Inspiron 15R SE - WiFi Upgrade Intel Centrino Wireless N2230 to Dual Band N6230

Hi,

Dell Inspiron 15R SE newbie here so please excuse my dumb questions and comments.

Has anybody successfully replaced the supplied WiFi Card in the 15R SE (Intel Centrino Wireless N – 2230 = dual stream, single band 2.4GHz) with a better real Dual Band Card (Intel Centrino Wireless N-6230 = dual stream, dual band = 2.4GHz + 5GHz)?

Both cards are WiFi + Bluetooth and use two aerials/antennas.

Does anybody know if Dell use a similar “white list”, encoded into the system BIOS approached, as HP to stop owners replacing parts by themselves?

I am amazed that many people buy Laptops to use in a WiFi environment and do not look hard enough at the specifications of the WiFi Card the laptop comes with.

The only difference I can see between the 15R SE and the XPS 15 is the WiFi card. So Dell and HP charge $400-$500 and even more for a $35 WiFi Card/Part?

I had the same issue with a HP Pavilion DV6-7000 Series Laptop which HP told me I could not change the single band card in that laptop. I found a thread here on notebookreviews that clearly showed that it could be replaced with a number of cards including the N-6230 which I went ahead and did and it worked perfectly. Mind you after watching a video on replacing/repairing the N-2230 in an Inspiron 15R it is a lot mote labor intensive than the DV6.

Thanks in advance for any help with solving this WiFi problem.

 

I don't see an issue with upgrade to the 6230. Both cards are Half-Mini PCIe standard. Both have two antenna connectors. 6230 supports a/b/g/n (depending on the model), 2230 supports b/g/n.

N-2230 Product Brief
N-6230 Product Brief

 

Dell shouldn't have white list.
HP lifted the whitelist on the dv6-7xxx/dv7-7xxx.

Just make sure the card is not HP/LENOVO branded.

 

Has anyone finally tried it? I cannot wait to read the answer!

Cheers