
Solution to Wi-Fi problems on HP laptops with Realtek RTL8723BE NICs (2016) - tbking
https://github.com/tarunbatra/fixRTL8723BE
======
LeonM
This should have a [2016] tag, also wondering why this pops up on HN all of a
sudden?

It's been a long known issue with some WiFi cards (not just the RTL cards)
that some manufacturers don't connect both antennae on some models of
portables, so you should update your configuration accordingly (on Linux), or
use the driver supplied by the machine manufacturer (with the correct config)
rather than downloading the driver from the RTL website.

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dz0ny
This is not only for HP(see it in Acer, Lenovo... ). They leave the one ANT
connector disconnected on cheap laptops because there is no antenna for it.

Drivers will default to a mixed mode where both antennas work(one receiving
one transmitting), now if you install drivers on Windows from official driver
package it will work as intended because install will configure drivers to
only user ANT1. And you can do it manually if you chose not to install
drivers, "the official" way.

I'm not making an apology for mentioned companies just clarifying that this is
known thing for cheap laptops.

~~~
tbking
I haven't noticed that pattern. for example my ₹30,000 Lenovo works fine but
₹50,000 HP doesn't.

~~~
zeusk
$465 and $775 aren't exactly cheap and premium.

Premium lines usually start at $1000 ~ $1200.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
That would correspond to HP's ZBook or EliteBook lines. They do have genuine
2x2 multi-antenna setups. There's nothing "Pro" about a $775 "ProBook".

Lenovo makes more business-oriented laptops in general, but the Ideapads are
definitely their low-end (and come with 1x1 antennas - found at least one with
a single antenna and dual-band wireless chip [1]). The Thinkpad T-series
portables or W- (now P-series) workstations are definitely the way you want to
go. And they do have genuine multi-channel Wifi solutions.

[1] -
[http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Export/20170710/110449747/id...](http://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Export/20170710/110449747/ideapad%20300%2014%20single%20model%20201707101104.pdf)

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sschueller
Great, already replaced that laptop with a thinkpad. Never buying or
recommending an HP laptop ever again.

~~~
dahauns
There are Lenovo notebooks with exactly the same problem. By your logic, you
should sell the Thinkpad as well...

~~~
HowardMei
HP has another problem: [https://www.howtogeek.com/307311/how-to-check-if-
your-hp-lap...](https://www.howtogeek.com/307311/how-to-check-if-your-hp-
laptop-has-the-conexant-keylogger/)

The Lenovo has ruined the good old IBM Thinkpad but it's still better than HP
in any sense.

Dell and Asus are producing top notch laptop these days.

~~~
dahauns
Yeah, and Lenovo had Superfish and LSE.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a huuuge Thinkpad fanboy. But the argument "it's still
better than HP in any sense" just doesn't hold water in its generality.

What is "it" in this context? Lenovo makes lots of laptops, from lowest end
consumer to high end business models that have very little in common build-
wise, same as HP.

You can't just compare a Thinkpad with a low-end Pavilion, just as it doesnt
make sense to compare an entry level Ideapad with a ZBook or EliteBook.

------
Theodores
I thought this was never going to be fixed on my Lenovo Yoga laptop. Many
wifi-dongles later I went wired ethernet with a crossover cable to a
Chromebook that may not have niceties like a CPU but it does stay locked on to
the weakest wifi signal in a highly congested area.

I rate the likelihood of this fixing anything as highly unlikely - compiled,
installed, rebooted with both wifi aerial options and the machine is still
somewhat deaf.

~~~
mschuster91
> rebooted with both wifi aerial options and the machine is still somewhat
> deaf.

Hmm. Laptop wifi antenna cables run through the hinges into the screen. Which
means it's very well possible they're damaged or torn (and given your
description, since manufacture).

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gbrown_
The title/ synopsis is somewhat misleading. While it may have been a HP
problem there's no mention of the specific fault. Indeed it's just a script to
download and install the latest rtlwifi drivers. Also given that apt is
mentioned in the script I guess this seen on Debian/ Ubuntu distros (unsure of
version), but who knows other distros that may ship later drivers may be fine.

TL;DR Vague repo is vague.

~~~
tyingq
It points to another repo[1] that says this:

 _" Added March 16, 2016: All branches of this repo now support the ant_sel
module option for rtl8723be. In addition, patches to implement this feature
have been submitted to the linux-wireless repo. If accepted, they should
appear in kernel 4.7; however, they will be backported to kernels 4.0 and
newer when they reach mainline."_

It's the antenna selection that fixes the problem.

[1]
[https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new](https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new)

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DiabloD3
I don't know what the bug is, but if it's a hardware problem, can't HP be
forced to fix it under warranty?

~~~
f4stjack
The "bug" is HP only connects one of the antennae input of the wifi card. So,
linux can use the card in theory (it has the drivers), but in practice it
doesn't work unless the wifi ap is very close. The solution is to force its
conf file to use the other antennae. (ant_sel = 2).

In ubuntu you had to download a driver sourcecode, compile it and modprobe it
to the system but to my surprise latest fedora core worked when I did the conf
magic I mentioned, so maybe the updated versions use the rtlwifi package.

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lucb1e
Readme is extremely brief. Looking in install.sh, it's just a wrapper around
another repository:
[https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new](https://github.com/lwfinger/rtlwifi_new)

~~~
tbking
I don't think it's just a wrapper. It's a script which does 'n' tasks in 1
command. One of the command is applying those drivers, but the critical part
is the configuration to select the second antenna.

------
oregontechninja
My HP x360 had a little wifi trouble at first on every linux distribution. I
actually had a bash script on USB to fix the issue until there was better
support. In the past few months, Ubuntu and OpenSuSE have worked out of the
box.

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milankragujevic
I actually noticed this on most newer cheap laptops. It's annoying, but can be
fixed (I think, I haven't tried) by buying a cheap (less than $1) Drone
antenna from China (2.4G models) and plugging it into the other port.

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snarfy
My solution was to replace the realtek with a $16 intel based wifi card. I
spent some time trying to fix the realtek but ultimately my time is money.

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sizzzzlerz
I have a 3-year old HP LT which, when Windows 8 was installed, never had wifi
issues. When Windows 10 came on, it started dropping the connection. Some
times, I could reconnect but usually, it had to be rebooted. I tried new
drivers and suggestions I found but nothing solved the problem. Finally, I
bought one of those USB WiFi dongles, configured the system to use it, and my
network issues went away. I have no idea if this is a solution to the original
problem but I'll stick with the dongle as long as its working.

~~~
tbking
This solution works on Linux. Official HP drivers are usually the best way on
Windows.

