Cannot Replace WiFi Card (New Card Undetected)

[FedPot]

I've been trying to replace the wifi card in my HP Omen 16 2021 Advantage edition now.
I got an Intel AX200 card online and currently the laptop is running a Realtek RTL8852AE card.

However, even after replacing it and installing the driver for it (with the installer saying the driver's installed successfully), the Intel card won't work and is undetected in Device Manager.
The chipset also stays at Realtek GBE Family Controller and not Intel's.

Is this a hard lock done by HP?

[Pixelfie]

I've read something similar a few years ago. HP (and Lenovo iirc) locked the BIOS so you can't upgrade network card and one other component (RAM?). That's probably happening here.

[Levent]

HP and Lenovo (from my own experience) whitelists their bios to not even boot with third party cards. Lenovo also takes it a step further and even uses different wiring for some of their wireless cards.

[LionSpeck]

4 minutes ago, Levent said:

HP and Lenovo (from my own experience) whitelists their bios to not even boot with third party cards. Lenovo also takes it a step further and even uses different wiring for some of their wireless cards.

5 minutes ago, Pixelfie said:

I've read something similar a few years ago. HP (and Lenovo iirc) locked the BIOS so you can't upgrade network card and one other component (RAM?). That's probably happening here.

This is disgusting, I'd never heard of this before. Next step is a T2 "Security" Chip?

[FedPot]

does this mean I cannot change the wifi card at all? or can I still switch it to something Realtek as well?

[Donut417]

6 hours ago, FedPot said:

does this mean I cannot change the wifi card at all? or can I still switch it to something Realtek as well?

It means you need to find the white list for your computer and buy off that list. 

[Alex Atkin UK]

5 hours ago, Donut417 said:

It means you need to find the white list for your computer and buy off that list. 

Which almost certainly wont have been updated with newer cards so you might be stuck with nothing better than you already had.

[Falcon1986]

On 2/17/2022 at 3:32 AM, FedPot said:

I've been trying to replace the wifi card in my HP Omen 16 2021 Advantage edition now.

What is the exact model number? HP laptops have variations based on the region of the world they are sold in.

 

On 2/17/2022 at 3:32 AM, FedPot said:

However, even after replacing it and installing the driver for it (with the installer saying the driver's installed successfully), the Intel card won't work and is undetected in Device Manager.
The chipset also stays at Realtek GBE Family Controller and not Intel's.

Did you go into Device Manager and choose to 'Uninstall' the Realtek adapter before shutting down and installing the AX200?