What 5Ghz NIC cards is my laptop compatible with?

[JMorgan87]

Hi,

I am having difficulty finding a NIC card that supports dual band for my laptop.

Its an AMD machine with an A8-4555M processor.

The laptop model is Pavilion 15-n278ea notebook.

The current NIC is a Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11 bgn 

Any suggestions would be very appreciated.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Before upgrading you would need to confirm that there are two antennas connected to the RTL8188EE 802.11 bgn wifi adapter.  You can only do that by opening up the notebook.

On some model series there is only one antenna connected to that model wifi card.

Any dual band card will need two antennas in order for it to work.

Here is the link to the service manual...

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04438537

[JMorgan87]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the reply.

It has two antennas connected to it as seen in the photo below. 

I want to upgrade it to a dual band NIC and was hoping someone could suggest a compatible NIC for it?

Thanks,

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Thanks for confirming.

Do you want an AC or dual band N card?

I know of one of each that should work just fine.

[JMorgan87]

I think I will look at an AC upgrade but if you can recommend one of both the that would be extremely helpful.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Sure.

Here they are...Both Broadcom which are the only dual band wifi cards that I know of that will work in your model series with the AMD processor and chipset...

Dual band AC:

Broadcom BCM4352 802.11ac 2x2 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 combo

HP Part # 724935-001

Dual band N:

Broadcom BCM943228HMB 802.11abgn 2×2 Wi-Fi Adapter, Broadcom Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter - HP Part # 730668-001

Either card is readily available on Amazon or eBay.

Do your search by the HP part number, not the model of the wifi adapter.

[JMorgan87]

Thanks for you help Paul, really appreciate it.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Please post back and let us know how your wireless card upgrade went.