Should I update wireless driver or not?

[dkline]

Agreed. Fingers crossed.

Btw, do you recommend using HP Support Assistant to continua;lly update drivers, or just updte when a problem appears?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

I don't use the HPSA for maintaining my PC.

I uninstall all unnecessary programs that may be bundled with the operating system, and I consider that one unnecessary.

Periodically, I check the support pages for my PC's, and see if there are any updated drivers listed there.

Otherwise for hardware like the wireless card, I go to the manufacturer's websites such as Intel and look for the latest drivers there.

My recommendation to you if you have not done so already, is to take that program off autopilot and set it to only notify you of updates and not to automatically download and install them.  Then you choose what updates to install and when.

I've read several tales of woe on this forum, where the HPSA has downloaded and installed a BIOS update while the user was working on their PC, and was unaware of it happening.

For example...if I was working on my PC and decided to log off or shut the PC down while a BIOS update was running in the background, that would have been the last time I ever used my PC.

BIOS updates if installed improperly, or interrupted can wreck a PC.

[dkline · Accepted solution]

I totally agree. I uninstall ALL the bloatware programs loaded by HP and other vendors as soon as I buy a machine. I also unload all but on or two programs from loading at boot.

The reason I re-installed HP Support Assistant was to see if it could tell me anything about my wireless card problems.

And I would never let Windows (or HP Assistant) automatically install updates. Let me know about them? Sure. But I decide whether to install or not, which is how I avoided Windows from forcing Windows 10 on me via those two windows updates it kept pushing (One was KB2952664, the other was KB 303 something or other). And it's how I have avoided lots of other problems as well.

For example, on my HP Envy, Support Assistant recommends that I install a bios update that I did a quick Google search on and found a number of people desperate to revert back. 

So I'm right there with you.

Thanks again for your help today. I'll mark this thread solved.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

Hopefully installing the latest Intel wireless driver will have resolved the original issue you had.

[dkline]

Paul,

No more dropped signals (so far), so the drivers appear to have helped.

However, yesterday I also updated my modem/gateway to dual band, and unlike my newer HP computers, my Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1030 will not read a 5 GHz signal.

Which is too bad, because it's three times fraster than the 2.4 GHz signal -- 150 mbps versus 45 mbps.

Do you kinow if any of these listed cards (from the manual) are dual band?

 Broadcom 4313 802.11b/g/n 1×1 WiFi Adapter 593836-001

 Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 WLAN module 631956-001

 Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 WLAN module 593530-001

 Intel Centrino Wireless-N + WiMAX 6150 WLAN module 633817-001

 Ralink RT3090BC4 802.11b/g/n 1×1 WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR Combo Adapter

(Bluetooth 3.0+HS ready) 630705-001

I can't seem to find the answer on Amazon, and the versions of these cards sold on Amazon specifically say "not for HP computers."

Suggestions?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That is good news as far as the no more dropped signals is concerned.

The only card listed that is dual band, is the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6230 WLAN module.

However, as I wrote the other day, the part number is incorrect and no one knows what the part number is for the listed card that will work in your PC's model series.

Some folks have tried several different Intel 6230 cards to no avail.

[dkline]

Paul,

I did find another post of yours stating that the 593836-001 Broadcom 4313AGN 802.11a/b/g/draft-n WiFi Adapter was dual band. The manual lists only the b/g/n version of that, which is single band.

But will the agn version work in my Dv6?

And if not, is there a way to get around (or shut down) the bios white list?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I doubt any card not listed in the manual will work, and unfortunately, I would not know how to get around the whitelist issue.

There are hacked BIOS' out there in cyberspace for some HP notebooks, but I never really paid much attention to looking into that kind of thing.

[dkline]

Okay, I'll risk a few bucks on an eBay 593836-001 Broadcom 4313AGN 802.11a/b/g/draft-n WiFi Adapter and I'll see if it works.

Otherwise, I'll just muddle along with single band speed.

Thanks again for your wise counsel.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

Please post back and let us know if that card worked or not.