AC 7260 frequent ping spikes

[idata]

Anyone has had issues with this card? I cant seem to get rid of the regular and frustrating ping spikes. Im on Windows 7, running a Dell Precision 3800 laptop. I'm on an ASUS AC68U router, though Ive tried others with the same result. Ive also tried different driver versions and even reformatted my system to no avail. Anyone know whats going on? The collective knowledge of the internet seems rather divided and inconclusive on this matter despite my scouring of its depths over the last few days. Its definitely something to do with the wireless card. I just dont know what.

Here is the results I get when I ping my router. As you can see its sitting pretty dandy at 1ms and then it suddenly decides to explode to some ridiculous number for a second or two then it goes back to normal again.

Pinging 192.168.1.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=160ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=190ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=109ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=82ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Reply from 192.168.1.1: bytes=32 time=80ms TTL=64

<span style="color: # 333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial,...

[SKip1]

@jonathan_intel still waiting for your reply.........................................................................................................................

[jbenavides]

The WLAN AutoConfig has many functions, it is a component of Windows* and not directly from the adapter's driver. It enumerates wireless network adapters installed on the computer, manages IEEE 802.11 wireless connections, and manages the wireless connection profiles that contain the settings required to configure a wireless client to connect to a wireless network. WLAN AutoConfig allows you to connect to an existing wireless network, change wireless network connection settings, configure a connection to a new wireless network, and specify preferred wireless networks. WLAN AutoCofig also notifies you when new wireless networks are available.

We are continuously working to improve our drivers, and actually, version 18.40.0 was released for the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/75439/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-7260 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/75439/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-7260

We strongly advise to use the new driver. A clean install is highly recommended (uninstall and delete previous drivers from Device Manager before installing the new one).

If the issue persists, we advise you to try the OEM drivers, or the fixes mentioned by other users in this thread:

- Using the Scanwhenassociated fix.

- Disable Bluetooth.

- Change default wireless network settings for your adapter and router in order to match the capabilities of your network.- In Windows® 10, disable Windows features, such as location services, WiFi sense, P2P updates, Cortana.- Use the drivers provided by your computer manufacturer, or an older version of Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software

[SKip1]

jonathan_intel schreef:

The WLAN AutoConfig has many functions, it is a component of Windows* and not directly from the adapter's driver. It enumerates wireless network adapters installed on the computer, manages IEEE 802.11 wireless connections, and manages the wireless connection profiles that contain the settings required to configure a wireless client to connect to a wireless network. WLAN AutoConfig allows you to connect to an existing wireless network, change wireless network connection settings, configure a connection to a new wireless network, and specify preferred wireless networks. WLAN AutoCofig also notifies you when new wireless networks are available.

We are continuously working to improve our drivers, and actually, version 18.40.0 was released for the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/75439/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-7260 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/75439/Intel-Dual-Band-Wireless-AC-7260

We strongly advise to use the new driver. A clean install is highly recommended (uninstall and delete previous drivers from Device Manager before installing the new one).

If the issue persists, we advise you to try the OEM drivers, or the fixes mentioned by other users in this thread:

- Using the Scanwhenassociated fix.

- Disable Bluetooth.

- Change default wireless network settings for your adapter and router in order to match the capabilities of your network.- In Windows® 10, disable Windows features, such as location services, WiFi sense, P2P updates, Cortana.- Use the drivers provided by your computer manufacturer, or an older version of Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software

And once again, an updated driver (version 18.40.0) did not fix this...

The OEM driver has the same issue...

And really, you've got to be kidding me. Suggesting 5 work-arounds mentioned in this topic to your customers!? That's insane!

Just. Fix. These. Drivers. PLEASE!

[FJans2]

Hello all. I've recently bought 2 AC 7260 cards and I've noticed the issues everyone else has.

What I've gathered though, is that NO MATTER WHAT settings I apply (see all posts above) - it fixes my latency issues for a short while. After 1-2 minutes, it reverts to the high-latency state it was before. I change one minor detail (like prefer 2.4 GHz net yes/auto) and it goes back to good latency.

Just wanted to post it, don't know if it makes sense.

Windows 10 64-Bit, fresh install.

18.40.0.0 Pro drivers.

/Teazle

[RDoug3]

If the user has to disable default features on their computer, the product is faulty. I can't understand why the reviews were good, searching "intel 7260 problems" brings up a TON of results. Also, downloading and installing 18.40 software gives me the drivers from January. This card performs at half the downstream as other devices in the home in the same location and I experience the same high latency spikes regularly fluctuates connection speed as well. Just say "sorry we sold you a bad card" so everyone can move on.

[Ifjkg]

It's really a big problem, lots too read about on the forums (others than this also!). A large number of people will even not know why or that they have this problem. Lot's of laptops etc with this series of wireless adapters with the problem (AC 3160-7160 etc)

[KKlov]

The latest driver was not better (if anything worse) then older drivers (With default settings, had to change them), including most of them that was made for Windows 8 when I had W8 (I had this issue for 2 years, dont hold your breath guys..) There are threads regarding this issue that are over 100 pages long, and still I find intel support claiming "other reasons" are to blame.. I have full signal on my Wireless card and running 5.2 GHz, I dont use microwave ovens or anything else that are interfeering, nor other persons around With same channel on wlan.

However what made the situation from pulling hair to be able to just go to being normally frustrated was (With the latest driver 18.32.0) enable U-APSD, roaming agg. set to lowest, set pref band (5.2 in my case). I suspect that enable U-APSD helped out this time, however when I had W8 (same computer and router) it helped when I disabled it..

You can also do the following that will disable roaming, it have helped lots of others, Worth trying out.

1. Open Registry Editor (Windows 8/8.1, right click where Start button was, click Run, type regedit. Windows 7, click Start, click Run, type regedit)

2. Head to 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System\ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Class \ {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318} [Be sure to expand the 4d36e.... folder]

3. Inside will be a number of folders named 0000, 0001, 0002, etc. Look through all these folders until you get one that says Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 in the registry.

4. Once the device has been found, search for a value called ScanWhenAssociated.

5. If you see this value, set it to 0 on hexadecimal. If you don't see the value, click edit from the top, select new, and click DWORD (32-bit) value. Rename this value to ScanWhenAssociated (exactly as shown). Make sure this value is set to 0 on hexadecimal.

6. Restart the computer. This is important. The changes won't take effect unless you do.

[TLahm]

I had the same ping issues under Win 10. I could fix the high pings with some settings in my Router.

1.: Set Channel to 6

2.: Set 802.11 Mode to mixed 802.11.n and 802.11g (not b!)

maybe it will work for you too...

[ADos1]

Hey guys. I had spent a lot of frustrated time looking for the solution to my problem . I've one of wonderful Intel AC 7260N , the same problem like almost people . every 20 or 30 seconds a big peak of lag make me hate to intel ... but... after a lot of search , I succesfully solve my personal problem , I'd did a downgrade until 17.15.0.5 version of date 02/22/2015... and everythings good really good . try it if the others solutions does not work . Good Luck

[ASome1]

I rewrote this post to reflect new information I learned since the original version.

Several people have written about the background scanning ping spikes being fixed by going back to the 17.x drivers. I never had issues with ping (though I may have had the spikes, they were not the cause of my annoyance), but I did have symptoms that appear to be caused by excessive background scanning. In my case, it appeared to be scanning every few seconds, and when it did, throughput would dip way down for a second or two. Throughput graphs looked sort of like a sine wave.

I tried a bunch of things to fix this. It didn't appear to be radio interference... it was doing it consistently, all hours day or night, and there were no other known wireless networks impinging on my channels (using 5 GHz band). It didn't seem likely that there was interference consistently at all hours of the day from cordless phones or any of the other sources of interference. I wasn't using one of the channels shared with weather radar, and even then it would not be constant interference... it would only be when the beam passed my location.

I've been using the Intel ProSet wifi manager utility along with the Intel driver. One of the options in the ProSet config is to disable scanning while associated. I tried that, but it had no effect at all. Neither did the registry option people have mentioned above or the "Look for other networks while connected to this one" option in the Windows wireless settings for the connection.

At some point, I ended up rolling back to the 16.x driver included with Windows 8.1 along with the 19.x ProSet application, and what do you know, with the option to disable background scanning still checked, the throughput issue vanished. At the same time, I noticed that inSSIDer was no longer showing any wifi networks other than the one the card was associated with while the wireless card was associated (in other words, it had stopped scanning in the background, even if the scans were triggered by InSSIDer instead of the AutoConfig service or ProSet). That's when I began to connect the slowdown to excessive background scanning. It's also when I realized that InSSIDer itself was causing the sine-wave slowdown when it was active by scanning every few seconds (which is by design; it's what it is supposed to do). I'd been using it to try to narrow down the slowdowns, but ironically, it had been causing them.

For a moment, I thought that my use of InSSIDer itself was the cause of all of the slowdowns, so I went back to the 19.x driver and stopped using InSSIDer when I was using the wifi connection. Unfortunately, though, the sine-wave throughput pattern, after a few hours, would come back even with InSSIDer not loaded!

The most logical conclusion was that the slowing was still caused by background scanning, since the symptoms were identical to when I'd been trying to use InSSIDer, exactly. Using the 17.x or 18.x driver with ProSet, which enables the ProSet driver to obey the "do not scan while associated" checkbox, did get rid of the non-InSSIDer slowing (also supporting the idea that it was background scanning causing the issue, though it was a mystery what was causing it now).

Eventually, I tried to swap in a non-Intel wifi NIC for further testing. I expected the throughput to be good; after all, whatever issues would be caused by the Intel drivers would no longer be present, and I knew to close InSSIDer before testing. Well, imagine my surprise when I saw the same sine-wave throughput pattern with the non-Intel card!

After backing up my system, I tried removing possible causes (uninstalling them) one by one, until I found a very unlikely culprit: a screenshot utility whose icon sits there in the system tray and waits for the PrintScreen key to be pressed, when it will save the screen grab to the hard drive instead of just to the clipboard. Such a simple little thing, but it's definitely it... I restored from my backup and uninstalled only the screenshot utility, and the sine-wave slowdown was gone.

It still seems likely, given how the 16.x driver had good throughput with the Intel card even with the screenshot utility loaded, that the slowing is still a function of excessive background scanning. Why this seems to be triggered by a screenshot utility I do not know, but it's the explanation that makes the most sense.

[DMora12]

I found the solution. Config the adapter according to this file:https://www.msi.com/pic/faq/10015790@2015-0206-0239-237248@faq_0000000001178_en.pdf https://www.msi.com/pic/faq/10015790@2015-0206-0239-237248@faq_0000000001178_en.pdf

Install WLAN Optimizer: http://www.martin-majowski.de/ http://www.martin-majowski.de/

Config WLAN Optimizer this way:

Work for me.

[SKip1]

First link states: Set the "Preferred Band" to "Prefer 2.4GHz band".

How about no?

[DMora12]

That is a table. You configurate the wireless adapter according to your wireless network confing. You need to look at the last two colunns of the table.

[NAspi]

Thank you very much for this, streaming mode is definitely the solution to the lag spikes. I can switch streaming mode on and consistently get no lag whatsoever, then switch it off and consistently experience regular lag spikes. I'd recommend anyone with this problem to try streaming mode before anything else, as it's likely to fix it straight away.

In case anyone's wondering what streaming mode actually is, it's described in this MSDN article: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff549314.aspx https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff549314.aspx

"After media streaming is enabled, the driver must not implicitly perform any self-initiated actions that may decrease packet throughput over the media stream. For example, the driver must not initiate any network scans or radio power management on its own while media streaming is enabled."

In other words it tells the driver "please stop screwing with my wifi connection while I'm using it for latency-sensitive applications".

If only Intel support would put a fraction of the effort that their customers do into understanding and resolving issues with their own hardware and drivers. I wonder how many people there are out there with Intel cards who are just putting up with the lag spikes with no idea that such a simple fix exists.

[jbenavides]

Hello Trilby,

Thank you for posting your solution, this will be very useful for other users. We will evaluate this information and hot it may affect the connection.

Regards,

Jonathan B.

[MC10]

Thank you, Vigz!

It helped my Intel Dual Band AC 8260 on a Dell E5470. I first noticed a problem while Steam Streaming. It requires a smooth, constant connection to stream realtime gaming. Every 30-40 seconds it would hiccup which felt like computer lag, but I was able to confirm it was not.

I eventually tried a ping between the PCs and saw the same spikes: normally 5ms became 50-100ms every 30-40 seconds. The same spikes were not seen using an old laptop, same network and same destination PC.

I tried all the usual changes as Intel recommends. I then added ScanWhenAssociated to both places where the 8260 was mentioned. I rebooted. It didn't work... until I turned off Windows 10 location services.