Compatible wireless-ax network card for Lenovo T480?

[RogerSC]

Having some trouble with a Lenovo ThinkPad T480 laptop that we have here. It has an Intel 8625 network card in it that doesn't like my Asus RT-AX88U router even with wireless-ax disabled on the router. I've tried a couple of the drivers that Intel and Asus say should resolve this, 20.70.x driver versions, one from Lenovo and one from Intel, and neither of them allow the laptop to connect automatically to the RT-AX88U wireless. I can get it to connect, but it used to just automatically connect when the computer came out of sleep, and that's just not happening at this point. I really like the RT-AX88U, and our other 15 clients connect just fine, so I don't want to have to give up on it just for this...

So I need one of a couple of things:
1. A driver for the Intel 8625 that really works with the RT-AX88U.
2. A new network card for the T480 that's compatible with the T480 BIOS, and actually is a wireless-ax network card.

If anyone else has solved this particular problem, I could really use some help here.

 

[Trip]

Scrap the 8265 and move to a Lenovo-whitelisted AX200. FRU is 02HK705 (eBay example). And yes, it will work, but it must be a Lenovo-branded card; not retail Intel or one from another OEM.

Before installing the AX200, completely uninstall all 8265 drivers from Device Manager, then install the AX200, then pull the latest driver from Lenovo via Lenovo System Update or Vantage, then do a complete network stack reset, either via the "Reset" button in the network settings pane of Windows 10, or via the netsh command set (Google for it). If that still doesn't do it, do a nuclear reset of your 88U and reload with latest Merlin, manually reconfigured. If that still doesn't do it, I would look to a 4x4 Qualcomm-based AP solution.

 

[RogerSC]

Scrap the 8265 and move to a Lenovo-whitelisted AX200. FRU is 02HK705 (eBay example). And yes, it will work, but it must be a Lenovo-branded card; not retail Intel or one from another OEM.

Put this wireless-ax network card in the ThinkPad on the strength of the Lenovo reviews it had on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V86Q3WP/?tag=snbforums-20

and it works great. Very fast and consistently connects to the internet when waking from sleep. While I doubt that it's blessed by Lenovo, it's apparently close enough to work just fine. I see it's gone on sale since I got it, and is now $2.00 cheaper *smile*. Love Amazon.

Anyways, very happy to have that problem taken care of.

 

[Trip]

Excellent!

 

[RogerSC]

The Intel AX200 wireless card is doing really well in the ThinkPad. With the RT-AX88U in my family room, in the living room all the way across the house the laptop shows about 580Mbps on an internet speed test with gigabit fiber. Bluetooth is also working well. Can't ask for (or use) more than that, other than having more wireless-ax clients *smile*.

I should add that my wireless-ac iPad Pro gets about 250 - 300Mbps on an internet speed test in the living room, also perfectly usable. Really liking the RT-AX88U.

 

[Trip]

Good to hear, Roger. Just curious, what channel width is being utilized when getting 580Mb/s from the the ThinkPad with AX200?

 

[psychopomp1]

Put this wireless-ax network card in the ThinkPad on the strength of the Lenovo reviews it had on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07V86Q3WP/?tag=snbforums-20

and it works great. Very fast and consistently connects to the internet when waking from sleep. While I doubt that it's blessed by Lenovo, it's apparently close enough to work just fine. I see it's gone on sale since I got it, and is now $2.00 cheaper *smile*. Love Amazon.

Anyways, very happy to have that problem taken care of.

Thanks for the recommendation. Based on your feedback, I bought the same wifi 6 card for my Thinkpad X1 Carbon 5th gen, which originally had the 8260 wifi 5 card. It was very easy to swap the card out and the new card worked immediately using the existing Intel drivers. The card is paired with my Netgear RAX200 router, if i use the lower channel (44) 5ghz radio this connects at the full 2.4 Gbps but 1.2 Gbps if i use the second 5ghz radio using channel 157. I don't want to use any DFS channels (live near an airport) so have decided to stick with 5ghz-1 on the RAX200 on Channel 44. The card connects at 160 Mhz channel width hence why I'm seeing the full 2.4 Gbps link rate in some locations.

My internet package is 330/50 Mbps and the new card gives me around 310 Mbps anywhere in the home. I hope to upgrade to 1 Gig in the future so will be fascinating to see how the card copes. For now very happy and thanks again OP

 

[RogerSC]

Good to hear, Roger. Just curious, what channel width is being utilized when getting 580Mb/s from the the ThinkPad with AX200?

80MHz. I don't have 160MHz. channel width enabled on the rt-ax88u.