Realtek RTL8852AE WiFi 6 802.11ax PCIe Adapter - Poor WiFi Signal

[EnvyI5User]

Hi All,

Just want to let everyone know that I've been struggling with the purchase of 5 laptops (HP ENVY x360 15.6 inch 2-in-1 Laptop PC 15-eu0004na (267R6AV) Model 4J954EA).

After extensive testing and comparison with other HP Envy Laptops (that work fine - Model 9QZ59EA - HP Envy x360 Convert 15-ee0000na), I have come to the conclusion that the WiFi adapter in the 4J954EA models has a hardware issue with them or the antennae array is misaligned or misconfigured.

The 4J954EA models with the fault all have the new Realtek RTL8852AE WiFi 6 802.11ax PCIe Adapters in them.

Testing side by side the two different laptops, it is clear the new WiFi cards cut out and unless you're sitting directly under your wireless router or access point, you will frequently lose WiFi connectivity.

All 5 laptops I have bought have this issue. They are currently being used at different houses, at work on enterprise wireless networks and Home networks and ALL of these laptops have this issue.

I have upgraded all the drivers, spoke to HP support regarding one of the models and after re-installing all the chipset, wifi and BIOS updates, there has been no improvement on the signal strength.

To be clear, I am only 1 room away and about 5m from the access point. The 4J954EA laptop has between 2 and no bars on the WiFi, however the older 9QZ59EA has the full 5 bars. These two models have been tested in several home environments with the same result (that is the new laptop drops internet connectivity and the older one does not and has 5 bars of signal).

I believe HP should issue immediately fix this or issue a recall.

For your record, we are talking about the laptops with serial numbers starting 8CG1351X??

I'm curious if anyone else is having the same issues.

[Bogdan321]

I am having issues with this card as well. As I have read, most people have issues with it too, particularly at longer distances. I'm around 10 meters away from the access point and I have around 5% packet loss and 30% of packets are late.

I am planning to replace the wifi adapter card. There's nothing you can really do with this card, it's just garbage. I suggest you replace it or get a refund for the whole product.

[EnvyI5User]

As the units are less than 30 days old and still under HP's returns window, they will all be going back.

I can confirm I have the Intel I5 equivalent of these Envy's (Model 4J945EA - HP ENVY x360 15-es0008na) and the Intel WiFi 6 AX201 (2x2) Adapter on these don't seem to suffer from the same issue.

Hopefully HP will allow me to swap the other Envys for the Intel I5 version.

[Sciurus]

I also have the same issue.

I"ve tried all the drivers, firmware updates, chats with techsupport and they just say because the ROM test and the IRQ test pass that there is nothing wrong with the hardware and want me to pay for 'Smart Friend' support.  

I have been able to get 'better' signal strength by removing all of the AX capabilities of the laptop... but that improvement still makes it go from worthless to barely usable.  8 ft away from a TPLink AX11000 with direct line of sight this HP has 82% signal strength.  50 ft away outside through my house and a brick chimney my laptop is at 78%. from the same router.  This is clearly an issue with the HP laptop and they refuse to fix it.

If I remove the AX capabilities from this HP Envy x360 Ryzen 7:  At 20 ft it will go from 11% to 33% signal strength.   My Asus laptop that is several years old sits at 88% and my Dell work laptop on AX sits at 82% in the same locations.  Lenovo and other companies with this same card have the same issues.  It is clearly a hardware/driver/firmware issue that HP should be supporting!   

[EnvyI5User]

Yes... I too had issues trying to convince HP of this problem, but when I mentioned I had 5 of them and also access to 10 other laptops (placed in the same location) ranging from their previous HP Envy x360 Ryzen 5 model (purchased only a few months earlier) and also other makes like a Dell Inspiron 7506 2n1 I7, Surface Pro 6 and other Intel based PCs, it was clear to me there's something wrong here with these cards.

HP make an equivalent machine (same chassis - although silver rather than black) with an I5 rather than Ryzen 5, and the Intel WiFi 6 card in that does not suffer the same issues, so my original assumption regarding antennae misalignment is likely to be wrong given it's basically the same machine but with Intel hardware under the lid (I can't imagine they'd put the antennae in or WiFi card in a different location). As I couldn't wait for HP to swap the machines, I just went out and bought 5 more Intel I5's and have had no issues with them since. Just now waiting for the refund of the original returned units.

Keep pushing your case, and I'm sure they'll eventually offer you a refund, then purchase the I7 version.

Good luck!

[gbem1]

I just had success with replacing the Realtek adapter. I first tried a MQUPIN Wireless Network Card Dual Band AX201NGW 2.4Gbps 802.11ax Wireless Intel AX201 and that actually failed--the computer did not recognize it.

Then I found the 2400Mbps WiFi 6 M.2 Key E For Intel AX200 Dual Band Wireless Adapter, AX200NGW Bluetooth 5.0 Wi-Fi Network Card and this is what I'm currently using. Took about 5 minutes to install and no setup/drivers were required (I'm using an HP Envy 360 Convertible, 2021 edition, running Windows 11).

Highly recommend this card, can be found easily and is fairly inexpensive.

[sirwm_shamong]

I see a new driver came out on Oct 19, 2021.

Anybody try this driver ?  if so, what are your results ?

[sirwm_shamong]

upon further review, the Oct 2021 driver that I mentioned ( sp135844.exe ) seems to be

exactly what I already had installed on my HP win 11 computer: 6001.0.10.329

so I went to a lenovo website to download 6001.0.10.334

( filename was    r1are05w.exe )

this installed fine, and basic tests worked.  More detailed and longer tests have yet to come

to see if the original problem is 'lagging network' really got resolved.

[Kastrand]

if youre going to mention a website where you downloaded a new driver version, could you be so kind as to actually link the website so others may use it?

[Kastrand]

actually, i found it myself after getting lucky. not very web savvy. im specifically using a lenovo legion tower, so this may not be helpful for everyone, but if you go to this link: https://support.lenovo.com/ch/en, you can hover over the 'PC' option, and select detect product. unfortunately, it did not automatically install any new drivers, so I had to manually select them myself. However, the driver I needed was there and available, plus a few more that I will go over and install as necessary.