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Hikey

Member

Registered: 2024-04-08

Posts: 3

Intel AX210 NGW Wifi card remains hard blocked on HP laptop

Hello,

I upgraded my HP 14 Laptop recently and I had added the AX210 WiFi card to it. When I tried to use WiFi when installing Arch it would not connect as it was hard blocked according to rfkill. I was able to tether a connection to fully install Arch. But even with all the newest firmware, kernel, and WiFi tools/drivers, the card remained hard blocked despite my attempts to unblock it.

I have searched for forums to help my problem and I have seen this same issue multiple times but the solutions did not work for me. I've tried what I could through the bios settings and blacklisted hp_wmi. Even disconnect the power and battery for some time but to no avail. Are there solutions I'm missing?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,230

Re: Intel AX210 NGW Wifi card remains hard blocked on HP laptop

Look for the physical wifi switch button on the HW/the fn combination to enable wifi/or the setting in your firmware disabling wifi. If you're really unlucky HP has implemented a "block HW not directly shipped by HP" switch

Hikey

Member

Registered: 2024-04-08

Posts: 3

Re: Intel AX210 NGW Wifi card remains hard blocked on HP laptop

Thanks for the reply. The laptop does not have any physical switches to turn on/off the wifi and the fn key only toggles the soft block. The bios didn't offer many options and I did not see any option to enable a network adapter or much for the network.

When I use nmcli the wifi card has "sw disabled" in its status, and with other wifi tools i can see it is set to be powered off. I'm not sure if there are still firmware or driver issues that are causing the hard block.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,230

Re: Intel AX210 NGW Wifi card remains hard blocked on HP laptop

What does rfkill list give you?  If it's a hard block it's hard blocked -- as in the HW blocks it -- and needs to be fixed there. Sometimes firmware states are funky at that might get fixed by powering off and taking the batteries out for a couple minutes (or if you can't remove those, power off and hold  the power button for a few seconds during power on)

Other potential culprits, check that there's no airplane mode enabled at least on the system I have here there's a FN button for toggling this. which exact model?

If it's just softblocked a "rfkill unblock all" should unblock it

Last edited by V1del (2024-04-09 07:13:10)

Hikey

Member

Registered: 2024-04-08

Posts: 3

Re: Intel AX210 NGW Wifi card remains hard blocked on HP laptop

Rfkill gives me

0: phy0: Wireless LAN
        Soft blocked: no
        Hard blocked: yes

I did try to fix it by powering it off and removing the battery. The computer used to be an HP 14 fq0020nr but I had replaced the motherboard so it now shows up as HP 14 dq1xxx. It only has an airplane mode key and even when its used with the fn key it only toggles soft block.