[gutterman]

So I just got out of a chat room with HP support. I have had my laptop less than a year and conveniently my warranty has expired. The tech. did confirm that my Wireless Card is having issues and needs to be repaired. For $298, I am not sending my laptop to HP. Especially when I paid about $1000 for it.

Could anyone give me some suggestions in replacing the wireless card. Or at least confirm my idea?

I'm thinking of finding the part, just not sure how to find the exact wireless card needed. Then just referring to the manual provided by HP to replace a wireless card. I am not sure if there is an soldering involved, which I am new to. So any suggestions to resolve this debacle would be EXTREMELY APPRECIATED!

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I out of personal experience will never mess with a laptop unless it's RAM, Hard Drive or the CD-Player.
Laptops are extremely compact and it's easy to damage other parts of the motherboard.

If there is a manual which you can follow to replace the wireless card see if you can get HP to tell you which card it is and if you can buy only the card from them. (Not the service to replace it.) That way you get the exact same wireless card that is supposed to be in the laptop.
This is the best advice I can give, maybe there's other people that know more about working with laptops.

Regards,
Olrik

[Artellos]

I out of personal experience will never mess with a laptop unless it's RAM, Hard Drive or the CD-Player.
Laptops are extremely compact and it's easy to damage other parts of the motherboard.

If there is a manual which you can follow to replace the wireless card see if you can get HP to tell you which card it is and if you can buy only the card from them. (Not the service to replace it.) That way you get the exact same wireless card that is supposed to be in the laptop.
This is the best advice I can give, maybe there's other people that know more about working with laptops.

Regards,
Olrik

[gutterman]

Thanks for the suggestion. I figured out what to do I think. I found the part # out of HP's manual for my laptop. It specifies how to remove the card and what part # is needed for replacement. They actually have a handy video of a WLAN card removal and reinstall so I feel confident about doing it now. I was nervous at first because I couldn't tell that the WLAN antennas are clipped on, not soldered like I previous thought. So from the 298 dollars HP told me it would cost them. Mind you, I asked them what EXACTLY my $298 was going to. They said shipping, labor and parts. That means about $225 is going for shipping and labor. This has officially tarnished any morale I had in support for HP. Thanks! Haha.

[Artellos]

I'm glad you found a cheaper solution.
I wish you good luck with removing and re-installing the WLAN card!

Regards,
Olrik