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Drivers for Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Card?

SSyno
Novice
31,561 Views

Just put a new system together and installed an Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 in it. Used Windows 8 Pro. x64. I cannot find drivers for the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260.

Anyone know where I can get drivers for this card? I purchased the card from Provantage.

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1 Solution
Jose_H_Intel1
Employee
19,541 Views

Hello Synomenon,

The drivers will be released soon; this is because the product has not been officially released yet.

View solution in original post

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183 Replies
ROwen2
New Contributor I
2,730 Views

Device manager:

Bluetooth Radios

--> Generic Bluetooth Adapter

--> Microsoft Bluetooth Emulator

...

Network adapters

--> Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)

--> Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI)

--> Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

Devcon:

C:\WinDDK\tools\devcon\amd64>devcon listclass net

Listing 26 devices in setup class "Net" (Network adapters).

...

PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B1&SUBSYS_40708086&REV_63\4&31D34B42&0&00E3: Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260

BTH\MS_BTHPAN\7&1E5610C2&0&2 : Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)

BTH\MS_RFCOMM\7&1E5610C2&0&0 : Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI)

...

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jlort1
Beginner
2,730 Views

 

As you can see in my screenshot, I have none of that.
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ROwen2
New Contributor I
2,730 Views

BIOS is not disabling it? You checked for hardware-switches that could disable it? Any kind of black-listing?

-> Press Windows key + R and type services.msc in the search field and press ENTER. 

-> Double-click the Bluetooth Support service.

 

-> If the Bluetooth Support service is stopped, click Start.

 

-> On the Startup type list, click Automatic.

 

-> Click the Log On tab.

 

-> Click Local System account.

 

-> Click OK.

 

-> If you prompted to restart the computer, click yes.
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WBear1
Beginner
2,730 Views

In my old D830, I have to use the card in the WWAN slot for Bluetooth to show up. In the Wifi slot, it does not. The BIOS seems to prevent anything that isn't a wifi device from working in that slot.

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wface
Beginner
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Compiling wireless-testing no longer works to run the ac7260. It's displaying some odd error on boot that doesn't look even vaguely familiar and isn't going into the logs for some reason. Awesome.

In other words, I have no way I know of to test Bluetooth.

In other news, I've heard back from damentz. He's unwilling to compile the driver into his next update of Liquorix because he says some of the patches in wireless-testing aren't ready by a long shot. Which jives nicely with what I said above. He recommends getting in touch with the kernel backports folks. http://techpatterns.com/forums/about2311.html http://techpatterns.com/forums/about2311.html

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WBear1
Beginner
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The new 3.11 series has the 7260 patches from wireless-testing and works fine. The 325 series Nvidia module compiles as well with the appropriate patches. You could either compile that yourself from the source available on kernel.org, or I also hear that Ubuntu's mainline compiles will work on most Debian-based distros.

http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11-rc2-saucy/ Index of /~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.11-rc2-saucy

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wface
Beginner
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I've tried the 3.11-rc1 a few different ways. Never could get both nVidia and Intel drivers at the same time. I was unaware that the rc2 version had been released until you posted. Thanks.

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WBear1
Beginner
2,730 Views

These guys have a working patch that I use on Ubuntu for Nvidia 325 with Linux 3.11:

https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa/+sourcepub/3364901/+listing-archive-extra

I don't know whether using the pre-built debs on anything other than Ubuntu will fly, but if not, the source and patch files are there to build from scratch.

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wface
Beginner
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Normally a .deb is a .deb is a .deb. Unfortunately, Canonical has made a habit of doing bad things to many of their packages that make them iffy at best for the rest of Debian land. I must admit that I avoid Ubuntu packages like the plague unless I have no choice. So much so, in fact, when I found out that Mint LMDE was rebranding some Ubuntu packages for their own repo, I stopped using LMDE.

I've got the amd64 package and gdebi says depends are good and it will let me install it. That's actually a good sign that it hasn't been through the ubuntu wringer. About 1/2 of ubuntu .debs I've tried in the last year, gdebi won't do anything with. Either it sits there or the Install button is greyed out so I can't even watch it sit there doing nothing.

I'm going to try tinkering with the sgfxi script first. Failing that, I'll give the edger's package a shot. Failing both, my Atheros card is going back in (again) and the 7260 will go on the shelf for a couple months.

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WBear1
Beginner
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Yeah...I've been aware of that with Ubuntu. In the past I tried one of their kernels with Debian to see if I could use a newer one without compiling from scratch and it wasn't pretty (the latest Debian kernel I could get at that time was based on 3.2, but I hear they have an experimental 3.10 finally). Since the link I gave you is straight from mainline with none of Canonical's typical kernel patches, maybe it'll work. I'll cross my fingers for ya.

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DElli7
Beginner
2,730 Views

I have a 1st & 3rd generation I7 Toshiba laptops (both running Win 8 Pro x64) that are having the same issues. WiFi works, but Bluetooth does not work (it does not even register in the Device Manager). I have yet to test to see if the AC7260 will work in the WWAN slot.

By putting the card in the WWAN slot, does your wifi still work? Are you using WIn 7 or Win 8 on your old D830?

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WBear1
Beginner
2,730 Views

I have Windows 7 on the D830. Wifi is recognized and works in either the Wifi or WWAN slot, but Bluetooth is not recognized at all in the Wifi slot (doesn't show up in device manager, same symptom as you). I do have some other issues with the current driver from Sager not working too well on Windows 7 with the card in either slot, but I'm pretty sure that's a software issue for me since it works beautifully in Linux. It's possible things might work for you in the WWAN slot (both your laptops have one?). It probably depends on the BIOS. On my D830, the BIOS only has a whitelist on the Wifi slot, the WWAN slot appears to act as a completely open and normal miniPCIe slot and all functionality of the card works just fine.

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jlort1
Beginner
2,730 Views

 

I've never had a dell that was whitelisted. I don't have wwan slot. the new xps 12 4th gen comes with a ac-7260 installed. I tired those drivers and got a warning of not for my system. Wifi worked, single jumped all over the place.
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wface
Beginner
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The Debian site doesn't show any results but their search is notoriously uncooperative.

That's good to know about the edger's package. Doesn't do me any good though. The rc2 kernel gives me that same warning during boot and I still can't find it in the logs.

However, some of you may be interested to know that I did find this:

Jul 22 20:58:48 warhammer kernel: Bluetooth: hci0 failed to open Intel firmware file: intel/ibt-hw-37.7.10-fw-1.80.2.3.d.bseq(-2)

Jul 22 20:58:48 warhammer kernel: Bluetooth: hci0 failed to open default Intel fw file: intel/ibt-hw-37.7.bseq

In other words, my ASUS does see bluetooth.

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DElli7
Beginner
2,692 Views

I just answered my own question.

I moved the Intel 7260ac to the WWAN and I was able to get both Bluetooth & WiFi to work.

Unfortunately, if your computer doesn't have WWAN, then only the WiFi will work in the WLAN. Bluetooth will NOT work.

The normal Intel drivers for Win 8 x64 work just fine.

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wface
Beginner
2,692 Views

Hey, awesome! The rc2 kernel is running the 7260 and the edgers nVidia .deb seems to be living in my system quite happily. It's only been an hour or so but no issues including a reboot to test.

I mentioned before that I was seeing 300 Mb/s, the last time I got it working. This time around, it was 150 Mb/s. I set my router back to 20/40/80 and connection speed went back to 300 Mb/s. So taking the router out of AC mode doubles my speed. Keeping in mind that my PCI subsystem can easily handle my GTX 460M and the full 866 Mb/s the 7260 claims, I suspect my internal antenna is not up to the task of full speed AC with this card. Or any card for that matter. Since all of my hardware is capable of full speed AC and my antenna is the only unknown in the equation, I'm going to replace it. It's probably about time took my laptop apart to clean the heat radiators anyway. Anyone else that's stuck at less MB/s than they should be may want to consider replacing their antenna too.

On a side note: the error I mentioned in my last post that I couldn't find and the one I posted turned out to be one and the same. Doh! This leads me to believe that the rest of you having Bluetooth problems are having a driver issue and not a hardware issue.

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PShu1
Beginner
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Thinkpad T510, win7/x64 & Sager win7 driver (16.1.0.14), dewhitelisted bios: wifi only when the 7260 is in the wifi mpcie slot. (Bluetooth also worked with win7 and the win8 driver--which may not have been doing anything at all in this laptop--but, then, of course, no wifi.) Somewhere along the way, the Bluetooth entries disappeared from the device manager while the wifi continued to work.

 

I tried the 7260 in the WWAN slot. No wifi, just Bluetooth--and the Bluetooth reappeared in the device manager under Bluetooth Radios and Network Adapters. So, I moved the 7260 back to the wifi mpcie slot. No wifi, just Bluetooth (with generic MS drivers). Disabling the Bluetooth radio and disabling/enabling the 7260 (as a network adapter) restored the wifi.

 

Throughout, the Bluetooth never showed up in the BIOS device listing.

 

 

As others have reported, it appears that the 7260 will only work in one mode at a time with some computers.

 

 

I suspect this all has something to do with the Lenovo BIOS and the fact that the T510 has a separate Bluetooth (Broadcom) daughter card with its own slot on the motherboard. It also seems, as others have reported, that there is something peculiar to Windows 7 with regards to the disappearance and appearance of the Bluetooth in the Device Manager.

Lenovo has posted their version of win7 drivers for the 7260. http://support.lenovo.com/en_JP/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS036171 Bluetooth Driver (Intel, CyberTan, Liteon) for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - IdeaPad U330p, U330 Touch, U430 Touch. Ver. 16.1.0.13. The release notes are not clear to me if they are indeed win7 compatible, however, the INF file looks ok for win7. I have not tried them yet--I am still running the Sager drivers.

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wface
Beginner
2,692 Views

I've updated my ASUS RT-AC66U Merlin's asus-wrt 372 firmware. I'm running at 300 Mb/s in AC mode (80 MHz only). I still thinks it's the antenna, though.

FYI: someone else mentioned having the RT-AC66R. It's the exact same router. The R simply indicates that it's from Best Buy. The firmware I'm using will run on that just as well as on the U version.

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WBear1
Beginner
2,692 Views

Don't be too quick to replace the antenna. Do some file transfer testing first. I've noticed on mine that Linux will never display more than 300, but looking on the router side I get a link speed anywhere up to 866 to the laptop. (FWIW, Windows will display rates higher than 300) Transferring a file, according to the router, the link speed hovers around 500 (it usually tells me 468, 526.5, or 585). Linux will still say 300 but I get transfer speeds that would seem to be in excess of the capability of 802.11n (25MB/sec). Yeah that's about 200mbps throughput but wifi doesn't usually have that high of efficiency so I'm inclined to think that AC mode is working properly and Linux utilities need to be updated to display rates properly.

Another part of the reason I think this is the case: you said you forced an 80mhz channel. That means you're forcing AC mode only. If you look at this MCS table, there's no 300mbps rate for any configuration of 1 or 2 spatial streams on an 80mhz wide channel. I think Linux doesn't know what's going on :)

http://www.aerohive.com/pdfs/Blog/MCS_Chart_802.11ac_v.06.html

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JSmit104
Beginner
2,614 Views

That link isn't working. I'm very interested in finding a driver for Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 7260 for XP myself. I recently got a Precision M6800 Mobile Workstation and I want to put XP on it, but it's like impossible to find drivers for it. If I could even just find a wireless driver for it I'd be happy, and worry about the rest later. I'd like to find a video driver too but first thing's first.

Thanks for any help

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NV3
Beginner
2,697 Views

LOL at this thread being marked as answered. Completely not true.

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