Wifi adapter upgrade for HP Pavilion 15-ab027tx

[vikrant1982]

Hi Everyone,

My laptop is running on windows 10 pro and has very slow wifi download speeds as compared to other devices in the home. It has a Realtek RTL8723BE adapter which is known to be a slow 2.4 Ghz adapter so I am looking to upgrade the adpater myself. I have gone through many threads on this forum and have also gone through the laptop's service manual. Here is a link to the manual - http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04642845

My understanding is that the laptop is most probably equipped with a single antenna only and since, I do not wish to take apart the entire laptop to add another antenna, I am looking for a single antenna based dual band adpater that can work with my laptop.  I came across this thread where Paul Tikkanen had suggested someone to try replacing RTL8723BE in his HP probook with an RTL8821CE dual band adapter that works with single antenna.

I am wondering if I can do the same with my laptop. RTL8821CE is definitely not listed as supported part in the service manual and I don't know if it will work with my laptop. Also, if it works, where will I be able to download wifi and bluetooth drivers for the adpater

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I think you will be just fine.

See this discussion...

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Wireless-and-Networking/Replacing-WiFi-Bluetooth-Adapter/td-p...

Here are the latest W10 wifi and bluetooth drivers for the RTL8821CE.

2024.0.5.101    Dec 9, 2018

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp93001-93500/sp93233.exe

1.6.1015.3       Dec 11, 2018

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp93001-93500/sp93262.exe

[vikrant1982]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was thinking of ordering this, looks like it is legit: - 

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/HP-15-DB-Laptop-15-6-Laptop-Wifi-Wireless-Bluetooth-Card-L17365-005-U98H132/...

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

Looks legit to me too, and you can't beat the price.

HP has that card on back order for months, so eBay is the only place I know of where you can find any.

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

As long as the BIOS accepts the card, you should be good to go.

[vikrant1982]

Just placed the order, will report once I install it in the laptop

[vikrant1982]

Hi Paul,

I have finally installed the card and it has worked flawlessly. However, there is one small issue, the 2.4 Ghz mode works just as slow as the old card. I have a 75 Mbps connection and I only get about 15-20 Mbps  on both the old and new card. The other devices, phones and another laptop with Intel 7260 wifi adapter get top speed of 75-80 Mbps in 2.4 Ghz mode. The 5 Ghz mode on the new card works just fine. I don't know if this is an issue with Realtek cards or because of my cable modem or because the new card uses a single antenna only. This isn't a problem at my home but will be an issue at other places if there is no 5 Ghz wifi. I will appreciate any input in this regard.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Glad the card worked for you.

I'm surprised it is performing that poorly on the 2.4 GHz wifi band.

It wouldn't have any better performance than the old card, but even the old card should have been pulling 40 - 50 MBPS.

The maximum connection speed of the card on the 2.4 GHz wifi band is 72 MBPS.

Unfortunately, I don't have any suggestions to improve the speed on that band.

[vikrant1982]

I did some more investigation, I think it has to do with the signal strength and quality from the Hitron CODA-4582U wifi cable modem provided by my ISP plus the fact that the laptop has a single antenna only. That isn't a great brand known for routers and modems anyway. I actually tried moving the laptop very close to the modem and saw a huge bump in the download speed on 2.4 Ghz, It managed to get 45 Mbps. Also, I am living in a condo and there are all sorts of wifi signals that the laptop is picking. I tried moving the other laptop with two antennas further away from the modem into another room and saw a huge decline in the download speeds. I think its a mix of various factors but, thankfully I atleast now have 5G mode which seems to work quite well.