Problem with Wireless 5100 abgn on HP Pavilion DV5 Entertainment PC (Windows 10)

[spotify95]

Hello,

I recently purchased a HP Pavilion DV5 Entertainment PC and have installed Windows 10 (as it did not come with a hard drive or operating system installed). I understand that this may not be the best OS for this laptop, however, Windows 7 is out of support, so I wanted Windows 10 as it is more up to date.

Most of the drivers installed without any problem, however, I am having issues with the wireless and networking.

The Gigabit Ethernet port works without any issue, and USB wireless devices work without any issue.

However, the in built Wireless 5100 abgn does not work correctly.

Windows 10 has installed a driver for it automatically however the orange light on the Wi-Fi button does not switch color and the PC tells me that Wi-Fi is switched off (with no way of turning it back on). So I may need a specific HP driver for the Wi-Fi.

I looked on the HP website and there are no drivers available.

The Hardware ID is: VEN_8086&DEV_4237, the laptop is HP Pavilion DV5-1012EA and operating system is Windows 10 Home.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I have read that a lot of folks have issues with that model wifi adapter and W10.

The only suggestion I can offer would be to try these various W7 drivers because those were the latest ones released for that model wifi adapter...

13.4

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp51001-51500/sp51123.exe 

13.0

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp46501-47000/sp46817.exe 

[spotify95]

Hello, thank you for your prompt reply.

I have tried installing both of those drivers, under normal mode and Windows 7 compatibility mode, and whilst they install, they do not seem to fix the issue - orange light stays orange and wi-fi still says switched off with no way of turning it on.

Are there any button drivers I need for the wireless button? Or anything else? 46817 says it is for the Intel 3945 and 4965 wireless links/network connections, whereas 51123 is wireless enterprise software? The DV5 is a multimedia PC and not an enterprise machine? Neither install properly.

I do have another unknown device but research suggests this is for a hard drive utility (not required) and not wireless.

I have updated to the latest build, 21H2, and no drivers were found except the default ones, which do not work on the DV5!

If the 5100 really hates Windows 10, is there an alternative wireless card that will work with the DV5? I have a few N7260s lying around which can be used, but does this laptop have a whitefish which will refuse a different wireless card?

Regards

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Your notebook has a whitelist which prevents the installation of any other wifi adapter other than the one currently installed.

The drivers I gave you should have installed.

You may have to manually install them by browsing to the setup information file from the device...let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer>Have disk method.

There is no telling what the unknown device is unless you can provide the hardware ID for it.

How to Find Drivers for Unknown Devices in the Device Manager (howtogeek.com)

The problem is the notebook was only designed to run W7, so there are times when things won't work, no matter what you try.

There is no additional software needed to turn on the wifi adapter.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I have been searching the forum looking for any info I could find.

This discussion looks promising...

after win 10 upgrade, intel wifi link 5100 no longer support... - HP Support Community - 5242519

Take a look at what this person wrote...

"The solution was to change the settings in "advanced" tab of the device manager.

The setting "wireless mode" had a list of 6 entries. the last one was set:   "6. 802.11a/b/g"

I changed it to "5. 802.11a/g" et voila, it works like a charm, even in windows 10."

This discussion indicates a different change worked...

windows 10 does not support WIFI 5100 AGN adapters - HP Support Community - 5249894

"After spending hours for looking a solution it seems to work if you change the settings (Device manager, extended settings) to:  802.11n Channel Width for band 2.4  -   Auto"

I hope any of those suggestions work for you.

[spotify95]

Hello,

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you!

I tried changing the advanced settings as you show, both changing a/b/g to a/g, and changing bandwidth to automatic, and unfortunately this did not fix the issue I had.

I also tried doing a build update (I was on an older version of Windows 10), so I am now on Windows 10 Version 21H2, and still no joy with regards to the Intel 5100a/b/g/n wireless adapter.

I have looked on eBay for other DV5 Entertainment PC laptops and no other DV5 laptops on eBay UK have BOTH Windows 10 & the wi-fi issues that I am experiencing. Some are Windows 7 (which is out of support) and working wi-fi; one was Windows 10 & working wi-fi (don't know if it was the Intel 5100 though).

Any other ideas I could try, short of just giving up and using a cheap USB dongle? I have a small and discrete 2.4GHz 802.11n USB adapter that I could keep plugged in permanently, but would rather get the Wireless 5100 (or any other supported internal wireless card, if possible) to work properly.

Kind regards

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Unfortunately, I don't have any other suggestions you can try regarding getting the Intel 5100 wifi adapter to work in your PC.

[spotify95]

Hello,

Thank you for the reply.

I've just thought of something else which might be of possible use. 

I have a HP/Compaq 6730b laptop running Windows 7 and this also appears to have the Intel 5100agn wireless card.

Given what I know about the wireless card (and the possibility of driver issues) I will not be upgrading the laptop to Windows 10.

Where are the driver files located on this computer and would it be possible to copy the driver files from the 6730b across to the DV5, in an attempt to install the HP Windows 7 driver to the problematic DV5 laptop?

It certainly seems as though it could be worth a shot, at least compared to having to use a USB adapter all the time. Of course, first choice for me would be to replace the problematic wireless card with a better, supported model, but if this was when HP had whitelists (I don't think they do anymore?) and no other wireless card will work, I'll have to try and get this wireless card working!