ayyyyyyy, is it possible to replace wifi card from 802.11n to 802.11ax to take advantage of faster speed or will it not work
update:
-an i3 laptop that runs reasonably well(not gaming of course)
-has 2 connectors red and white
-if i buy a card that fits my laptop with newer wireless networking standard(e.g. ac or ax) will it operate on the higher frequency or is it limited by the motherboard itself like for the cpus that require new motherboards if upgrade
yep, exactly have a first gen i3 laptop, runs pretty fast imo with an ssd
Okay. Well I tried to do this exact thing on my first gen i3 laptop (a HP1012 or something ultrabook) just a year ago, so let me share my experience with you. In my case, I was looking to upgrade a wireless n (2.4ghz only) to something ideally dual band, or possibly 5ghz only with a higher speed rating.
At $20 the BCM94360 suited my needs for that. It was 5ghz, 1300mbps. No 2.4ghz, but that doesn't matter at home, and I could carry a cheap tiny 2.4ghz usb dongle for those times when I needed access to the other side of the spectrum.
Problems.
Firstly, in my ultrabook the slot type was an older one. It was mini pcie, whereas most newer slots are m.2 or something. That makes finding better hardware with the right interface hard to find. There's a couple of different standards, as well as full height and half height cards, so you want to be very sure you get the right one.
Secondly, the cost. Old cards are cheap. You can get them for $10-30 most of the time, for the wireless n and lower spec AC. The higher spec cards, however, are much much more expensive. It seems a bit silly to spend $150 on a laptop upgrade, when the laptop is only worth $150.
Thirdly, antennas. In most of these cards, the technology is not really getting better, they're just cramming more of the same into it. That means more anntennas. Wireless N laptops generally only have one or two. So if you're planning for something faster, you'll need to get more antennas for it to work properly. It might be possible to buy the pigtail cords and just route them around the edges, or that might cause some wacky interference. I'm not sure on that part, but if you want the full speed you'll need to figure it out.
Lastly, I got the card, and installed it, only to be hit with a HP bluescreen saying that an unregcognised card had been installed, and please stick to the list of approved cards, making the whole endeavor pointless. Boo.
HP BIOS lock. A list of acceptable Wi-Fi cards is coded into the BIOS to prevent card swapping. You can make it work if you can unpack a BIOS upgrade, hack the list, repack and flash.
@alvian: That's very interesting to know, thank you. I wondered if there might be something like that.
make sense, very detailed recount btw,
I only intend on doing a cheap upgrade of the card and to get one with bluetooth since my computer doesn't.
Only question is, did your computer able to achieve the higher speed using new card.
Btw did you know that newer mobile networks are doing the exact same thing, like 4g cat 9, cat 16, cat 18, cat 20 are just more and more antennas, but they do achieve higher speed so i'd give them that.
@[Deactivated]: Nah, it was rejected by the BIOS. I'd have to do a bios hack like alvian said above.
I ended up breaking it in the process of cleaning it, so I upgraded to a Dell e7440 for $150
@[Deactivated]: Hell yeah son, thats how we do it. Whatever gets the story moving along
I'm pretty happy with the way things ended up. The e7440 is about the same weight and size, but it has a stack of improvements over the HP. Not least of which are a dual HDD bay, 3 usb3 ports, removable battery, and a docking port that has a ton of peripherals.
I tell you, from now on I'm sticking to ex-lease gear. $1500 equipment, dropped to $150 5 years later, because they bought 1000 of them and dumped them all at the same time flooding the market.
@outlander: as long as you stick an ssd in there anything would run spectacularly well for normal tasks
your router or whatever you're connecting to has to also support the same ax standard
Router: No
Laptop: Yes*
Desktop: Yes*
Smartphone: No
(*wifi chip cannot be soldered on)
Also check the antenna configuration of current chips for laptop versions.
Some of them have 2 or 3 antennae connectors
i have updated the post
If your laptop uses one of these style boards, https://www.umart.com.au/INTEL-DUAL-BAND-WIRELESS-AC-8260-22… , you can just plug it in and it will just work. Windows will update the drivers if needed.
EDIT: This one is better https://www.pccasegear.com/products/45362/intel-dual-band-wi…
What is the difference between the two antennas?
How come sometimes, theres a third?
Frequency is limited by the antenna. Whether you will be able to get 5GHz wifi will depend on the specifications of the antenna installed in your laptop.
Official 802.11n specification says that 802.11n is compatible with both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi. Assuming the manufacturer of your laptop installed a fully 802.11n compliant antenna your laptop should work with 5Ghz. However, there is always a chance that the manufacture just installed a 2.4Ghz antenna…
how do you change it to receive on the 5ghz frequency
You need to tear apart your laptop and remove the existing antenna and replace it with one that receives 2.4 and 5Ghz frequency.
yeah i know, but if it supports 5ghz how do i change from connecting via 2.4ghz antenna to 5ghz antenna
@[Deactivated]: You don't need to do anything with the antenna. All you need to do is get a wifi chip that supports 5Ghz and it will automatically find the 5Ghz wifi
I presume you're talking about a laptop inbuilt card?