Can I upgrade my wireless card?

[C2KBWS]

I was wondering if you could help me out with upgrading my wireless network card. I have an HP-Compaq Envy 17m-ae11dx with a Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 card installed. I want to upgrade my card to a much stronger one but I can't find what cards are compatible with this laptop, any help would be wonderful and thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

You have a pretty good wifi card in there now.

The service manual only lists the 7265 and the very problematic Realtek 8822BE wifi adapter.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c05635976

So, you would have to take a chance on installing a better card.

Assuming your PC does not have a BIOS whitelist (which it probably does not), this one should work for you...

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-Wireless-Ac-9260-2230-Gigabit/dp/B079QH5KW1/ref=sr_1_3?hvadid=782028279...

[C2KBWS]

Thank you so much for all of the help. I have one more question if you wouldn't mind helping me out. I've searched for the answer but I can't find a single way to tell if my processor supports CNVi. How can I find out of my processor supports CNVi? Thank you so much 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Since your notebook did not come with the Intel 9560 wifi adapter, I highly doubt it supports CNVi.

I have recommended that card to a few forum members with 8th gen core processors assuming it would be a no-brainer, and it didn't work.

I would stick with experimenting with the 9260 which has a very high probability of working and has pretty much the same specs as the 9560 does anyway.

https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=99446,99445

[C2KBWS]

Thank you so much. I will stick to your recommendation for the AC 9260.  Thank you again

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance, and please post back and let us know how the wifi card upgrade went.

[C2KBWS]

So I upgraded my wireless card to the Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9260 160MHz as you suggested but I'm having an issue. My download speed is now half of speed the I was getting from my older card. My drivers are all updated to current. Is there something that I'm missing? Thank you for your help

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Other than installing the drivers which W10 does automatically, the card should work at least as good as the 7265.

I bought the same card for an experiment with a PCIe x1 desktop adapter, replacing the 7265.

I was disappointed that the max throughput speed was actually a little less than I was getting with the 7265, and it should have been double.  I don't know if that is because of the older PCIe x1 bottleneck or what.

But the card was still downloading at over 200 MBPS (around 230)--the exact same speed as the 7265 was doing.

I'm paying for 200 MBPS download speeds, so I ended up ahead with a newer adapter and BT 5.0.

What is the maximum throughput the card is getting in your notebook with an excellent signal?

If you are close to the router, it should connect at around 1.7 GBPS.

My desktop PC that I have that adapter in is pretty far away from the router and the card gets 4-5 bars of signal strength.

Throughput speed is different than download speed.

To check the throughput speed, go to the windows control panel>network and internet>Network and Sharing Center.

In the View your active networks section, click on your wireless network connection on the right side of that section.

It will show the (throughput) speed there. 

[C2KBWS]

So I upgraded my wireless card to the Intel(R) Wireless-AC 9260 160MHz as you suggested but I'm having an issue. My download speed is now half of speed the I was getting from my older card. My drivers are all updated to current. Is there something that I'm missing? Thank you for your help

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

See my reply from yesterday above...