HP Pavilion 17g161us WiFi Upgrade

[azzt]

I want to upgrade the WiFi card on my Pavilion 17g161us but I don't know how to find a compatible part. Can anyone help?

[banhien]

@azzt 

The series supports the following adapter

                   Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 802.11 ac 1x1 WiFi + BT 4.0 Combo Adapter

But you can also use

                  Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11 ac 2x2 WiFi + BT 4.0 HP Part # 710661-001

                  Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 802.11 ac 2x2 WiFi + BT 4.0 Combo Adapter (non vPRO) part # 84644-005

Regards.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @azzt 

All of the above mentioned wifi adapters require two wifi antenna cables be connected to the wifi card.

Most likely your notebook only has one antenna wire connected to the Broadcom card it comes with.

There is only one dual band wifi card where the wifi and blueooth work with one antenna cable and that is this one...

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

You can find this model on eBay, or Ali Express,

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=L17365-005&_sacat=0&_sop=15

The card will have the same 72 MBPS throughput as the Broadcom wifi card on the 2.4 GHz wifi band, but on the 5.0 GHz wifi band, it will have a max throughput of 433 MBPS when you have an AC router with an excellent wifi signal strength.

Below is the link to the service manual, where you can find the wifi card removal and replacement procedure.

c04655191 (hp.com)

[azzt]

Awesome, thanks!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[KingCornWallis]

You know, in spending a few hours actually learning about Wi-Fi and laptop Wi-Fi cards, I am concerned to see an HP Forum 'Expert' consistently provide the same wrong information on every question ever posted about laptop wifi upgrades.

Let me teach you a few things so hopefully I can stop this awful cycle:

1. The best mPCIe WiFi card, Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, is a particularly problematic card. Almost all AIO's and laptops with a physical network switch will cause problems with networks dropping out. This is not a BIOS problem, and is rarely a driver problem. The solution has been to tape 2 pins off on this card responsible for turning the WiFi card off, leaving the card in an always on state (desired) link 

2. If a computer has a whitelist, it will almost NEVER boot into Windows with the unsupported WiFi card installed. Outside of BIOS settings that specifically disable Wireless capability, we don't need to mention the BIOS anymore. If the card shows up in device manager but no networks appear (and it's not an AC 7260 listed above), we either need to update/roll back the driver or switch the antenna cables on the card link 

3. A Wifi card doesn't 'require' antennas to work, it requires them to get a signal. More specifically, on Intel cards with 2 coaxial connectors the MAIN or 1 connector is for WiFi AND BLUETOOTH. The AUX or 2 connector is strictly for WIFI. If you put in a card with two coaxial connector but only attach 1 antenna, you will still have WIFI AND BLUETOOTH, albeit the WiFi will be restricted to half of it's effective speed link 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

...and if you were so smart @KingCornWallis , you would have known that the mPCIe Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11 ac 2x2 WiFi + BT 4.0 HP Part # 710661-001, wouldn't even fit in the notebook the person has because it is a HMC form factor card and not M.2, which is needed here.

Also if you bothered to read any of the  posts on this forum regarding Intel AC M.2 cards, the wifi will work with one antenna wire, but the Bluetooth won't, or visa versa, depending on which antenna terminal on the M.2 card you connect the single cable to.

Solved: Upgrade from RTL8821CE wireless card to Intel 3168ngw, hp pa... - HP Support Community - 788...

Solved: Internal Wifi Adapter - Intel 9260NGW - Not working properly... - HP Support Community - 784...

The antenna wire is connected to the Intel AC wifi card's main antenna terminal, but no Bluetooth.

According to the Intel forum link you posted, the Wifi and Bluetooth should be working.

Please explain to me why the BT isn't working?

Naturally it is because there is no/very poor reception without the additional cable, and the BT reception is controlled by the Aux terminal, not the Main one.

We don't criticize folks on this forum.  Read the rules of participation.

I can say without a doubt, that I have helped hundreds of forum members upgrade their wifi cards.

How many have you helped?  None.  That was very easy to check.

Instead, you take an unsubstantiated, cheap shot at me, and then provide irrelevant information to boot regarding this particular upgrade. Not helpful.

It is my goal to help forum members do problem-free, direct swaps of wifi cards, not mask pins, add antenna wires etc., not provide the wrong form factor of the wifi card to install, or only have half the features of the card work.

So for someone who you claim is consistently wrong, I must be doing something right.

[azzt]

Would you be able to point me to the correct driver for the wifi card?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

For the Realtek card, these are the latest wifi and bluetooth drivers for it...

Wifi:  2024.0.10.220

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp111001-111500/sp111389.exe

Bluetooth:  1.8.1030.3010 

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp110001-110500/sp110200.exe

If you haven't ordered the Realtek wifi card yet, you may want to open up the notebook and confirm how many antenna wires there are.

If there are two antenna wires, you can upgrade to the Intel card listed in your notebook's service manual.

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 802.11 ac 2x2 WiFi + BT 4.0 Combo Adapter (non vPRO)   HP part # 784644-005

If you have ordered the Realtek card and there are two antenna wires, hook the Main antenna wire to the Realtek card and insulate the Auxiliary antenna cable's connector so it doesn't inadvertently make contact with any metal.