Question: I have a Dell Inspiron 15R-5520 with an Intel Centrino Wireless N-2230. I just purchased the Nighthawk Netgear router R7000. I would like to upgrade the wireless adapter. I contacted Dell to no avail, and can’t even find an email address for Intel. Do you think that the Intel Network 7260 HMWG Wi-Fi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC + Bluetooth HMC is compatible with the Inspiron 15R? At present I can’t use the 5GHz band. —Carlos H Castillo
The Doctor Responds: It looks like you ought to be able to put that Intel Wireless-AC card into your Inspiron 15R. The Inspiron takes a half-height mini-PCIe wireless card, like the 7260, and the slot is user-accessible— given a generous interpretation of “user-accessible.” You do have to take apart most of the laptop to get to it. Dell’s service manual for your model is at http://bit.ly/1crLreZ, and we found a YouTube tutorial for your model at http://bit.ly/Kedtkr. Be sure to download the appropriate drivers from Intel’s support site. Some laptop manufacturers use a whitelist in the BIOS to restrict which wireless cards you can use with the laptop, but your particular model doesn’t seem to be one of those. Your model seems to have two antennas, and the Intel 7260 has two antenna leads, so everything looks good there. Dell representatives answering other peoples’ questions online seem to indicate that the 15R 5520 can accommodate adapters with 5GHz bands, too. The standard caveat applies— neither Dell nor Intel support or recommend Wi-Fi card installation by anyone but a professional technician, and there’s always the risk that it won’t work. But if it does, well, you’ll have legendary Wi-Fi speed on that Inspiron.
