Replacing WiFi adapter on Samsung ultrabook disabled sleep, restart and shutdown.

simple0

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I have updated the OS (install from scratch) on a Samsung Ultrabook series 5 (NP530U4B-A01US) from Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate to Windows 8.1 64-bit Enterprise. I have also replaced the single band WiFi N300 adapter with a dual band AC1750 network adapter. Everything works fine, with one exception. The laptop cannot turn off the power for the WiFi card. Because of this, the sleep, restart and shutdown don't work anymore. When using any of these commands, Windows turns off the display and writes to the hard disc what it needs, but the WiFi and power LEDs are left on. To use the laptop again, I have to hold the power button for six-seven seconds to turn off then on the computer. The WiFi card can not be disabled with the Fn+F12 function either. It seems the command to power off the WiFi adapter is somehow hard coded in the BIOS and the new adapter does not understand it.
Is there anything I can do to restore the three power off functions, other than installing back the old N300 adapter?
 
Solution
I suppose you could change the wifi card installed, if the original one isn't soldered on. The BIOS on those machines as you said does prevent most upgrades, the BIOS actually most of the time prevents these sort of upgrades, though people think it shouldn't. Your only option is to use the original or a USB wifi card.

Hope the issue is solved.

simple0

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Thank you for your quick answer. After Windows writes all it needs to hard disc, everything is stopped (including hard disc), except the WiFi card, which prevents the laptop from being powered off (or sent to sleep). At that point, I can hold down the power button for a few seconds and the laptop powers off (both power and WiFi LEDs go off). Since everything from memory was already written to the disc, on restart Windows does not complain that it has not been shutdown correctly.

What I'm trying to figure out is if there is any way to replace a WiFi card in a laptop, with a different brand and model, without affecting the power off functions. If the command to turn off the WiFi adapter is hard coded in the BIOS, then the laptop can use only its original WiFi adapter.

I have also a Lenovo laptop. On this one, there is a list with allowed WiFi adapters hard coded in the BIOS. The laptop won't even boot with a different WiFi network adapter. However, I found a modified BIOS at bios-mods.com, which has that list removed, thus allowing the installation of any WiFi card in the laptop. I did not try that yet, but I plan to, because I have an AC router. I wonder if I'm going to run in the same problem, because the power off command for the WiFi adapter is specific to the card installed by the OEM.
 

simple0

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Yes, I have some USB network adapters. They are not ac though. I'm puzzled because I replaced the WiFi card in an older (2009) MSI netbook because it was too slow. It works fine (faster) with the new card, but it doesn't have any power off problems. It seems that only some manufacturers (like Samsung, or Lenovo) are messing with the BIOS to prevent users from replacing OEM WiFi adapters. Anyway, thank you for jumping in!
 
I suppose you could change the wifi card installed, if the original one isn't soldered on. The BIOS on those machines as you said does prevent most upgrades, the BIOS actually most of the time prevents these sort of upgrades, though people think it shouldn't. Your only option is to use the original or a USB wifi card.

Hope the issue is solved.
 
Solution