WiFi Connections: HP laptop unable to find 5Ghz wireless signal?

[RichardVV]

Hello this is my first post 🙂  I just purchased my first laptop and my first wireless router and have been setting them up.

Laptop: HP touchscreen Pavilion 15 notebook 15-n088ca with windows 8.1 (fully updated)

Router: D-Link Dual Band AC1000 2.5GHz & 5GHz bands DIR-810L

I set up the router and worked out the kinks and updated the software.  My laptop finds and connects with the 2.5GHz Band anywhere in the house.  My laptop does not even find or see the 5GHz Band.  However my Galaxy Tablet finds both bands and can connect with both, thought the 5GHz seems weaker.

I noticed that my Galaxy Tablet finds a lot more wi fi networks than my laptop (that are in houses around the street).

I need help troubleshooting and problem solving.  I believe my laptop should find the 5Ghz Band and be able to connect. So I'm hoping this is a software or driver issue, and just a setting that needs to be adjusted.  Any help would be appreciated.  I don't know much about Wi Fi drivers, but I"m a Vista survivor, so I should be able to solve this.

I don't even know what program runs the WiFi software on my laptop? Or where to find it?

Thank You

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

Welcome to the HP Consumer Support Forum.

I'm sorry that I will have to disappoint you on your first post, but according to the product specs at the link below your notebook shipped with a single band (2.4 GHz) wireless card with bluetooth.

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03940371

I can tell this by the decription of the WLAN card.

it is listed as a 1x1 802.11b/g/n WLAN.

Anytime you see a wlan card listed as b/g/n, it is a single band (2.4 GHz) card.

A dual band card would be listed as either a/b/g/n or a/g/n.

When I look at the parts list for your notebook at the link below, the last item listed is the wireless card it has.

Atheros AR9485 802.11b/g/n 1x1 WiFi adapter

http://partsurfer.hp.com/Search.aspx?SearchText=F0Q62UA

Googling the specs for the card, I found this, which will confirm what I have written above.

http://reviews.cnet.com/adapters-nics/atheros-ar9485-802-11/4507-3380_7-35558446.html

So there is nothing wrong with the wireless card or your router.

[RichardVV]

Well that is disappointing, but thank you for the speedy detailed reply.  I guess i bought the wrong router.  So no dual band router would work on that laptop?  Thankfully the router was at a good price, as I do not think I can return it.  I would never have thought to look at such a detail, and I really checked out the laptop before i purchased it, and it is the one I want.

Can a dual band 2.5GHz & 5Ghz wireless card be purchased for this laptop? Thinking down the road.

Thanks for your response. 🙂

[banhien]

Hi,

Many routers broadcast dual band signals. What is yours ? I'm using 1 at home and my desktop, laptops, phones, tablets, TV ... can connect witout any problem.  You may not be able to upgrade the card on your computer UNLESS it's in the supported list.

Regards.  

[Johan_Sitel]

Maybe there is a (driver) update available on this site; http://www.atheros.cz/ that will improve the connection nevertheless 😉

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You did not buy the wrong router. It is just that your notebook can't transmit and receive on the 5.0 GHz band.

it is always good to have a dual band router just in case you have other devices like cell phones or tablets, wireless desktop PC's that can use the 5.0 GHZ band.

Now in reference to your question regarding if you can purchase a dual band card for your notebook...

HP has this horrible policy of locking out any wireless card not listed in the service manual from working.  This is done through a colloquial term called a BIOS "whitelist."

The whitelist has all of the hardware ID's and other aspects of the supported wireless cards in a small database in the BIOS.

If a card is installed and its hardware ID, etc does not exactly match what is in the BIOS whitelist, the notebook will halt on boot until the unsupported card is removed.

Many times--even if there is a wireless card listed in the service manual, for some reason or another, it won't work.

So, normally installing a different wireless card other than the one that came with your notebook is a daunting task to say the least.

Below is the link to the service manual for your notebook.  See item 17 in Chapter 3, on page 24.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c03883388.pdf

Unfortunately, there are no supported dual band cards for this model series.

They are all listed as b/g/n as you can see.

The Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 WLAN module is a dual band card but you have to have a model PC that was made for folks that live in Japan in order for it to work.

[RichardVV]

Thanks:

I think i will leave replacing the wireless card for a later date, and a separate question.  I have already looked online and wireless cards are available from $10 to $60.  Its which one is the proper one that will be the big question.  But I will leave this to a later date, probably the spring.

I am happy with my HP pavilion laptop, and choice of router D-Link AC1000.  And I'm sure i will be back with more questions soon.

[ajinkya94]

Hello I'm ajinkya shirodkar and I have a HP pro book . The problem I am facing is that I am unable to connect to wifi network . As in, in network settings, I am unable to see the wireless network option which I used to see few days ago, which is why I can't even see the network available,let alone the problem of connecting . Plz help resolve the problem.

[SubhasR]

Thanks for your posting.   It saved me a lot of trouble.   I have a similar problem of my HP Envy not seeing 5Ghz.  I called HP Tech Support as I still have warranty.   This tech from overseas went on telling me to a security code from ISP.   I told him that ISP never gave me any security code and other equipment in my home are able to connect to the 5Ghz.   I finally hung up on him and called the next day and that tech, also from overseas, insisted that I call the ISP to get a security code.   My ISP never gave me any security and I don't know how these techies are coming up with security question.     When I convinced him that other devices are able to connect to 5Ghz and just this laptop is unable to connect.   He told me that he wants to reset my laptop to factory default.    At that point I told him that I have to backup my data before I do a factory default reset.     I was very uncomfortable to do a reset because of all the sfotware I have to reinstall and configure.

After I read your posting I checked the laptop specs and found that my WiFi card is listed as b/g/n and it will never connect to 5Ghz.

HP has hired most incompetent technicians.   Disgusting.

[javiy101]

Hi i recently bought a R6300 Smart WiFi Router (AC1750) its dual band with 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz band with a dual core 800 mhz processor. i can connect to the 2.4 Ghz band but my laptop cant even see the 5 Ghz band. i have a toshiba laptop. i saw the last post about a guy having the same problem-

-http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Wireless-Internet-Home-Networking/WiFi-Connections-HP-laptop-unable-to-...

but i didnt quite understand what you were trying to say can you dumb it down for me plz?

My laptop has a intel(R) intel(TM) i7-4700MQ CPU @ 2.40GHz

Can that be the problem or..