Replace wifi card Intel AC 9560 by Intel AX200 wifi 6 on a hp omen 17-an135nf ?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The problem you have with the  p6740fr PC is the BIOS has a whitelist that blocks the installation of any other model Wi-Fi card from working other than the one that came with your PC, and it must have the HP part number on it or it will not work.

Any HP desktop PC or notebook made in 2011 or earlier has such a BIOS whitelist.

Your only option to upgrade the internal Wi-Fi card would be to use a PCIe x1 Wi-Fi card adapter with external antennas.

You could install an AX210 adapter in the PCie x1 slot if you wanted to.

Your PC's motherboard should have 3 of those slots.

One of them should be available for use, I would assume.

[John_McClane]

Hi,

Yes, that's what I thought. I don't use Wi-Fi on this PC; it was just for testing purposes. And anyway, I don't have any PCIe ports available anymore. My graphics card takes up the first one, the second one has an Ethernet card for my virtualization, and the third port is used by my sound card.

Thanks Paul. Bye ! 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

I guess I assumed wrong regarding the PCIe x1 port availability.  

[John_McClane]

Hi Paul,

On my p6740fr, I ran the test again with the RTL8852BE WiFi card. I installed the latest WiFi driver, the card works, and I even have WiFi 6. I also installed an external antenna (recovered from the carcass of another old HP desktop computer) in addition to the existing internal antenna.
The only thing missing is the Bluetooth part, which isn't even detected by the system (no unknown devices).

I started using AI Copilot to help me, and this is what it told me... Many motherboards do not expose USB lines on the mini-PCIe slot (they are only used for Wi-Fi). In this case, Bluetooth will never be detected.

What do you think of this explanation ? Especially since the RTL8852BE works perfectly fine on the Wi-Fi side, and there are no other problems with the motherboard or other peripherals.

Thanks.

Alain

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Yes, if you are using the HMC Wi-Fi card slot in your p6740fr PC, it is very possible that older slot is not wired to support Bluetooth.

Some of the older motherboards only supported Wi-Fi from the slot.

[John_McClane]

Thanks Paul, that confirms what I suspected. My motherboard must date from 2010, so it is indeed very old in terms of technology.

See you soon on this forum for more questions.

Alain

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Alain.

I don't believe that the mini-PCIe slots in desktop PC's were wired for Bluetooth until the Intel 2nd generation motherboards were introduced to market.

I know on the notebook PCs with Intel 1st gen core and older processors, there was a separate Bluetooth module.

Cheers, 

Paul

[John_McClane]

Thanks Paul, I'll continue to use the RTL8852BE AC/AX wifi 6 card on my p6740fr. I don't need Bluetooth at the moment, otherwise I'll add a USB dongle.

Bye ! 

Alain

[John_McClane]

Hello,

By early November, I'll be able to test the AX3000HMW Wi-Fi 6 AX/Bluetooth 5.2 card based on the INTEL AX200 on my HP Pavilion 17e-131sf laptop (and also on my HP Pavilion p6740fr desktop computer even though Bluetooth will not be detected on it). According to reviews, it seems more stable than the Realtek RTL8852BE Wi-Fi 6/BT 5.2, and the drivers are apparently better supported.

I'll keep you informed.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Yes, you are probably right about the Intel card being better than the Realtek one.

In the meantime, since Realtek sends drivers to HP almost monthly in an effort to fix all the problems they have see if this RTL8852BE Wi-Fi helps any:

It is the latest one currently available

Version 6001.15.160.601

sp162860.exe