[SOLVED] Planning to upgrade laptop's ancient Wireless N-150 to Wireless AC

[Vince_Glitcher]

Hey everyone, my friend recently came up to me saying that he would like to upgrade his laptop's WiFi card as the current one could not fully utilize his new fibre connection's speed. His laptop's WiFi is currently capped at 20Mbps (on a good day).

The laptop currently has a single band AzureWave AW-NB097H based on the Atheros AR9004WB chipset. He would like me to upgrade to a card that supports AC WiFi.

I was thinking to get an Intel AC-7260HMW as an upgrade as the form factor fits and his laptop already has both Main and Aux antennas built-in.

So would this work? Can the old antennas effectively receive AC WiFi and 5 Ghz connections? What are the problems I should expect if I proceed with his upgrade?

Laptop specs are as below:

Asus K55VD
Intel Core i5 (Third gen)
Nvidia GT 610m
8GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 10 Home

Any advice and help are greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[jeremyj_83]

Hey everyone, my friend recently came up to me saying that he would like to upgrade his laptop's WiFi card as the current one could not fully utilize his new fibre connection's speed. His laptop's WiFi is currently capped at 20Mbps (on a good day).

The laptop currently has a single band AzureWave AW-NB097H based on the Atheros AR9004WB chipset. He would like me to upgrade to a card that supports AC WiFi.

I was thinking to get an Intel AC-7260HMW as an upgrade as the form factor fits and his laptop already has both Main and Aux antennas built-in.

So would this work? Can the old antennas effectively receive AC WiFi and 5 Ghz connections? What are the problems I should expect if I proceed with his upgrade?

Laptop specs are as below:

Asus K55VD
Intel Core i5 (Third gen)
Nvidia GT 610m
8GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 10 Home

Any advice and help are greatly appreciated, thanks!

There are a lot of problems that can occur doing what you are saying. The biggest issue is with that laptop coming out in 2012 I doubt it even has an M.2 slot to install a new WiFi adapter. Secondly there can be a big can of worms opening laptops and working on them if you aren't already used to do that type of work.

My suggestion is to hope his laptop has a USB 3.0 port (documentation says it should have 2 on the left side) and use a USB 3.0 WiFi adapter.

 

[hotaru.hino]

According to the datasheet on the current wifi card (https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/903439/AzureWave/AW-NB097H/1), it doesn't support 5GHz networks. So you come with the risk that the laptop doesn't have the capability of receiving it either.

I'd say go for it anyway and see if it works, as long as you buy it from a place that has decent return policy. Though make note of which antenna goes where. The AzureWave one seems to have a "Main" and "Alt" port while the Intel ones seem to have "1" and "2", so I presume you can plug "Main" into "1" and "Alt" in to "2".

 

[Vince_Glitcher]

There are a lot of problems that can occur doing what you are saying. The biggest issue is with that laptop coming out in 2012 I doubt it even has an M.2 slot to install a new WiFi adapter. Secondly there can be a big can of worms opening laptops and working on them if you aren't already used to do that type of work.

My suggestion is to hope his laptop has a USB 3.0 port (documentation says it should have 2 on the left side) and use a USB 3.0 WiFi adapter.

I've actually thought of using a USB dongle as well, but my friend does some critical work on that old laptop (hence why he still hasn't gotten a new one), which requires his equipment to be directly plugged into 2 of those USB 3.0 ports. Besides, the Bluetooth functionality on the original card is pretty spotty, and he would like to have a new card where he can connect to wireless headphones when going on meeting calls.

I've actually done some research on the Intel card through the online seller, from the photos he sent me it seems like the card has a PCI-e interface (https://ibb.co/6XxmdkD). Also, I totally understand your concern on opening an old laptop can open a whole can of worms, but I've just recently completely disassembled the laptop for a deep clean, and things are still working fine, so hopefully this card replacement won't give me a headache

According to the datasheet on the current wifi card (https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/903439/AzureWave/AW-NB097H/1), it doesn't support 5GHz networks. So you come with the risk that the laptop doesn't have the capability of receiving it either.

I'd say go for it anyway and see if it works, as long as you buy it from a place that has decent return policy. Though make note of which antenna goes where. The AzureWave one seems to have a "Main" and "Alt" port while the Intel ones seem to have "1" and "2", so I presume you can plug "Main" into "1" and "Alt" in to "2".

True, the risk of not receiving 5Ghz is what I am concerned about. Hopefully, the Intel card gives a good speed bump to the 2.4Ghz band, that is what I am banking if that's the case.

Also thank you so much, on the tip on the antenna configuration!