Upgrade for Wireless Card

[jft26]

I have a wireless card that came installed in the computer Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11 b/g/n with a single antenna connection. I want to upgrade to a dual band wireless card. I read about Realtek RTL8821CE that uses a single antenna for the 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz bands. Is the RTL8821CE compatible with my HP Pavilion 15-ab157nr? Has anyone attempted this upgrade for this laptop? Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

That card should work just fine if your notebook does not have a BIOS whitelist. 

It shouldn't have a whitelist, but HP does not release that information.

So, unless someone else can confirm that it will 100% work or 100% not work, all I can advise you is that it will fit in the slot and work with the one antenna just like your notebook's current wifi card does, except it will also work on the 5.0 GHz wifi band.

With an excellent signal on the 5.0 GHz band that card will have a maximum throughput of 433 MBPS with an AC router, and 150 MBPS with a dual band N router.

On the 2.4 GHz wifi band, it will have the same throughput as your current Realtek wifi card does.

If you want to experiment, the card is not that expensive, but the only place I know of where you can get one currently is on eBay, as the HP part store has had them on back order for eons now.

Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11 ac 1×1 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.2 Combo Adapter (MU-MIMO supported)   HP Part # L17365-005.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=L17365-005&_sacat=0&_sop=15

[jft26]

Thank you for the quick response. Right now my 100 Mbps internet tests at 94 Mbps down and 27 Mbps up with my HP laptop connected with an ethernet cable. The wireless connection tests at 4 Mbps up and 8 Mbps down. I am unsure if the actual issue is the wireless card or the NetGear Dual Band Wireless router WNDR3400v2. If you say that the new wireless card will give me the same thruput as the exisiting wireless card on the 2.4 Ghz band, will I be gaining anything by upgrading if it uses the 2.4 Ghz band?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

It probably wouldn't, but 8 MBPS down is ridiculously slow, even for that model wifi card.

You should be getting at least 40 - 50 MBPS down with an excellent signal.  The max being 72 MBPS

Try updating the wifi driver and see if that helps any...

2024.0.8.107/2024.0.4       Jun 5, 2019

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp96501-97000/sp96885.exe

[jft26]

I updated the wireless driver but no significant change to the up/down speeds. Do you think I would get the best results by replacing the wireless card or the wifi router? Thank you once again.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that replacing either would guarantee improvement.

I do know that routers are different and if you wanted to shop for a new router, that may be a good idea.

Check out the reviews.

I have this one for example and it works great but there haven't been any firmware updates in a long time, because the last time they tried a firmware update, it killed everyone's routers and many of us got replacement models for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Dual-Band-Wireless-Tri-Stream-WRT3200ACM/dp/B01JOXW3YE/ref=sr_1_3?hva...

Then they fixed the firmware fiasco, and it has been working great since January of 2018.

I gave the free router to my son.

If I'm ever in the market for a new router and it is still around, I would get this one...but it costs a ton!

https://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Tri-Band-Max-Stream-MU-Mimo-Wireless/dp/B017NT8Q24/ref=sxin_2_ac_d_rm...

As far as replacing the card, as I wrote yesterday if you want to take a chance that the $10 card will work, I think it would be worthwhile.

Cards work differently on the 5.0 GHz wifi band, and I couldn't help but think your download speeds would be better on the 5.0 GHz wifi band.

[jft26]

Thank you for the information. I will have to decide on the next course of action.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Glad to have been of assistance.

[jft26]

Hi Paul …….   I upgraded the wireless card today.  The speed on 5G is much better.   Only problem …….  I lost use of my blue tooth Microsoft  mouse.  If I check under Devices in the Control Panel  under Mice and other pointing devices I only see my Touchpad.   When I look under Bluetooth I can see the Microsoft Mouse.   If I look under Settings , Devices I can see the Microsoft mouse as paired.  Any ideas?     Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer would be to update the Bluetooth driver to the latest version and restart the PC.

1.0.0.1021      Jul 1, 2019

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp98001-98500/sp98266.exe

You may also want to try unpairing the mouse, and reconnect it again.

It may still be associated with the old BT 4.0 version the RTL8723 wifi card has.