Replacing the Wi-Fi + Bluetooth adapter on the HP Pavilion dv6-3125er laptop.

[Pavel7979]

Good afternoon!
I appeal to you for help on upgrading my favorite HP Pavilion dv 6-3125er laptop.
I decided to install a new Wi-Fi adapter.
Ralink RT3090 802.11b / g / n WiFi adapter is installed in the laptop by the manufacturer.
I want to install the Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6230 adapter or Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N 6235 adapter.
How to see the bullet list of adapters for my laptop?
Will these adapters be compatible for my laptop? Will there be problems with the white list of network adapters?
There is still one question, how do I go into the factory BIOS settings?
Thank you so much.

System properties
Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC / 3125er Product
BIOS Properties
Version F.29
Size 1536 KB
Manufacturer Hewlett-Packard
Release Date 07/07/2011
Delete

[erico]

Hi @Pavel7979 , Thanks for creating a thread. 😊

Any of the wifi adapters in the following list should work. I gleaned the list form the driver list for your notebook. The only thing is that finding a Windows 10 driver may be a little difficult,  although Windows 10 may find one for you.

Intel WiFi Link 5300
Intel WiFi Link 5100
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
Intel WiFi Link 1000
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6250

I have seen the Intel Centrino 6230 adapter for very little money in eBay. Take a look at the list of network drivers to get an idea of what will work in your  notebook.

AS far as gettin into the BIOS goes, it should be simple to power on the notebook from an off state and immediately start tapping the F10 key. As long as you did not  previously  set a password for the BIOS and forget the password, you should be able to enter the BIOS. I suggest that you do not make any changes to the default settings if you do not know what you are doing

[Pavel7979]

Good afternoon!
Thank you for your help.
For example, the list you provided does not include the desired Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 or 6235 adapter. In this list, all the listed Intel adapters do not include Bluetooth support.
The issue of replacing Wi-Fi adapters on HP laptops has a big problem because of the white list that is written in BIOS. In my case, this is version F.29. But I can’t go into the advanced BIOS settings. There is no problem entering the F10 key. My question was about the advanced BIOS settings, in which there is no access.
For 100% confidence in acquiring the correct (compatible) Wi-Fi adapter model, you need to solve 2 questions:
1. I need Maintenance And Service Manual for my particular laptop model (HP Pavilion DV6-3125er). In this manual, all supported Wi-Fi adapters supported by BIOS should be indicated.
2. For fine-tuning my laptop, you need to access the advanced BIOS settings. There must be key combinations to activate the advanced BIOS mode.
I hope for your assistance in resolving this issue.
Thanks for assistance.

[erico · Accepted solution]

Hi @Pavel7979 

Your notebook is from a series that came to market nine years ago. I would tend to keep upgrade investment costs at a minimum since it is way past its expected service life.

You asked me what would work. Requiring a suggested replacement that is a 100% confidence replacement of  the installed wifi adapter with one that costs, say eight to twelve Euros, is a bit over the top. If it does not work, you may lose ten Euros and I would hope that would not break your bank account. An Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230  or Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 is not likely to work, since they are 2x2 dual band adapters. Your notebook's antenna only supports the 2.4 GHz band. 100% confidence replacement, in the case of your notebook, would be the use a USB WIFI dongle that has the capabilities that you need. Using a dongle would take the antenna requirement out of the equation and could even bump your wifi to2x2 rx/tx and 802.11ac.

I read your original post in your thread and you made no such mention of what you are currently asking in terms of the BIOS. There are no advanced BIOS settings for consumer laptops available from HP sources for your notebook. If you want a hacked BIOS then a BIOS website may be the resource that you need.HP does ask and require us not to cause damage in other members notebooks and PCs. A cracked BIOS may very well do that, but that would be your decision and your hand that installed it.

If you want an advanced BIOS, I suggest you move on up to using high-end DIY desktop PCs and advanced gaming laptops. They have what you are looking for. Mainstream notebook products like the one you currently have are designed to have BIOS that owners cannot easily use to destroy them.  At model years 2014 and beyond there is no whitelist in the notebook BIOS. 

As far as all wireless adapters for your specific notebook in the Maintenance and Service guide goes, that is unfortunately a bit of guesswork, unless you make sure and only install the HP part numbered units. You can get the wifi adapter HP part number information from the HP PartSurfer website. The only wifi adapter listed which gives 100% confidence is the one that is already installed in your notebook.

An HP PartSurfer link is below this line

http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?type=PROD&SearchText=XW135EA

Here is a PDF Maintenance & Service guide for the Dv6 series notebooks which includes yours. It is a tech manual, so read between the lines.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c02657339

We are here to help guide you in resolving your issues and not necessarily provide solutions to questions that are beyond the scope of this forum.  

[Pavel7979]

Good afternoon!
Thank you very much for your support.
In the instructions, I managed to find a list of adapters supported by my Wi-Fi laptop. Of the Intel adapters I need, the laptop supports the following:
1) Intel® Centrino® Advanced – N + WiMAX 6250 WLAN module
2) Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 802.11b / g / n 1x2.
I'll try to buy an Intel® Centrino 6250 WLAN module and just in case I will buy an Intel® Centrino 6235 WLAN module.
As you rightly noted, these adapters have a low cost.
I will definitely report the results after purchasing these modules.