What network cards are compatible?

[ThorMuscles]

Hi, 

I had recently purchased the HP 14-CF0006DX on sale. It has been a great little basic laptop for when I am away from my workstation. But I desperately need AC wifi. I noticed per the Maintenance and Service guide under support for this laptop that the wifi card is upgradable. I was suggested trying the intel 9260. But I know that HP and some others have a white list of supported Wifi cards in the BIOS. My basic question is, will that card work? I know it will fit the M.2 slot the current half-wide Realtek card sits. But I don't know if the BIOS will support it. In the manual it list models with similar motherboards as having different cards. But I would like some suggestions. Also I did noticed that the card that is in my machine currently only has one antenna, not the typical 2 I have seen. So maybe some insight on that. 

I plan on doing this upgrade the same time I put 16gb of DDR4-2400Mhz RAM into the machine for dual channel support and to feed the monster that is Chrome. So far though a great little laptop, and it runs much better after installing a 500gb WD Blue NVME M.2 SSD in place of the SATA3 128gb SSD that was in it. 

So Intel 9260? or something else that will give me AC wifi and bluetooth. Any help is greatly appreciated. 

Link to the support page for this laptop: https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-14-cf0000-laptop-pc/20395769/model/26556551/manuals

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Your notebook probably does not have a BIOS whitelist.  No one here can tell you that with 100% certainty, because HP does not publish that info.

We find out by forum members experimenting with different cards.

As a general rule with very few exceptions, HP removed the BIOS whitelists sometime in 2013.

There is only one wifi card where the wifi and Bluetooth will work with only one antenna cable and that is this one...

Realtek RTL8821CE 802.11 ac 1×1 WiFi + Bluetooth 4.2 Combo Adapter (MU-MIMO supported)   HP part # L17365-005

The only place I have been able to find this card is on eBay, because the HP parts store has them on back order.

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

If you want to sacrifice Bluetooth then you can try the 9260, or any other older Intel M.2 card.

Do not try the 9461 which also only uses one antenna, as that is a CRF card, and no one that has installed one has gotten it to work.

From the limited amount of info I have read, a CRF (Companion RF) card, is one where part of the wifi/Bluetooth circuitry is on the motherboard, and part is on the wifi card.

You need a full service wifi card.

[ThorMuscles]

Thank you for your response. That is good to hear that HP primarily stopped white listing cards.

As for the the antenna situation, I am assuming that the second antenna is needed for bluetooth transmission? Truthfully this is the first laptop I have owned where it only had one antenna connected. I also assume that if I can run another antenna I would then regain bluetooth functionality. Something I wouldn't mind doing honestly if need be. 

Now with that being said, the ethernet adapter is also by Realtek. Is there any chance that the wifi adapter is responsibly for that as well? 

I will post back here with my results. I think I am going to try for the 9260 and see if I can get bluetooth working without much trouble. The 9260 seems to be readily available and cheap. 

Thank you again. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

That is correct,  The second antenna works the Bluetooth.

To me the one antenna thing is just about as bad as a whitelist.

I don't like taking notebooks apart on an easy one, and they are so difficult to take apart nowadays, I make sure to get one with everything I want inside already included.

Unfortunately, I don't understand your question about the ethernet adapter.

That has no relation to what the model wifi adapter would be.

There are plenty of notebooks with Realtek ethernet adapters and Intel, or other wifi manufacturers cards.

The only HP notebooks that have Intel ethernet adapters are the more expensive business-class notebooks or mobile workstations.

I have one with a Realtek ethernet adapter--an HP 350 G1.  It originally had a Broadcom dual band N card (HMC form factor with 2 antenna cables), that I swapped out for an Intel 7260AC, and it works just fine.

[ThorMuscles]

Hi again, quick update.

So I received the Intel AC-9260 today. I installed the card, and connected the single Antenna cable to the "Main" connector on the card. After powering on the laptop I confirmed that WiFi did indeed work. And it worked really well. As for Bluetooth, it works. But stutters it's connection with my Logitech Bluetooth mouse. I am going to chalk this up to the other antenna connector on the 9260 being left blank. With that being said I am going to order an extra antenna and connect it and rout that around the bottom of the laptop to see if I can get any improvement on the bluetooth connection. But so far, so good. 

I'll post another update when I do that. Also I am upgrading this tomorrow with 16gb of 2400Mhz RAM. So that is exciting. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

That is great news.

Thanks for the update.

With the second antenna added, you should be fine.

Just make sure the transceiver does not make contact with any metal parts on the motherboard if you are not going to route it as it should be.

[ThorMuscles]

Of course in regard to routing the antenna. The laptop is working phenomenally. As a side not. I installed the 16gb of DDR4 2400 RAM today. While the computer recognizes the capacity, it does not clock the RAM at the specified 2400Mhz. This was to be expected considering the locked down nature of consumer hardware, Especially at this price point. I will say though that it is nice to have the laptop running in dual channel mode now and with decent headroom for memory intensive applications. As a testament to it's new found performance bump I ran GeekBench 4. I included a clipped screen grab of the two runs before and after. It's quite nice. 

Continuing from here I was going to order the FHD screen in the repair manual, but considering this laptop uses two different 30 pin cables for HD and FHD I will hold off. Though when I can the resolution as well as viewing angle upgrade will be welcome. 

And if you're wondering why I would spend extra money on a cheap laptop it's because I enjoy it. It's fun. My other laptop is HP's own OMEN 15dc with a Core i7-8750H, GTX 1060 6gb, and 16gb of 2666 RAM with a fast M.2 SSD. I am actually selling that and replacing that with a desktop build as my needs for my profession are less mobile these days and I can hunker down for a little. 

That is all. Sorry to take this thread all over the place from it's original context. But for anyone who has this laptop maybe they can find this one day.