Realtek RTL8723BE Wlan Card Upgrade to 5GHz Band

[iamsujay]

I have HP Pavilion Notebook 15-ab028tx laptop which has an Intel i3 processor and Realtek RTL8723BE wlan card which has a single antenna cable and that wlan card only able to search 2.4Ghz Wi-Fi bands.

I would like to upgrade my wlan card to a 5Ghz supported card.

Can anyone suggest to me which wlan card should I buy to upgrade my "Realtek RTL8723BE" into a 5GHz supported card? 

Note: wlan card must be supported with "HP Pavilion Notebook 15-ab028tx" laptop.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Sujay

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Sujay:

Since your notebook only has one antenna wire connected to the Realtek RTL8723BE wlan card, there is only one dual band AC wifi card you can upgrade to as a direct swap, 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.  I seen an Intel card listed as the first one on the eBay listing, so don't buy that one.

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 original 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...

HP Pavilion Notebook (Intel)Star WarsTM Special Edition Notebook Maintenance and Service Guide

The dual band Intel cards listed in chapter 3 of the manual need two wifi antenna wires in order to work right, which is why I did not mention those as possibilities.

[iamsujay]

Hello Paul,

I really appreciate your help. But I can't found the Realtek RTL8821CE wlan card anywhere online to buy it from India. AliExpress got ban in India so I can't order the card from AliExpress and also in eBay shipping cost was $69.00 USD which is very much higher than the product cost.

I have disassembled my laptop and saw that there has an extra place where I can add another Wi-Fi antenna. The current Wi-Fi antenna placed on the top right-hand side of my laptop screen and I can add one more Wi-Fi antenna on the top left side of my laptop screen.

So, I acknowledge that I have to install an extra antenna and I'm OK with that installation also.

So, can you suggest any alternative wlan cards which support a 5GHz connection for the HP Pavilion 15-ab000 series laptop?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

If you plan on adding a second antenna cable, then you can use either of the Intel cards with the HP part numbers shown in chapter 3 of the service manual.  The Intel 7265 would be a better card than the Intel 3165.

I would imagine that you may run into the same issues with buying one though as well as the antenna kit.