Missing Drivers for HP Pavilion 15-ab206nu

[viktordenev]

As the title says I can't find drivers for this model, (15-ab206nu)

Windows can't find drivers for everything, and I don't want to use third party software or websites.

I understand that it's possible HP dropped support for this model entirely, they were not uploading many updates to begin with, but deleting them altogether instead of putting them into archive or something isn't very professional to say the least.

[BeemerBiker]

Your drivers can be found at this non-HP site but read the warning first

https://drivers.eu/Notebooks/HP/Pavilion%20-%2015-ab206no

WARNING: THE ARCHIVE SITES BELOW ARE NOT HP AND PROBABLY HAVE UNWANTED SOFTWARE THAT WILL DOWNLOAD IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL

The following two sites have software for older systems that might not be available at HP. The driverscollection site is recommended more than the .eu one. Do not download any "driver downloader" or "updater". Please examine the buttons to ensure they download the actual driver and not a driver helper. Do not click on any advertisements or any page that has the word "AD"


https://us.driverscollection.com

https://drivers.eu/Printers/HP

https://drivers.eu/PC/HP

Close any popup that has "AD" in it. Download only official HP files. For laptops and desktops, the download filename will start with the two letters SP and have the form
SP153214.exe -or-
SP96885.exe etc.

Printer download will have the name or model of the printer in the filename.


Are these sites safe? No, both sites have malware.
Malware is "Malicious" software. Generally speaking this is software that is not considered a virus or trojan. It performs unwanted functions such as downloading newer advertisements or reporting what the user is looking to buy and offering alternative suggestions. Typically free games have these apps. Note that some users consider this to be a feature.
Type MRT in the windows search bar both before and after downloading.

I am sorry that HP no longer maintains old drivers but everyone runs out of space and patience eventually.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

@viktordenev 

Yes, it is very frustrating that HP retires driver support for all consumer class PC's when they reach 10 years of age.

The pity of it all is every driver for every PC that HP ever made is still on the HP FTP site, but no one is allowed to have access to it anymore.

The driverscollection site's actual drivers are virus free.

I have used the site many times with no problems.

You just have to close out the ads and whatnot.

There are only two drivers you need for your actual model notebook, and those are the Nvidia and Intel switchable graphics drivers.

You can't use the drivers from the Intel and Nvidia websites or the switchable graphics won't work, I have been informed.

Most of the rest of the drivers can be obtained from HP business class notebooks which are not retired under the same policy and have the same hardware as your notebook.

There is a way to get to the HP drivers, but it is very tedious, and I am not going to provide the steps to do that because it would take way too long--especially since I don't find anything wrong with using drivers from some 3rd party websites.

'Any port in a storm,' as the saying goes.

These should be the official HP links to the Intel and Nvidia switchable graphics drivers for your notebook:

Intel:

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp71501-72000/sp71920.exe 

Nvidia:

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp71501-72000/sp71979.exe 

If you post the device descriptions and hardware IDs of the devices that need drivers, I will post the links to those drivers for you.

Use this guide for how to find the hardware ID's for a device:

How to Find Drivers for Unknown Devices in the Device Manager

[viktordenev]

Thanks for the answers, it truly is a bummer if the drivers are actually still available on the ftp, I think they could have added a warning like "your device will soon be 10y/o so backup your drivers before we hide them". I had the hp support assistant installed for years.

I checked the sites  @BeemerBiker gave but none of them seem to have drivers specifically for my device, or at least I'm not getting any results.

I was  looking for PCI Express drivers, because someone recommended that I update those as a fix for WHEA-Logger errors that were flooding my Event Viewer, the ID in the error is pointing at Mobile 6th/7th Generation Intel(R) Processor Family I/O PCI Express Root Port #6 - 9D15 .

But I suspect the errors might be caused by failing wireless card, since I also noticed ping spikes and packet loss every 10 seconds or so. That is a different topic though.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You need to install this driver for the PCI Express driver.

Intel Chipset Installation Utility and Driver

10.1.18243.8188

sp101370.exe

It is much newer than the one on the 3rd party driver sites.

What model Wi-Fi adapter does your notebook come with?

I'll recommend a possible replacement.

[viktordenev]

The first link returns 404, and I get no results for Pavilion 15.

[viktordenev]

Thanks, it installed successfully I think.

The wireless card is RTL8723BE

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You would have gotten some kind of error message if it didn't.

I believe the notebooks with the RTL8723BE only have one Wi-Fi antenna wire.

You can install this dual band AC card in its place if I am correct.

Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11 ac 1x1 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 Combo Adapter (MU-MIMO supported) HP part # L17365-005.

It should be pretty easy to find and also inexpensive.

If you want to open up the notebook and see if by chance, there are two antenna wires connected to the Realtek card, if there are let me know, because then you should be able to install a much better card.

Below is the link to the service manual:

HP Pavilion Notebook (Intel)Star WarsTM Special Edition Notebook Maintenance and Service Guide

If you have driver version 2024.0.4.208 installed, I believe that was the final driver release for the RTL8723BE Wi-Fi

adapter.

The driverscollection site has the drivers for the 15-ab206no too.

[viktordenev]

You are correct, it only has 1 antenna wire, although the card itself has a second slot.

Also I do have 2024.0.4.208 installed, good to know there's no updates.

I decided to remove the wireless adapter to see if I stop getting errors, so far so good, I will look around for RTL8821CE.

One last question, what could be the reason for not finding drivers on the driverscollection site? I thought it could be because you add an "o" at the end of the model name instead of "u" but I don't find drivers for 15-ab206no either, the search bar doesn't return results for anything. And would the drivers work fine considering its not the exact model?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

My guess is that these websites may only have a representative sample of notebooks in a model series.

In your specific case, the 15-ab206no has pretty much the same specs as yours (I think it might have an Intel 5th gen core processor being the only difference), so you can use the drivers and software from that model.

You 15-ab206nu notebook was probably not selected as one of those for use on these 3rd party websites.