with my specific laptop, and the cause for my funky situation of not booting up? 

Thanks!

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You can only install a CNVIo card like the AX201 if your notebook originally came with one.

If you want to upgrade to an AX Wi-Fi card, this one should work for your notebook:

Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 ax 2×2 + Bluetooth 5.0 MU-MIMO M.2 2230 non-vPro   HP part # L35282-005

You can find plenty of them for sale on eBay.  Search by the HP part number, not the model of the Wi-Fi card.

l35282-005: Search Result | eBay

[BeastModeBMW]

Thank you very much for the quick and helpful reply. I suppose the compatibility chart I read was in regards to the newer and/or possibly older HP Omen 15" laptops. I'll go ahead and give this next one a shot! 

Appreciate your help! 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

It is a design thing more than an age thing.

A wireless card such as the AX201 is a completely different type of card than the RTL8822CE.

The RTL8822CE card can work in just about any notebook that has a M.2 Wi-Fi slot and two wireless antenna wires.

It is a standalone Wi-Fi card.

The AX201 is a CNVio2 card, which is a card that relies on the PC's processor/motherboard in order to work. 

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

It is not a standalone card, which is why it didn't work in your notebook, whereas the RTL8822CE does, as should the AX200, which is also a standalone card.

The thing I don't understand about this, is that I don't see any difference in the motherboards or processors used in the notebooks that come with an Intel AX201 card and those that come with a RTL8822CE.

Suffice it to say, an Intel CNVio card will not work in any notebook that it didn't come with originally.

In other words, you can only replace an AX201 card with another one, or maybe the AX211 as shown in the Intel document I posted.

On the flip side, you can most likely replace the AX201 with an AX200 or a RTL8822CE (not that anyone would do the latter).