No Mobile Broadband card on HP ZBook 14u G5

[maves]

Hi everyone, I just bought a new HP ZBook 14u G5 Mobile Workstation.

According to the specs, it is equipped with a Mobile Broadband card.

The laptop has a SIM slot on the side, and I have a valid SIM card inserted. However, there is no trace of a Mobile Broadband card under device manager.

Steps attempted:

• Checked under Device Manager -> Network adapters, no Mobile Broadband hardware available. There are no other unidentified components either.
• Downloaded latest drivers from HP website and completed the setup, it made no difference.
• Tested different SIM
• Checked in the BIOS. I can see options to disable single hardware components (e.g. bluetooth card) but nothing for mobile broadband.

Are there different hardware versions, i.e. all zbook laptops have the SIM slot, but only specific models have the internal card?

Or could it be that the mobile card is defective?

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You've done every check possible to determine if there is a WWAN card installed, other than taking the notebook apart and seeing the empty compartment.

You are correct...all of the HP elitebook business notebook PC and zbook mobile workstation PC's have SIM card slots, and hardly any of them come with the optional WWAN card for the sim card to work.

I would say with 90% certainty that your particular mobile workstation does not have the optional WWAN card.

If you enter the product number of your PC in the box at the link below, it will give you a list of parts that came with that product number.

http://partsurfer.hp.com/search.aspx

I use the above as a last resort because some product numbers are 'configured to order' product numbers, and the parts list will contain every possible option.

But if the parts list does not show a WWAN card for your notebook's product number, then I am 100% sure it didn't come with a WWAN card.

The product number of your notebook can be found on the same label as the serial number.

Also if you notice on page 8 of the quicspecs link below, the wwan cards are listed as optional.

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c05830243.pdf

Wireless WAN - Mobile Broadband **

Iintel XMM 7360 LTE-Advanced Broadband Module (optional)

HP It4132, LTE/HSPA+ 4G Mobile Broadband Module (optional)

[maves]

Thanks for the detailed reply, Paul. Indeed, looking at partsurfer there is no installed wwan card, and the component cannot be added to the cart, so I assume it cannot even be ordered separately.

I'm quite disappointed at HP, I find it misleading to name the laptop "mobile workstation",  list the port in the specs (unless as you pointed out you dig into the detailed view), but in the end ship it without wwan card. Lesson learned for the next time, I guess 😞

Thanks again for the help!

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You can probably order either card separately, but before you try and do that, you would have to confirm that the antenna cables are present in the notebook where the card connects to.

In the good old days, HP used to include the antennas for things like wireless and WWAN cards, even if the notebook did not come standard with those features.

Of course nowadays, all notebooks come with wifi cards, but I am not sure HP still includes the WWAN antenna cables when a WWAN card is not part of the package.

In any event, here is the link to the service manual...It doesn't look that hard to take the notebook apart to get to where the WWAN card goes (chapter 5, starting on page 43) to check for the presence of the required antenna cables.

You will find both WWAN cards with their HP part numbers listed at the top of page 43.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c06189521

You can do a search by the part number and see if you can find one for sale on Amazon or eBay, or you can buy directly from HP.

I had to catch my breath when I saw the prices for those things on the HP parts store website.  Unfortunately, they are on back order.

https://parts.hp.com/hpparts/default.aspx

[maves]

> I had to catch my breath when I saw the prices for those things on the HP parts store website.  

Indeed, especially when compared to the prices of a USB 4G dongle or even a 4G portable wifi router 😞

Thanks again! 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime!