Replacement of Mediatek MT7630E 802.11 bgn wireless card

[TryingMyLuck]

Hi,

Pardon me if I have not thoroughly searched through the entire forum, but I haven't been able to get sufficient information.

I currently own a Pavilion 14-n001tx, which has a Mediatek MT7630E 802.11 bgn 1x1 Wi-Fi + Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter. The problem is that I have recently gotten an AC router, and am therefore looking to upgrade my wireless card. However, I have read that there might be a whitelist of cards that are approved by the BIOS?

From the service manual, only the following devices are whitelisted:

Intel Wireless-N 7260BN 802.11 bgn 2x2 Wi-Fi + BT 4.0 combo adaptor

Mediatek MT7630E 802.11 bgn Wi-Fi Adapter and Mediatek Bluetooth 4.0 Adapter

Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 802.11 bgn Wi-Fi Adapter 675794-001 Ralink RT3290LE 802.11 bgn 1×1 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 Combo Adapter 690020-001

Realtek RTL8188EE 802.11 bgn Wi-Fi Adapter 709848-001

As you can probably see, there are no AC capable cards here. However, I would like to ask if the whitelist is still applicable for newer devices, and whether it would be possible for me to replace my card with an dual band AC-capable one with Bluetooth as well?

Thank you for taking the time to read the chunk of text up there!

[go2]

TryingMy Luck

Yes the Card is Whitelisted and works good with a AC Router

Intel Wireless-N 7260BN 802.11 bgn 2x2 Wi-Fi + BT 4.0 combo adaptor

[TryingMyLuck]

Sorry, but isn't that card not 802.11 AC capable? I am looking to upgrade to one.

[go2]

no is 802.11 AC capable

read

http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/product-briefs/dual-band-wireless-ac-7260-bluet...

http://ark.intel.com/products/75439/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-7260

[TryingMyLuck]

Isn't that a different model? The one whitelisted is 7260BN, whereas the model numbers in the link you provided are 7260HMW, 7260NGW and 7260SDW.

It's also clearly stated that it's Wireless-N, and only 802.11 bgn.

[go2]

no different

Intel had changed the Vendor ID for the Bios

it works all

support

IEEE 802.11abgn, 802.11ac, 802.11d, 802.11e, 802.11i, 802.11h, 802.11w

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

HP seems to have removed the BIOS whitelists from HP notebooks made in the last 18 months or so.

I don't believe you would have any problem installing this model AC card in your notebook, assuming it has two wireless antennas connected to the present card (some model notebooks only have one antenna connected to single band cards).

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

http://www.amazon.com/710661-001-Intel-Wireless-ac-7260-Pci-express/dp/B00PDLCFL8

 (ships from China).

The service manual indicates it is a user replaceable part, so access to the card should not be too difficult.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04440390

[TryingMyLuck]

Hi Paul,

Thank you for the reply!

The laptop was bought in August 2013, so it has been about 25 months since it came out. Do you think it would still be a safe bet to replace the card?

I have checked the current card, and it has 2 connections to it. I would like to confirm that this means it has 2 wireless antennas connected?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

While I cannot guarantee with 100% certainty that a card not listed in the service manual will work, I am pretty confident based on the hardware in your PC, and the fact that the Intel 7260 Wireless N card was offered as an option, that there is no BIOS whitelist in your notebook.

If you see two thin wires attached to the wireless card right now, then you are good to go.  Those are the antenna leads.

Some notebooks have one white wire and one black wire, and some have two black wires.

All wireless cards have two terminals to connect the antenas to, but on some notebook models, only one terminal has a wire connected to it.  That would be a show-stopper as you would literally have to take the whole notebook apart including the display panel area to properly run a second antenna.

[TryingMyLuck]

Good news!

I tried replacing the WLAN module with a old BCM 4313 I had lying around, and it worked perfectly. This would definitely mean that the whielist has been removed on the Pavilion 14-n001tx. I will buy a 7260 AC chip, and confirm that it works here before i mark this thread as Solved.

Once again, thank you for your help, Paul!