Awesome machine with not so good wifi? Is 72Mbps normal for this Broadcom BCM43142 802.11 bgn thing?

[DaDutch]

This machine, HP ENVY 15-k238nd has quite the parts inside. Apparently it was an outgoing model so I got it cheap last november.

GTX vid card. Reasonably fast i5 5200 processor. 8Gb RAM. Full HD screen. Marvellous. Really. 

Until I connect to Wifi.

I was wondering why my kid was still complaining about lag in minecraft. I have a 100Mbps fiber connection. I have just installed two new expensive enterprise grade AC access points for fast WIFI. But it appears this HP beast will not get over 72Mbps to the AP. Speedtest.net shows an internet speed of 21Mbp.

My MacBook Pro does 856 Mbps, speedtest.net: 92 Mbps.

My EIGHT year old windows laptop with first generation Intel 4965AGN that is wheezing and huffing along in every other department still runs WIFI at a strong 300 Mbps, with the same speedtest numbers: 91 Mbps.

HP support has been very helpful looking over the thing and installing other drivers and even did a system reset (which wiped out my son's minecraft folders)  That didn't help. I think the card won't do more than that. 1x1 antenna? Why doesn't HP support acknowledge that from the start? Their technician worked for three hours with me. That's gotta cost more than a reasonable better network card?

Is there any possibility to install another of the miriad of cheap AC networkcards that are available? The manual only lists this Broadcom. Anyone? Is there another card that might work?On the net there are stories from years back about this card. How come HP still stuck this into it's less-cheap line of laptops with all other pretty respectable components??

[Sparkles1]

HI @DaDuthch,

Welcome to the HP Forum!

I hope you find it to be a very useful and informative resource for you. Here is a link to First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More , so you will have the most rewarding experience possible.

I grasp that you happy with all aspects of the notebook except the wireless.  You have installed  two enterprise- grade routers running on AC and this is the only device with an issue.  After contacting HP support, they were unable to resolve your difficulty and you are considering replacing the wireless card.

Here is a link to the HP ENVY 17 Notebook PC HP ENVY 15 Notebook PC HP ENVY m7 Notebook PC Maintenance and Service Guide. Please note chapter 3, page 14, item 5 for the recommended replacements.  Any other card may work but as it is untested would not be supported by HP and the outcome is unknown. 

Please post your results. 

If this post helps you to resolve the issue, please pay it forward by clicking "Accept as Solution", to the right of the Thumbs up icon.  You can click the thumbs up icon to show gratitude!  🙂 

Cheers

[DaDutch]

Ah! Thanks for that! I was looking at page 55! The HP tech directed me there. I'm not sure if he also pointed out page 14, the chat window was kinda small and sometimes I read too fast. Page 55 lists only the broadcom and a realtek. I did try HP Partsurfer, but the model number of this laptop turns up nothing. Maybe because it is European.

Sorry about my frustrated first post. I was kinda... Frustrated. I read about HP whitelisting wlan cards in the bios and thought that would block any other from functioning. Which flabbergasted me that HP would block anything but such underperforming cards.
There's even people making diy bios to bypass the whitelisting. Definitely not going that way. I did bios flashing on my old laptop, it scared the s#eez out of me. And those were factory bios versions, not diy.

We have two more HP laptops, an older Probook with the same problem, also a broadcom with a similar number and a reasonably recent Pavilion, all were complaining about bad wifi, which led me to getting the new access points. It improved connection on everything but the HPs. Don't know what is in the pavilion.

Too bad the 7260 is for the 17" only. Strangely enough the specs above list 2x2 antennae as possible without mentioning model restrictions, but none on the list are 2x2 except the 7260 which does have a model restriction. I'm still considering it. Reports on those cards are sketchy too. Stuff about pingspikes and dropouts. People seem very positive about Killer cards? Strange name for a company.

As for my Q in the title. Does this this card not do anything faster than 72 Mbps? Is it because of the 1x1 antenna? Should I avoid those to get an improvement?

[Sparkles1]

Hi @DaDutch,

 I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post serial numbers and case details. If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works  please review this link.  First Time Here? Learn How to Post and More

[DaDutch]

Didn't mean to stir up a storm.

Well, maybe a little. 😉

So, is 72mbps a normal wifi speed for an N-type 1x1 antenna card? should I avoid those and go for 2x2? 

I'm surprised this is not common knowledge. I never noticed because my N-Router was at the other side of the house and my other laptops weren't that much faster. I'm also not playing games on mine. My macbook even lost connection regularly. That router needed to be reset regularly too, because all the wifi quit. Connection remained, wired to internet remained, just wifi to Internet stopped. All in all I thought the problem was my cheap old wifi router. it didn't occur to me that it could be the way newer laptops that were (also) the problem. I figured them being that much newer than my old laptop they'd at least be equal if not better.

But now with the new access points the complaints about wifi remained and the difference between my 8 year old laptop (300 to the network and 91 speedtest) and the pretty new HP (72 net and 21 speedtest) is so obvious it's weird nobody else would have noticed... 

Anyways. It doesn't matter much. Bottom line is I just want the kids to stop bugging me about lag in their games because of wifi. For what I do my stuff is fast enough.

[DaDutch]

Well, some more searching turned this up:

https://www.reddit.com/r/networking/comments/mgkdz/1x1_2x2_3x3_72mbps_150mbps_300mbps_450mbps_can/

Apparently the 1x1 N-card is topping off at 72Mbps and that's normal. Apparently my old laptop has a 2x2 card. I think it has three antennae connected.

However, my kids are still complaining about lag. Not even that heavy games. I think I'll see what AC card may fit. They're only some 15 to 25 Euro's so that's a small investment.  I don't mind that, even though I still think HP should have put a more fitting one into this machine. The Killer card I mentioned earlier is a Qualcom Atheros model that doesn't seem to be sold separately in The Netherlands. 

[DaDutch · Accepted solution]

Resolution: I bought an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 card. Not a specific HP card, just an Intel AC-7260. Switched it out with no problems and Networking is now blazingly fast. Problem solved.

I hope in future HP will stop saving dimes on an 800 Euro laptop and outfit it with a correspondingly good networking card.