Supported wlan-modules for HP Pavilion 15-eh1778ng

[Spillo]

Hello community!

I ordered a new HP Pavilion 15-eh1778ng direktly from the HP Store.. a special offer with a Rhyzen 7 5700u, 16GB of ram and a 1TB ssd. At the first look a good equipment, but there is one thing, i remembered to late: the installed wlan-module!

I had to look twice, as i remembered, that there was build in a Realtek RTL8821CE-M 1x1 wifi-card! A 2021 Notebook with a 2021 processor and wifi from the 80's? I still hope this is a misspelling.. and if not, i hope it will be the version with 2 antennas, so that i have the chance to exchange this item with an adequate model. But which wifi-cards are supported? I know, that there is working a whitelist in the background.. but there is no information in the manual. The notebook will arrive tomorrow and i will send it back without opening the package, if i did't get any usable informations bevore.

I hope there is anybody that can free me out of this terrible situation 😉

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

There will only be one antenna wire connected to the RTL8821CE.

That card is a dual band AC wifi card that has a maximum throughput of 433 MBPS on the 5.0 GHz wifi band.

If you are not willing to live with that, send it back.

[Spillo]

thanks a lot for your fast feedback!

Having a look on the web, then i can recognize, that there are different versions of the RTL8821CE listed.. one with one antenna and one with two.. having a look on the manual of my ordered notebook, i saw, that there is a RTL8821CE-M listed.. but i cant find this version anywhere. What is the different between the RTL8821CE and the RTL8821CE-M ?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

Chapter 3 of the service manual has the list of supported wifi cards.

Maintenance and Service Guide (hp.com)

The part number for the RTL8821CE card your notebook has is M09870-005 .

Doing a search of that part number on the internet...I could only find this one place that shows an illustration of the card, and it still only has one antenna terminal to connect to.

M09870-005 - Hewlett-packard (HP) - WLAN Realtek COCO ac 1x1 | Impact Computers

The RTL 8821CE-M must be a newer revision of the card because it has a different part number than the plain RTL8821CE.

The HP part number for the older RTL8821CE is L17365-005.

[Spillo]

YOU are very welcome 😉

This is the feedback i need.. the manual i got from the german webpage, doesn’t list this information.

“Integrated wireless options with single antenna (M.2/PCIe)“

Unbelievable, that this option is available for a 2021 notebook from the pavilion series with the equipment listed bevore.. so everything i will do tomorrow, when the notebook arrives, will be clear:

I send it back to HP.. in cause of an 1$ wifi-adapter and no usable options to change it 😞

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I agree 100%.

I was lucky.

My HP 15-ee047nr with the Ryzen 4500U processor came with the Intel AX200 wifi card that is listed in your notebook's manual.

HP should have installed AX200's in every notebook they made during the last 2 years.

Not to mention the Realtek cards are horrible. 

It would be bad enough to have to change the wifi card, but having to properly add a second antenna would be very difficult.

There are hundreds of complaints on this forum regarding the Realtek wifi cards disconnecting, disappearing from the device manager, etc.

[Spillo]

yes, i had a lot of problems with Realtek wifi-cards on work.. in some cases i could replace them with intel pendants an everything was fine..

Back to my case:

I had a second look on the manual you posted to me and i found an information on page 35:

there is noted, to protect an unused wifi-cable with a sleeve! So i ask me, if there are in all versions of the 15-eh1xxx two antenna cables will be installed.. independently of the installed wifi-adapter.

At the part of the supportet wifi-cards, it is said:

„Integrated wireless options with dual antennas
Realtek 802.11b/g/n/a/ac (2 × 2) MU-MIMO supported and Bluetooth® 5 Realtek 8852AE Wi-Fi® 6 Bluetooth 5.2 WLAN
Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 + Bluetooth 5 (non-vProTM) (802.11ax 2 × 2, MU-MIMO, supporting gigabit file transfer speeds)
Integrated wireless options with single antenna (M.2/PCIe)
Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11b/g/n/a/ac (1 × 1) MU-MIMO supported and Bluetooth 4.2 combo“

so i ask me, how i have to interpret this statement?

Are there allways two antennas installed and if i want to use both, i can use the option of a two-antenna card?

I think the bios-version will be the same for all versions and the white-list is written down in the bios file.

At work i configured this days a 15-eh1254ng, whith a Ryzen 5 5500u and a Realtek RTL8822 2x2 wifi-card and tried to replace it with an original intel 200AX non v-pro - the notebook booted, but it remembered only the bluetooth-part of the adapter, the wlan part was‘nt shown in the device-manager?

Installation of an intel 9560 non v-pro results in a black screen whithout any information.

The 15-eh1254ng is a 15-eh1xxx model and so the 200AX would have work?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I don't know of any HP notebooks that came with a RTL8821CE wifi card that has the spare antenna and connector in a plastic sleeve.

I don't know of anyone who has taken your notebook's model series apart that can confirm such a thing is true.

Most folks are satisfied with a 433 MBPS wifi card. 

Not too many people have more than 200 MBPS internet service downloads yet.

You have to pay extra to get faster download speeds.

It would be wonderful if HP finally did something like putting the spare antenna in, but you would have to take the notebook apart and check and if you did that, you probably wouldn't be allowed to return it.

[Spillo]

yes, this is the problem.. once opened and there is no option to send it back.

My girlfriend works at hospital..  perhaps she can take a x-ray scan for me 😉

It is not the internetspeed.. i need it for big file transfer (video editing) inside my network.

[Spillo]

at page 18 of the manual there is pictured a „wireless antenna kit (4)“

At the 15-ehxxx i had opend on work, i coud see, that both cables are sleeved to one, bevore they reach the wlan-module.

In the manual is no information, that there are models with one antenna and i ask me, why is there a picture of a unused conector with a sleeve?

Questions over questions.. i think, I’ll get the answer only by lookin inside.. should i do or not… aaaahrrrgh