Is the Intel 7260 line bad or is it just horrible drivers?

[smapdi]

I recently bought a Gigabyte P34G gaming laptop which came with an Intel 7260N WiFi mini PCI express card. The wireless access point in use for my home network is a 4th generation Apple Airport Extreme which has been running solidly for about 3 years.

I noticed that periodically I would loose internet connectivity while the windows network status would show "Limited Connectivity". Turning WiFi off/on or leaving and re-joining the network would solve the issue but it would re-occur at some random time in the next hour or so.

Thinking it was due to the over-saturated 2.4GHz spectrum, I bought a 7260-AC mini PCI express card which would let me access the network at 5GHz. The install went painlessly and I confirmed that I was connecting on 5GHz but the same issue persisted as before.

I started looking around and found many posts describing the same issue on Intel's own forums: https://communities.intel.com/thread/46162

Does anyone here have a 7260 card running stable at N speeds in windows 8.1? If this thing is a complete dud I will have to get something that works and that also provides bluetooth as the Intel card did both.

 

[L&LD]

I'm using an older Asus laptop with an Intel AC7260 wireless card. Windows 8.1 x64.

No issues. Which drivers are you running?

 

[smapdi]

I'm running 16.8.0.6 which apparently are the latest ones.

 

[L&LD]

Those must be experimental?

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchResult.aspx?lang=eng&ProductFamily=Wireless+Networking&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+Wi-Fi+Products&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+Dual+Band+Wireless-AC+7260

 

[smapdi]

Since it was part of the same family of devices, it seems windows just used the same driver as the part that shipped from Gigabyte.

The 16.8.0.6 driver is on their site so it should be stable:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4636#dl

 

[L&LD]

Not necessarily. I would completely remove any and all wireless drivers and reinstall the one I linked.

 

[smapdi]

I removed all the drivers and installed the 16.6.0.8 drivers from the link. It seemed more stable but I still got limited connectivity after a while too. Anything else I should do?

 

[L&LD]

Is the Airport Extreme using separate ssid's for the two bands?

Is the AE up to date firmware wise?

Have you:

Deleted the connections from your laptop

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/wifi-profile-manager-windows-8


Or set a new ssid with no spaces or special characters?


Have you rebooted the AE (leaving it off for at least 10 minutes or more)?

If the above doesn't work; I would try another router first (Apple's walled garden and all) instead of waiting for Apple to acknowledge/update their firmware for the newer card.

Another router may not fix it either; but you'll know immediately if it is the AE router or the card then.

(Did you completely remove any and all old drivers from the laptop? I would be 'rolling back' as far as you can, checking Add/Remove Programs for any wifi software and otherwise making sure that the only driver installed is the current/linked one - with no remnants of any previous driver).

 

[smapdi]

Is the Airport Extreme using separate ssid's for the two bands?

Is the AE up to date firmware wise?

Have you:

Deleted the connections from your laptop

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/wifi-profile-manager-windows-8


Or set a new ssid with no spaces or special characters?


Have you rebooted the AE (leaving it off for at least 10 minutes or more)?

If the above doesn't work; I would try another router first (Apple's walled garden and all) instead of waiting for Apple to acknowledge/update their firmware for the newer card.

Another router may not fix it either; but you'll know immediately if it is the AE router or the card then.

(Did you completely remove any and all old drivers from the laptop? I would be 'rolling back' as far as you can, checking Add/Remove Programs for any wifi software and otherwise making sure that the only driver installed is the current/linked one - with no remnants of any previous driver).

The AE is at the current firmware level and I've deleted all existing wireless connections from my configuration (pretty easy as this thing is 1 week old an only has been used at home).

I set a new 5GHz SSID and had a couple of 5GHz-capable devices connect to it.

I removed all the drivers and went back to the one provided by MS.

I do not think the router is at fault as other wireless clients are connected without issue 24/7 (clients are: Macbook, two Boxee Box clients, WD TV Live, Ooma Telo, Wii U, Xbox360, PS3, LG G2, LG Nexus 4, Brother 2170W, Brother MFC-J450DW, Airport Express).

 

[L&LD]

The only other things you can possibly try is setting the channel to other than Auto (you may have to try each one for a period of time, for each band).

You can also try setting the Country setting in the router and/or the card driver if possible for your systems.

Another thing you might look for is the Apple specific 11d or 11h setting (sorry, can't remember exactly the syntax atm).

If all the above doesn't work; it may simply be an issue with Apple and Intel; a further update to either the AE firmware or the AC7260 card may resolve it then.

 

[sfx2000]

Just as an FYI... if you have McAffee and/or Norton - it can show very similar symptoms.

Just saying... the 7620 is a good card with good drivers.

 

[KGB7]

If the Airport Extreme has Beamforming option, then disable it and see if that resolves the issue.

 

[smapdi]

Just as an FYI... if you have McAffee and/or Norton - it can show very similar symptoms.

Just saying... the 7620 is a good card with good drivers.

The laptop never had a Symantec or McAffee (Intel now I guess) antivirus product. I'm running the MS Defender one that comes with Win 8.

The 7260-AC is great when it's working and Intel has acknowledged that this (or a very similar) issue exists and should have been resolved with the 16.7.0 driver package: http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-034535.htm

 

[smapdi]

If the Airport Extreme has Beamforming option, then disable it and see if that resolves the issue.

The AE is the 4th generation one not the AC model so no beamforming here :-/

 

[azazel1024]

I recently bought a Gigabyte P34G gaming laptop which came with an Intel 7260N WiFi mini PCI express card. The wireless access point in use for my home network is a 4th generation Apple Airport Extreme which has been running solidly for about 3 years.

I noticed that periodically I would loose internet connectivity while the windows network status would show "Limited Connectivity". Turning WiFi off/on or leaving and re-joining the network would solve the issue but it would re-occur at some random time in the next hour or so.

Thinking it was due to the over-saturated 2.4GHz spectrum, I bought a 7260-AC mini PCI express card which would let me access the network at 5GHz. The install went painlessly and I confirmed that I was connecting on 5GHz but the same issue persisted as before.

I started looking around and found many posts describing the same issue on Intel's own forums: https://communities.intel.com/thread/46162

Does anyone here have a 7260 card running stable at N speeds in windows 8.1? If this thing is a complete dud I will have to get something that works and that also provides bluetooth as the Intel card did both.

No, this is apparently a Windows 8.1 issue. If you search on "limited network connectivity windows 8.1" be prepared for a barage of links.

I have the same 7260AC card in my slightly older laptop, running Windows 8.1 and have zero issues. My Asus T100 laptop has chronic "Limited network connectivity" issues and is also Win 8.1. I've been able to improve the situation a bit with an older version of the network adapter driver on the T100, but it still happens with some regularity (every 12-36hrs).

I will grant with my laptop I don't have the same use case as my tablet. The tablet is often on 24/7 and connected standby 18-23hrs per day of those 24. My laptop I use about 2-3 times per week for 15 minutes to 3-4hrs at a stretch. If I did run it 24/7 and just put it to sleep between uses it is possible I might also run in to the issue.

However, I have yet to experience it on the laptop.

 

[cone_head]

Long time lurker and first post.

This is my experience with the….
Intel 7260hmw ieee 802.11ac PCI Express.

On a Laptop: MSI GT70 2OC-017US.
OS: Windows 8.1
ASUS RT N56U Router so I will max out @ 300.

DOS Command: netsh wlan show drivers

Im leaning to a driver issue.

What I did.
Removed and uninstalled the old killer drivers through add/remove as well as the client provided cleaner.

I put the Intel 7260hmw card in and loaded the drivers for both BT and WIFI. All is working and my connection Is between 217 and 300.

After reading through some threads I see folks having issues with this card and after using the netsh to see if I have AC listed I found I did not. Odd, I only see A,B, G and no N in the device properties but im a solid 300 most of the time.

SO I wiped the drivers and reinstalled and no luck, netsh not showing AC, but I see A,B,G, No N or AC…Odd. Still a solid 300 on connection.

Bright Idea…Wipe the laptop and reinstall the OS, letting windows update from 8.0, let all the updates install and found the wireless did not update or install for the card…Make note of that part.

I held back and did not install ANY drivers for the wireless card and updated to 8.1 and let windows complete all the patches for 8.1 and what do I see…Wireless drivers installed through windows update manager. I was about to over-write the drivers but I did netsh on the card first and what do I see…A,B,G,N and …..AC…

I made a system image at that point then installed the 8.1 drivers for BT and WIFI and did another netsh and guess what’s missing…N and AC…..

Restore from the image I made and I now show N and AC. installed only the BT drivers and still showing N and AC.

In Windows 8.1 Im suspecting the drivers package or portion that looks at the card is not properly identifying the AC and not putting it down.

I have also played with it for a bit in Win 8.0 and have yet to see AC listed when using ‘netsh wlan show drivers’ in dos. I don’t know if netsh will show AC in any OS other than 8.1.

With my 300N for me to show a solid 300 (I know this is only the connection speed) I need to use the 5.1 @ 40, Using anything else will lower the shown connection speed.

 

[overdrive31]

16.6.0.8 works fine in all modes, the netsh command doesn't list AC(lists: B, G, A, N), but I have a solid 867Mbps connection running Windows 8.1 32bit. Only thing I can't seem to get working is BT, installed but doesn't function. Do I need to install Intel wireless manager for it to work?

From Intel Driver site:
Note:
The following products do not support Windows 8.1 32-bit.
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-N 7260
Intel® Wireless-N 7260
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 for Desktop

 

[KGB7]

16.6.0.8 works fine in all modes, the netsh command doesn't list AC(lists: B, G, A, N), but I have a solid 867Mbps connection running Windows 8.1 32bit. Only thing I can't seem to get working is BT, installed but doesn't function. Do I need to install Intel wireless manager for it to work?

For BlueTooth? You need to install separate driver for BT. You will find the driver on Intel website. Latest driver is 3.1.xxx.

 

[cone_head]

Bluetooth seems to be the bane of my existence on this laptop.

That’s the primary reason I replaced the card is due to the BT always dropping out on the Killer1202.

As for the Intel 7260hmw ieee 802.11ac PCI Express card I found that if I pair a device using the stock windows 8.0 or 8.1 drivers the BT would just disappear from device manager and an image restore was in-order. If I installed the Intel supplied drivers before I paired any device I had no issue, I also unchecked power management in device manager for the BT.

One thing I have learned with Windows 8.0 and 8.1, If you get a good, solid install…Make a system Image.

 

[overdrive31]

For BlueTooth? You need to install separate driver for BT. You will find the driver on Intel website. Latest driver is 3.1.xxx.

I said I installed BT, only it doesn't function...Comp-re-hen-sion