Wireless adapter card compatibility

[Nednil]

I have an older HP 250 G1 laptop with a Qualcomm QCA9565 802.11b/g/n wirless adapter card.  We recently connected to a fiber optic internet provider that provides a 10 Mbps connection.  We can get only about 2.5 Mbps out of it.  We think upgrading to an 8011AC wireless adapter card will give a higher download speed.  Question 1 - is this thinking correct?  2 - what 8011AC card(s) are compitable withe HP laptops and 3- will an external 8011AC  adapter connected through a USB port work with the internal card installed? will it give as fast download speeds as an internal card?

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

What model Intel processor does your notebook have?

[Nednil]

It has an i3 processor

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Your atheros wifi card should have a throughput of at least 72 MBPS, so I don't know why you are only getting 2.5 MBPS out of it.

If your 250 G1 notebook has an i3 processor, and two wifi antenna cables connected to the Atheros wifi card in there now, you can upgrade to this card...

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

The card has a maximum throughput of 867 MBPS.

The card is readily available on eBay or Amazon, and don't cost very much at all.

Do your search by the HP part number, not by the model number of the wireless card.

Otherwise yes, you can install an external dual band AC wifi adapter.

[Nednil]

Is it possible that one or both of the antenna wires has become broken or disconnected?  At the closest point to the modem the download speed improves.  At further points it slows way down where other devices have good (9+ Mbps) speeds.

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

It is possible that one of the antenna cables is not connected securely to the wifi card.

It is highly unlikely that a cable is broken, but not impossible.

The cable would possibly break due to opening and closing the notebook many times.  

The break point would be between the display and the body of the notebook.

There was one recent incident of this happening on a completely different model notebook.

If both antenna cables were disconnected or broken, then there would be no wifi reception at all.

[Nednil]

Thanks,  I will look into that possibility.  If it were an easy fix I think i could have found it earlier.

Nednil

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.