Where are drivers for Realtek RTL8852BE Wifi? Support site says I have Intel WLAN!

[MofoPopo]

Hello.  I recently bought a HP Pavilion Laptop 16-af0063cl (9R8T6UA) at Costco.  It was a screaming deal and I'm very happy with it.

However.....

The drivers page: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/hp-pavilion-16-inch-laptop-pc-16-af0000/model/2102089534?sku=9R...  only has drivers for Intel WLAN cards, but my laptop has a Realtek RTL8852BE WLAN card.  I have not been able to find drivers for this card on any HP website.  I was able to find a compatible driver in the Microsoft Update Catalog (version ending in 154), but it is an out of date version.  I've noticed that Dell and Lenovo have both issued critical updates for this driver (version 306), but you need a Dell or Lenovo serial number to download.

HP....please post the correct WLAN drivers for this laptop on the support page.  Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Below is the link to the latest driver HP has for the Realtek RTL8852BE Wi-Fi adapter which you have already installed.

Version 6001.15.154.0

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp155501-156000/sp155596.exe 

I don't see how the RTL8852BE driver version can go from .154 to .306 in a matter of less than two months.

These are the current driver versions HP has available for all Realtek Wi-Fi products:

 RTL8851BE, version 6101.19.124.0

RTL8852CE, version 6001.16.162.0

RTL8852BE, version 6001.15.154.0

RTL8852AE, version 6001.10.356.3

RTL8822CE/RTL8822BE/RTL8821CE, version 2024.10.230.0

RTL8723BE/RTL8188EE, version 2024.0.4.208 (EOL, with Windows 10 19H1 WHQL) 

This website indicates the latest driver for the RTL8852BE is 6001.15.155.1 and they provided a zip file download which you can manually install from the Wi-Fi adapter in the device manager.

Re: [DRIVERS] Realtek Ethernet/WiFi/Bluetooth - Page 18 - Republic of Gamers Forum - 871130

[MofoPopo]

Thank you for your very informative post.

HP still needs to correct the downloads/drivers page for this product to reflect the Realtek WLAN drivers.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

This is a peer-to-peer forum.

We do not work for or represent HP.

The best I can do is to submit a request to the HP forum admin staff to ask HP to include the Realtek drivers on the 16-af0xxx support page.

[MofoPopo · Accepted solution]

I went ahead and downloaded the 330 drivers here: https://catalog.s.download.windowsupdate.com/c/msdownload/update/driver/drvs/2024/10/b3b948a1-9bd7-4... , then extracted, and updated the drivers through the Device Manager.  Now running 330 no problem, so my fears regarding missing out on a "critical" update as reported by both Dell and Lenovo are now alleviated.

But....HP....please just add and update the drivers on the product page and be sure Windows Update also updates this product's Realtek WLAN drivers automatically.

BTW....if you try to clean install Win 11 24H2 to skip the HP bloatware, you will get hung up and stopped if you don't have the Realtek WLAN drivers to install.  No internet connection, no finishing the install.  When I first got the laptop I didn't bother to confirm WLAN manufacturer, just assumed if I needed drivers I could download from HP.  When I kept getting errors that the drivers weren't found, I had to use a cloud recovery USB to reinstall and that's how I discovered the laptop had a Reaktek WLAN and not the Intel as listed on the drivers page.  Then....reformat, clean reinstall 24H2, then install the drivers extracted from the Microsoft Update Catalog .cab file.

Thanks to Paul_Tikkanen for helping.