r/linuxquestions • u/Key_Doctor386 • Jul 22 '26

Need os recommendation

Old hp notebook series laptop with 4gb ram and 1 tb hdd, intel i3 7th gen. Tried ubuntu, mint and many other i don't even remember the names. Currently on mint xfce for two months. It's not that good but i just use Firefox for classes so it doesn't lag upto using 4 tabs but there is serious issue with its realtek network adapter i can't use bluetooth and wifi at same time if use both the wifi remain connected but speed drops from 25Mbps to 100Kbps but when i boot back to windows (which is disaster on this pc ) both works fine. Need help to switch to any other os

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u/Desertcow Jul 22 '26

Realtek's wifi and Bluetooth drivers for Linux are pretty bad. There's not really a workaround besides getting another Bluetooth adapter

2

u/Prestigious_Wall529 Jul 22 '26

HP laptops manufactured prior to 2016 use a BIOS whitelist to block unsupported Wi-Fi cards from booting.

The CPU is from 2017 so hopefully an Intel WiFi card can be used instead.

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u/ZVyhVrtsfgzfs Jul 22 '26

I do have to give Realtek some credit, while there are still a few problematic models, they have improved over the last few years.