Wifi Card

[shark2]

Hello People,

I have a HP 15 ac170tu laptop with a Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11 bgn Wi-Fi Adapter that came with the laptop. Now I want to upgrade it to a dual band wifi card. According to the Maintenance and Service Guide available on HPs Website the only dual band adapter I can use is intel AC 3165.

My question is can I use Intel AC 7265. I already tried using it in my laptop but the laptop didnt regonised it, as in neither bluetooth nor wifi were availble. I tried installing all the drivers availble on HPs and Intels website but nothing worked.

Can anyone help me in this regard?

Thank you.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Your model only has one antenna connected to the card, correct?

That card needs two antennas to work.

Does the card show up in the device manager and reports working properly?

[shark2]

Hi  Paul_Tikkanen,

Yes, my model has only one antenna, I hope intels ac 3165 works with my laptop, its single antenna adapter. I still have not tried it personally.

The ac 7265 didnt show up in the device manager at all, nor in BIOS or anywhere else.

I had the ac 7265 lying around and was wondering if I could somehow use it with in my current setup, means with one antenna and achieve more speed compared to ac 3165.

Thanks for your Info.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

The 3165 isn't going to work right with only one antenna either.

That card also requires two antennas.

The wifi might work, or the bluetooth might work, but both will not work together.

If the 7265 card doesn't show up at all, then there must be some kind of BIOS whitelist on that model series.

Instead of you getting a BIOS error, the notebook acts as if the card wasn't even installed.

But you are right, the 7265 would give double the throughput than the 3165, because it is a 2 x 2 card, and the 3165 is a 1 x 1 card.   Two data streams up and down as compared to one = double the throughput.

[shark2]

Isn't there any way to make the 7265 work with hp 15 ac170tu? or at least 3165 (as its even there in the Maintenance and Service Guide as supported adapter).

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

For the 7265, none that I know of.

The fact that the card doesn't even show up in the device manager proves nothing can be done to get it to work.

For the 3165, you would have to completely disassemble the entire notebook including the display panel to route the second antenna.

You would have to buy the antenna and tranceiver that is listed in chapter 3 of the service manual.

You would also have to buy the specific 3165 wifi card with the HP part number on it. 

You could probably get a used but tested and working card on eBay.

Before I went through all of that trouble, I would first make sure the 3165 shows up in the device manager and partially works.  Then if it did, you could go through the process to add the second antenna.

[shark2]

Many many thanks, it helped a lot.

3165 and antenna are on the way. As you suggested I'll try to install just the card first before doing anything with the display, even if just the wifi works with improved signal and speed I'd be more than happy, dont care a lot about Bluetooth.

And you are absolutetly right about 7265, after a lot of playing around I finally gave up on it; my only hope it somehow 3165 to work, even if just the wifi.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Please post back and let us know how the wifi card upgrade went with the 3165 AC.

[shark2]

absolutely.