HP Locks the Network Card in Their Notebooks

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HP Locks the Network Card in Their Notebooks

The Broadcom 1020 wireless B/G network card that is included in my HP Pavilion Entertainment Notebook dv6119us isn't very good. It can't connect to my wireless G router at all. So I've been stuck on my wireless B router all this time. I've been wanting to replace this network card for a long time. So after getting my MSi Wind U100-279US, I finally have a candidate to swap with.

After digging the Ralink RT2700E wireless B/G/N network card out of the MSi Wind, I plugged it into the HP dv6119us notebook. I screwed everything back and powered it on. During the BIOS boot, I got a loud beep and the following error message.

104-Unsupported wireless network device detected.
System halted. Remove device and restart.

I was shocked with my jaws dropped to the floor. What ridiculous protection is this? There is no good reason why only one network card can be used on any computer equipment. I started digging on the internet. Apparently, network card lock is common practice with IBM, Dell, and HP notebooks (see "Related Links" below).

It seems every time I pay good money for a name-brand product, it bites me in the hand. This is the last time I buy a HP notebook. I'm going back to Taiwanese OEM brands from now on. At least, I'll be able to change out components as I wish.

Chieh Cheng
Sat, 01 Nov 2008 06:22:41 +0000

Sadly to report that the Realtek RTL8187SE also doesn't work in the HP dv6119us. I wish there is a list of network cards that would work.

Chieh Cheng
Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:40:04 +0000

The network card on my dv6119 just stopped working. Now what do I do? The card doesn't show up at all in Device Manager.

Jake
Sat, 17 Sep 2016 01:25:30 +0400

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