What is a bad design ?

I wanted to replace my Wi-Fi adapter (Intel Wireless-AC 8265) in my notebook HP EliteBook 840 G5 from early 2019. This is the original Wi-Fi adapter that came with the notebook.





For this reason, I bought an Intel Wireless-AX 210 adapter.



When I opened the bottom cover to take out the old Wi-Fi adapter and fit in the new one, I came across a problem. I could not fit the antenna connector to the new Wi-Fi adapter. Then I noticed something. A cylindrical piece was stuck in the antenna cable head. It was interfering with the antenna connector on the new Wi-Fi adapter socket. I took the broken piece out. Then I could fit the antenna head back in place.

After checking the old adapter, I saw that main antenna socket outer cylinder (ground wire) was completely broken. The auxiliary antenna socket outer cylinder was also partly damaged.

I do not think I caused the damage on antenna sockets.

What I want to say is, the antenna sockets on the Wi-Fi adapter are so tiny and fragile that most probably the sockets were damaged during when the notebook was assembled in HP factory.

I hope this post helps forum members who wish to replace their INTEL Wi-Fi adapters in their notebooks.

Happy computing, everyone.

I agree.

Those little antenna cables are extremely fragile. You have to put them in carefully and press down with very little force.

You can probably get a new cable at DigiKey. They carry all kinds of that stuff.

www.digikey.com

I would search first for RF cables, then narrow your search by length and size of the connector (pretty standard but I forget the number). If in doubt, download the datesheet and compare the size of the connectors.

If that doesn't work, search for "Antenna cables > wifi cables" Something should pop up.

You might be able to save this after all.

I did a little snooping. I think you are looking for something like this:



It's available from DigiKey. They have a number of lengths available.


And here is the master link for searching:


Good luck.

Thank you very much for the cable links. Those cables look perfect. But unfortunately, I think importation may not be possible to my location from Canada.

I replaced the old Intel wireless card with a new Intel wireless card. It seems to work perfectly at the moment. Only the old card was damaged, not the cables.

The bad thing is, at first I didn't realize that the broken outer ring was stuck inside the antenna connector head. It is too tiny. So I forced the cable head a little bit harder to fit into the socket on the new card. It did not fit into the socket. Then the broken piece dropped, which made me realize why the antenna cable head did not fit in. Fortunately, I found the broken piece and took it off the inside of the notebook. Otherwise, it might cause short circuit between chips legs.



Anyway, my cat Yoda and I thank you again.

Happy computing.