Wifi card upgrade for 4540s

[waninick]

I have an older 4540s that has an RT3290 wifi module, and would like to upgrade to a newer 5GHz/BT5.0 module.

I have upgraded the BIOS to the .68 level, and am wondering if the whitelist issues have been resolved with HP.  I can't seem to find any specific answers on the 'net anywhere.

I have yet to find an overtly supported modern wifi/BT module for this laptop, so I would like to know if any modern module will work now that the BIOS is upgraded.

Thanks.

[banhien]

@waninick 

Your machine is a business class machine which was built around 2012/2013 therefore upgrade to new wifi adapter is none/impossible. You can use the following list

Atheros 9485GN 802.11b/g/n 1x1 WiFi and 3012 Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter 655795-001
Broadcom 4313GN 802.11b/g/n 1x1 WiFi and 20702 Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter 657325-001
Intel Centrino Wireless-N 2230 670290-001
Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 670292-001
Ralink WLAN Ralink Ripple3 RT5390F_802.11 b/g/n 1x1 PCIe HMC 670691-001
Atheros AR9485 802.11b/g/n 1x1 WiFi Adapter 675794-001
Atheros AR9565 802.11bgn 1x1 WiFi + BT4.0 combo Adapter 690019-001
Ralink RT3290LE 802.11bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter 690020-001
Ralink RT5390R 802.11bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi Adapter 691415-001

Or you can use USB dongle

Regards.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, @waninick 

The only dual band wifi card that you can surely upgrade to would be this one, because it is listed in your notebook's service manual.

Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235   HP part # 670292-001.

You should be able to find the card on eBay.  Search by the HP part number, not the model of the wifi card.

If you want to experiment with a better card, you can see if this one works...

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11 ac 2x2 WiFi + BT 4.0    HP Part # 710661-001

HP does not release any info on what model notebooks have whitelists or not.

What we find out, is from folks that try to upgrade the wifi cards and report the results here.

I cannot find any posts regarding your specific notebook where someone has upgraded the wifi card to a different model.

What I have learned over the years is this...

All HP notebooks made in 2011 or earlier have BIOS whitelists.

Most notebooks made in 2012 have BIOS whitelists.  Like 90%

Yours would probably fall into that 90% have whitelists category, but you might get lucky.

I know for a fact that the dv6/7-7xxx model series with the Intel 3rd gen core processors made in 2012 does not have a BIOS whitelist and some G6/g7-2200/2300 notebooks do not have them, and those were all made in 2012, as was yours.

Between 50% and 75% of notebooks made in 2013 do not have BIOS whitelists.

90% of notebooks made in 2014 or later do not have BIOS whitelists.

That is what I know.

[waninick]

Well, then, I will look for that part, since I cannot expect to get to the more modern standards.

I thank you for your feedback, as well as that from the others that have responded.

TimG

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You should be able to find it on eBay.

Try and get one where you see an actual photograph of the item for sale with that part number on the 'Replace with HP Spare' label, or that it has the same SPS number as the part number.

670292-001 | eBay

It's still a decent card...will give you up to 144 MBPS on the 2.4 GHz wifi band, and up to 300 MBPS on the 5.0 GHz wifi band.