The Wi-Fi card isn't showing up on your device.
The Wi-Fi card isn't showing up on your device.
Hey! I just assembled a PC for my girlfriend, but I forgot to order the Wi-Fi version of the ASRock B850 Pro R motherboard. I only noticed it was missing after putting the system together. I thought maybe it would work with a Wi-Fi card, so I bought an ASUS PCE-BE92BT. Since I’m not super experienced with building PCs, I didn’t verify if it’s compatible with AMD. Turns out it’s an Intel chip and it doesn’t connect at all. It didn’t appear as a PCIe device in Ubuntu, and even when I tried it on my Windows machine, nothing showed up. I also checked with a Wi-Fi card from my old laptop, which was an Intel 1550i, and the same issue occurred. I looked into disabling the slots on both systems but couldn’t find any settings that helped. My questions are: why wouldn’t Wi-Fi cards show up automatically? Shouldn’t they be detected as PCI devices? Is this typical behavior, or did I hit a snag? Could I make a Wi-Fi card work on Linux or Windows? If not, what should I get instead? And please don’t just jump to Ethernet recommendations—this isn’t an option here, especially since my place doesn’t allow it.
Have you checked if you've installed the drivers for the ASUS PCE-BE92BT?
Standard PCI-e cards function as basic PCIe devices. However, they were designed to work exclusively with Intel motherboards, according to the Asus website. I’m unsure which part of the chipset enables this compatibility, but it seems unique to Intel platforms. There don’t appear to be any known solutions around. This is the typical outcome for the product you bought. As I mentioned before, no. You can buy a comparable card using a Qualcomm QCNCM865 chip, which should work with AMD systems. There are also many other brands offering PCIe Wi-Fi 7 cards outside the Intel restriction if you opt for non-Asus models. Keep in mind some cards are only compatible with Windows. You might not want that either. But there’s a workaround for connecting wired Ethernet to your PC—using a router with range extension or repeater mode lets you link via Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi. I don’t suggest relying on USB Wi-Fi adapters for better performance.
Many of Intel's latest WiFi cards don't function well with certain AMD systems. This model seems to be an Intel BE200, which fits that description. On the ASUS website you'll find it notes "not support all AMD motherboards." Intel WiFi drivers are integrated into the Linux kernel, so the BE200 needs kernel 6.5 or higher and BE201 6.11 or newer. Ubuntu Desktop is available at version 6.14. I’d rather just leave it, though—I usually use a MSI Herald-BE WI-FI 7 with a Qualcomm chip, which works nicely. It’s unclear exactly from where the kernel version starts support, but you can get updated mainline kernels on Ubuntu if necessary.
It seems I decided to go with the ASUS model instead, since the MSI one wasn't available anywhere in Ukraine.