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Driver shows N instead of AC

KTull
Novice
2,441 Views

Acer just installed the new Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Plus Bluetooth* in this notebook, but they also installed the "driver only" software. So after downloading the driver (Win7 - 64 bit) + the PROset software from intel and installing that instead, it now shows Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 and there are also two Microsoft Virtual WiFi Adapter device drivers ???

Shouldn´t Device Manager display AC 7260 with Bluetooth, when that also is what is written on the WiFi adapter ? The "802.11ac Mode (5GHz)" setting is also missing in advance settings for driver.

The Intel automatically detect hardware service doesn´t work if the driver is deleted and the hardware is found but unknown. So it has to be manually downloaded.

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tvete
Valued Contributor II
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Are you absolutely sure that Acer installed the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC on your laptop? Can you open the bottom of the laptop and check the model number of the Intel Wi-Fi adapter? I highly doubt that the drivers can make a mistake in recognizing the card. If the drivers say you have the dual band Wireless-N then you have to have that model instead of the Wireless-AC 7260.

The Microsoft virtual Wi-Fi adapter is to create a virtual hotspot for other devices to connect. It's basically creating a hotspot for other devices to tether on your Wi-Fi. Intel Wi-Fi dashboard probably uses that for its hotspot feature.

There are four kinds of Intel 7260 series. Please refer to this product selection guide.

https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/wireless-product-selection-guide.html https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/wireless-product-selection-guide.html?

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KTull
Novice
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It both said in the mail order and was written on the adapter: https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/wireless-products/dual-band-wireless-ac-7260-bluetooth.html AC 7260. The shop is an official Acer repair shop. They installed the new adapter in 30 minutes and showed the installation in device manager, it certainly did say something with 7260 and there were no Microsoft Virtual WiFi adapters. And the driver they had downloaded was on the desktop (wireless_16.1.3_Ds64.exe)

It did not seem like a problem, the computer has rollback software with a recent restore point just before installation. It cleared out the new driver. But when (wireless_16.1.3_s64.exe) driver plus software was installed it was the Wireless-N 7260, don´t know which version. And can´t look inside computer without taking it back to the repair shop. But when he was repairing, he did not leave the table with the computer and the adapter; it is very unlikely that he should just happen to have another intel adapter lying there and which he accidentally switched.

The replaced adapter in the computer notebook was a Broadcom that did not work. The new installed adapter works, but there´s no 802.11ac and no Bluetooth... (Here´s the discussion about the replacement: /message/203227 http://communities.intel.com/message/203227)

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tvete
Valued Contributor II
1,176 Views

@ Smuck,

Can you show me the screenshot of your Wi-Fi adapter on device manager exactly like on the picture below?

@ xxHOOLIGANXX

You are definitely using Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 even if the advanced

 

properties does not have AC only mode. It's impossible get 433.3 Mbps – 520

 

Mbps on Wireless-N since the all kinds of Intel 7260 series are 2x2 streams.

 

This means that the maximum Wireless-N speed is 300Mbps, 150Mbps per stream and

 

channel bonding combines those two streams (40 MHz channel width) to achieve

 

300Mbps. Using Wireless-AC, the maximum speed per stream is 433.3 Mbps so the

 

total speed for 2x2 stream is 867Mbps.
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KTull
Novice
1,176 Views

@ theveterans

Here is picture of device:

Here´s picture of the order:

On the paper it says Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 2x2 EAN: 0735858265140

Uninstalled PROset software again, because after changing advanced wifi settings it stopped while windows 7 network icon was still working.

After just installing driver only for intel ac 7260 it only shows one Microsoft Virtual WiFi adapter now.

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tvete
Valued Contributor II
1,176 Views

Unfortunately, the seller provided you with wrong product! The adapter hardware id 100% matches the Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260.

I searched and opened the .inf file of the 16.1.3 drivers provided by Intel and here's the code that says that your hardware id is the Intel Dual Band Wireless-N 7260:

; GEN_7260_AC_2x2_HMC

 

%NIC_MPCIEX_7260AC_2x2_HMC% = Install_MPCIEX_GEN_7260_AC_2x2_HMC_WIN7_64_AC , PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B1&SUBSYS_40708086 ; AC

 

%NIC_MPCIEX_7260BGN_2x2_HMC% = Install_MPCIEX_GEN_7260_AC_2x2_HMC_WIN7_64_BGN15 , PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B1&SUBSYS_40728086 ; BGN15

; GEN_7260_BGN_2x2_HMC

 

%NIC_MPCIEX_7260AGN_2x2_HMC% = Install_MPCIEX_GEN_7260_BGN_2x2_HMC_WIN7_64_AGN , PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B1&SUBSYS_40608086 ; AGN

 

%NIC_MPCIEX_7260BGN_2x2_HMC% = Install_MPCIEX_GEN_7260_BGN_2x2_HMC_WIN7_64_BGN15 , PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B1&SUBSYS_40628086 ; BGN15

 

%NIC_MPCIEX_7260AGN_2x2_HMC% = Install_MPCIEX_GEN_7260_BGN_2x2_HMC_WIN7_64_AGN15 , PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B1&SUBSYS_406A8086 ; AGN15

where GEN_7260_AC_2x2_HMC = Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

GEN_7260_BGN_2x2_HMC = Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 ; Intel(R) Wireless-N 7260

Note that Hardware IDs are hard coded on the device (eg. Wi-Fi adapter, Graphics Cards, etc) itself and does not depend on the driver. Actually, if the driver's inf file matches the hardware ids of the unknown device, the driver will install and work for that device.

See this forum thread for more info: http://forums.laptopvideo2go.com/topic/21149-intel-wifi-drivers/page-5 Intel WIFI Drivers - Page 5 - Intel Chipset - LaptopVideo2Go Forums

If you can still return the card, please do so and let the seller correct their mistake.

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KTull
Novice
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HPola
Beginner
1,176 Views

I could use some help as well. The label says 7260AC the device driver does as well, but I can't get above N speeds no matter how close I am. When I set my Cisco Router to AC only, it fails to connect. I tried an R7000 Netgear and a 68u Asus and the same outcome.

Do you think someone has the wrong label on this card or do the specification look right and I have other issues?

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DHarp1
Beginner
1,176 Views

Hi HPolack,

Not sure if you figured this out yet but from your pictures [very helpful] you only have one antenna plugged into your WiFi card, your primary in port 1. AC and N both use MIMO [multiple input, multiple output] which require 2 or more antennas. If you simply forgot to plug the secondary antenna in, do so and that should resolve your issue. You can also purchase a second antenna online pretty cheap and install it yourself. It is pretty much just a wire. Just run it up the side of your laptop screen without the current primary antenna already in it.

Cheers,

D

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JMont16
Beginner
1,176 Views

I am having the same issue. I installed the Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HMC on my Alienware m17xR4 and installed the Windows 7 drivers+Proset from the Intel website. I'm showing the 7260 AC in my Device manager but am only picking up a/b/g/n in my advanced settings. I also run the Netgear R6300v2 AC 1750 router which shows the AC band in Proset. Maybe I'm an idiot but nowhere in the advanced setting does it show the AC band. Proset shows that I'm only getting 433.0-520.0 Mbps from my router at 6 feet. Looks like everyone else is getting much higher numbers at that distance. Any advice?

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DHarp1
Beginner
1,176 Views

Quite a few possibilities here:

  1. What are you actually connecting at, handshake? You can see this many places including Task Manager, Networking tab Link Speed. This should be 700-867.
  2. In your Advanced settings within the 7260 device profile, do you have N Channel Width set to Auto for 5Ghz?
  3. In the same place, is HT Mode set to VHT [Very high throughput which is another term for AC]?
  4. Same place again; Roaming Aggressiveness should be medium or less and Transmit Power on Highest.
  5. Is your router's channel bandwidth for 5Ghz set to 80Mhz and MCS to Auto?
  6. If you have many devices connected to the same router that can degrade performance or if you are in a congested area. Meaning: 5Ghz spectrum congestion, not necessarily just WiFi but other devices using this spectrum can cause interference. Grab inSSIDer so you can at least see the WiFi networks in your area on both the 2.4 and 5Ghz bands. You can also try playing with your router's Preamble setting short/long, make sure QoS is off, and lastly if you expect you are experiencing interference from other devices on your network, you can turn on RTS/CTS with a decently high interval to mitigate frame error collisions.

I hope some or all of this improves your throughput!

D

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