Upgrade Wifi card

[Poetroo]

Thank you , your straight talk is fast resolving my problem .

What I am begining to understand , is that a USB Wifi adapter will compensate for dual band regardless of how many internal Wifi antennas there are ?

And that providing the USB Wifi adapter doesn't protrude from the body of the laptop in an unseeming unworkable imporacticle manner , but rather fits fairly flush and / or sturdy , and is workably practicle ,
Then I should negate all else :
Disable the internal Wifi ,
And go with the USB setup ?

Is that what you would recommend ?

[Huffer]

Yes the USB dongles only protrude a little bit and have their own built in antenna. The performace is close to what you would get with an internal 802.11ac card and light years better than what you have. If it were mine I would open it and count the antennae but I am about 85% certain you have a single antenna. So yes, I recommend the usb thing.

If this is "the Answer" please click "Accept as Solution" to help others find it.

[Poetroo]

Thank you very much ,
I checked your links and I am thrilled at how small the USB Wifi dongles are .
I will most likely follow your advice and have the machine opened first , before taking the USB option .

One final request / question please :

Can you please explain whether or not I would require drivers if a card replacement is possible , or is it plug and play ?

And likewise would I require drivers if I take the USB option , or is it plug and play ?

You are really sharp !
Thank you .

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

USB dongles generally come with a little mini-driver disk but they usually use a common chipset like Broadcom or Atheros for which Windows will likely just provide the driver and it will be plug and play 

[Poetroo]

The Facebook HP reply below concedes that you are 100% Correct : About the Wifi card as shown on Page 51 in the manual as being replaceable :
But please assist me in explaining their comments regarding ; ' Internal Adapters " In relation to single or twin or dual antenna/s , " ' within their reply as indicated below , thank you . 

HP Facebook's reply :
That appears to be incorrect/misworded information provided by my colleague. The adapters are changeable, but not considered user replaceable as they are not easily accessed. You will also see on that page that all of the HP certified internal adapters are 802.11b/g/n single band adapters. These are the only internal adapters HP can verify work with your product, which are not the type of adapters you are looking for so the point is rather redundant.

[Huffer]

With all due respect whoever these HP Facebook people are have likely never turned a screwdriver on a laptop. Their knowledge goes no further than the paper they can look at. Your laptop will "work" with any correct form factor wireless card. See the picture in my early post above. What HP has "certified" does not concern me too much. However, as I said to kick this thing off, if you have only one antenna, you can put in an 802.11ac card and the system will recognize it but you will not get any wireless reception at all. 802.11ac absolutely needs 2 antennae. I think your laptop likely only has one but to be 100% sure you have to look. It is a rather involved disassembly process. 

[Poetroo]

Yes  , that goes without saying : That you are the real deal !

My actual question is ,
Does two adapters equate to two antennas ?

[Huffer]

Now you have completely lost me. What 2 adapters?

[Poetroo]

Yes likewise :
We are both lost on this ,
That's the wording that HP Facebook used .

But I fast deduced because of their wording and general juxtaposition within their understanding ( That was not practicaly based as yours is ) , that they were exactly as you said , for lack of a better term , reading off the paper , meaning they were innapropriately theoretically affixed within a situation that is filled with , and requires a practicle understanding of variables ,

And that their answers as you said , " Are not based on having done any practicale work , related to finding solutions to variables . "

So although the above is rather long winded , I am considering case in point , that in their naming of or use of the word adapters , that they might actually have meant to say , " Terminals [ REFER PAGE ( 51 & Page ) 52 in The Manual please ] "  ;
And I am reasoning that they are refering to the two wires that attach to the Wifi card .

So my question , providing that that is the case , should read :
Does two wires ( Terminals ) attatched on or to the Wifi Card mean two antennas or not necessarily ?

And can there be two terminals on the Wifi card yet only one antenna in the notebook ?

And can there be two Terminals on the Wifi card but the terminals themselves may only be compatible for and only support a single Wifi band width , meaning b/g/n compatible only , etc.

So you can see how a whole series of questions can follow around this issue .

And that's why I ask that you please expand on this for me .

Thank you .

[Huffer]

Yes I can say from experience. All cards have two terminals (nipples). On many HP models there is one antenna, leaving a terminal (nipple) with no antenna attached. This is very common in the lower priced units. HP does it to save money in construction of the laptops. The budget cards like the Realtek RTL 8188ee are so bad even with 2 antennae that they are not much worse with one. Anything decent needs 2 antennae. 

We are not both lost. I know exactly where I am. And I am starting to think maybe you do, too.