HP dvx-xxx wifi upgrades?

Ok here goes the story I have a few working HP dv4-1xxx, dv4-2xxxx, dv5-1xxxx, dv6-1xxx and what and want to upgrade the wifi but all I found so far is that 6205 wifi did work on the dv4-1xxx but the listing for the dv4 says only a 6200 wifi will work these are intel Wifi. Here what the pdf service manuals says on the hp dv4.

Intel WiFi Link 6200 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN module
Intel WiFi Link 6200 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN module + Bluetooth
IIntel WiFi Link 1000 802.11b/g/n WLAN module
Intel WiFi Link 1000 802.11 b/g/n WLAN module + Bluetooth

I tried looking on ebay but finding a 6200 that works is harder to know without spending money upon money and loosing money doing so. So has anyone upgrade to the intel wifi 6200 and what did they use to figure which wifi was the right one cause there are whitelisted wifi as well and I found that on one 6205 wifi that didn't work. I currently have intel wifi 5100 in the laptops.

 

The whitelist issue is a real trick… and I still fail to understand why companies like HP & Lenovo continue this practice. The question is, once you’ve purchased the notebook what do they gain by BIOS blocking these upgrades. Do they think that folks will just go out and purchase a new notebook “from them” when “they” are the source of the problem. It’s just so frustratingly stupid. Rant complete.

At-any-rate, I can’t speak to the 6200 series cards but in a DV4t-1xxx an HP branded 5300 series card will work without issue. I did some upgrades to my daughter’s DV4t-1000 CTO this summer ( see 1734 here) and the 5300 works (3x3 MIMO ) very well. You just need to find a 5300 that says “works with HP” on ebay. If you need a specific part number, my daughter will be home for college fall-break this weekend with her notebook and I’ll look it up if needed. (Should have written this stuff down I guess)

Best, Dave

 

It's a real stinker to do such underhanded move when one owns the laptop. It's not like reverse engineering their laptop it's I want to get the best performance from my laptops. Also doing this leaves a bad taste. I did order a 6250 that didn't work and ordered a 6200 from the seller saying it should work so I find out if the 6200 wifi will work if it does I buy more of them to keep around. My laptops have 2x2 only so I tend to stay away from 3x3 of which a few of my laptop have and use such 3 antenna only. But I see how the most recent intel wifi 6200 when it arrives to see how it works.

 

Even our old DV2700tv with Intel 4965 wifi came with 3x3 and the performance advantage on the same network as the DV4t was noticeable...thus the upgrade.

Just a thought... but if you also have a DV5t-1xxx... you might want to check with 2.0 here at MBR. If memory serves me right he has/had a fully modded and tested DV5t BIOS that deleted the whitelist for these units and opened up some additional BIOS options. Then for your DV5t's at least, you could install any wifi card you wanted.

Best of luck, Dave

 

Every laptop+wireless card combination has to be separately tested and approved around the world before it can be sold as it is a whole unit. Whitelisting is a simple way to prevent wild combinations that could in a extremely rare situation cause interference on some sensitive equipment (medical, navigation etc).

I don't like it either. Luckily I have unwhitelisted bios in my 2530p and I'm using Fujitsu WWAN card in it

 

In other words highly unlikely it was a move most likely business motivated to keep hardware sales to their bottom line instead. Rare as they are they are like the word...vapor rare with meaningless results. And I think I used 2.0 mod BIOS to unwhitelist my HP DV5-1245DX unit and will try the 6250 in that and see what happens otherwise I have the 6200 instead in it but at least they are all Intel based chipset.

 

You know there KLF… that’s the best explanation I’ve heard… and that certainly accounts for the long lists of WiFi cards by country in the service manuals. That said, if a particular notebook is certified with a particular WiFi card and is sold in a specific country with said configuration(s), why is there a whitelist?

What I mean is… once a device is tested, approved, and sold to a consumer in a specific market, hasn’t the manufacturer complied with the specific regulation and certification process for the given unit in that country or region. Who (what authority) says they must whitelist to prevent the use of other like devices? Maybe I missed something along the way… but for some reason I was also thinking that Dell doesn’t/didn’t whitelist WiFi? If Dell doesn’t, then why must others?

Anyway, like Storm, I still tend to think that perhaps the use of whitelists has as much to do with some manic marketing concept as it does with RMI. Cool deal with the 2530p though !

 

The obvious point of certifications and testings is of course that the computers and their antennas do not disturb mobile phones, tv reception, wireless pacemakers and whatever else you might think of. Remove certified device and replace it with a more powerful, untested configuration and that's where the "possible problem" might be. In US its FCC testing. Pretty common source for mobile phone leaks too (they often include photos of prototypes).

They could implement manufacturer/type specific connectors also Whitelisting is a lot more cost-effective though. It's not actually the whitelist that bugs me but the encrypted bios that cannot be modified anymore...

Just day before yesterday I heard my colleague rage because he had wrong type of WWAN cards for 100 or so Lenovo laptops. I didn't dare to say anything

...and that bugs me too

I know how and why that is so. I just don't have to like it.

 

Big Ouch !!



Hope the 6250 works out for Storm and his DV5t. With the whitelist removed in the modded BIOS it should unless there is some sort of WiMax conflict issue?

 

Well found out the wifi wires are too short to reach the half height wifi 6250 what a drag.... lol. Hopefully my other hp have longer legs to work with on the wifi.