I want to know if Intel 3160hmw wifi card will be compatible with my hp laptop or not.

[saransh_kumar]

Please guide me to upgrade my wifi card which is dead now, whenever i try to boot my laptop with that wifi card it freezes.

It was the one which came pre installed with my laptop (HP-15 r013tx) and i believe its make was Railink Rt-3290.

So i decided to remove it. After that i used USB wifi adapter for about 2 years.

Now i want to install a new internal wifi + bluetooth card. I have selected Intel 3160hmw wifi card, please tell me if it is compatible with my laptop or not.

If not then suggest a good wifi card.

Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

If there are two antenna wires connected to the Ralink wifi card, then yes the Intel AC 3160 card will work.

You cannot upgrade to a dual band N or AC card unless there are two antennas available to connect to it.

But why not install the Intel AC 7260 dual band wifi card, which is a better model.

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

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

It is readily available on Amazon or eBay.

If you can, before you install the replacement card, uninstall the ralink wifi and bluetooth drivers in the device manager and uninstall any ralink bluetooth program in the Programs menu in the control panel.

[saransh_kumar]

Thank you for the reply.

I was concerned about if there is any BIOS whitelist or something like I read a few articles that manufacturers do add a whitelist sometimes which does not let system boot if the wlan card is not in the whitelist .(which I later came to know that HP has removed that a long time back)

And i will try to find Intel AC 7260.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

HP removed the whitelist on some Intel 3rd gen processor notebooks, and all of the Intel 4th gen models and beyond.

The 7260 is a better card than the 3160, and I doubt the cost would be hardly any more.

It's the number of antenna wires that are the concern on your model series...gotta have two of them.

[saransh_kumar]

I checked and found that there is only one antenna wire present. Though railink card had two ports(one main and other aux).
I ordered a pair of the same from ebay. Hope they will work.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

They should as long as you route them properly through the display panel like how the other one is located.

Consult the service manual for how to route the antenna.  You should only need to add one.  Chapter 6, starting on page 82.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04409502