Realtek RTL8821CE replacement.

[GuyD]

I purchased my Pavilion PC 15-eg 1000 in Oct 2020.  It has a Realtek RTL8821CE installed as the network adapter.  I'm looking for a replacement because the Realtek seems to be failing.  Currently, the wifi speeds achievable range from 2 MBPS to 150 MBPS randomly.  I have a 1 GBPS fiber connection for my internet.  Other devices (phones) on my network routinely achieve 300+ MBPS.  I have found and installed the driver 2024.10.223 dated 5/21/2021.  My fiber supplier tells me this appears to be a known problem with HP laptops.  

The parts listing for this laptop has 5 network adapters, 2 Intel, 2 Realtek and 1 Mediatek.  Are they truly interchangeable?  Which is the best replacement or is there a replacement not listed?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Yes, the Realtek Wi-Fi cards are not the best ones out there for sure.

Unfortunately, you are probably stuck with that model card for two reasons:

1. The Intel cards listed in the manual are CNVi which means that they only work in notebooks with certain processors and chipsets.

What Are the Intel® Integrated Connectivity (CNVi) and Companion...

Many forum members have tried to replace a Realtek card with one of the Intel CNVi cards and no one has been able to get them to work--even though they are listed as supported in the manual.

2.  The other problem is this:  Notebooks that come with the RTL8821CE only have one antenna wire and the Intel Wi-Fi cards (except the 9461 AC) require two antenna wires in order for the Bluetooth to work properly.

Adding a second antenna wire would require you to purchase the antenna kit listed in the service manual and pretty much completely disassemble the notebook including the display panel to run the second antenna wire.

If you want to replace the Realtek card with one that should work but you will not have Bluetooth without installing the second antenna wire, you can try the Intel AX200.

Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 ax 2×2 + Bluetooth 5.0 MU-MIMO M.2 2230 non-vPro   HP part # L35282-005.

You should be able to find this card on eBay.  Search by the HP part number.

You connect the single antenna wire to the Intel card's 'Main' antenna terminal.

The 'Aux' is for Bluetooth.

FWIW, here is the link to the latest Wi-Fi driver HP has for the Realtek RTL8821CE:

2024.10.228.1     01/31/2023

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp144501-145000/sp144871.exe 

[GuyD]

Thanks for the information.  I've updated the driver and also shut off bluetooth (in case it might help).  Rebooted and am now getting download speeds over 200.  If that keep up, it will be satisfactory and I won't change the module.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

[GuyD]

Well, things just aren't progressing the way I would like.  Even though I was able to achieve download speeds of 200 MBPS, they went away very quickly.  they reverted to speeds between 2 and about 150 with no real relation to time of day or any other variables I could think of.  I purchased the Intel card suggested, installed it and things got worse!  Put the Realtek back in a reverted to where it is now.

Just looked at the card info and found this statement on the Events screen:  Device PCI\VEN_10EC&DEV_C821&SUBSYS_884D103C&REV_00\00E04CFFFEC8210100 requires further installation.  Any thoughts on what this means or what I should do about it?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Sorry that the Intel card didn't work better than the Realtek card.

I never read any info in the events viewer so unfortunately, I don't know what that means.

I only look at the status of the card in the device manager where it should indicate that it is 'working properly,' and then I click on the driver tab to make sure the driver I installed actually got installed and reports the correct version and date.

[GuyD]

Thanks