Intel AC7260 limited access after sleep

[MZ4]

Hello,

I have Intel AC7260 and there is a problem: after every wake from sleep mode i have limited access and no connection to the Internet. I can't ping router and any device in the network... Sometimes helps to reconnect but most often I need to reboot :/ Can someone help me please?

[SMoss]

I loaded v16.6.0 (Dell M3800 Win 8.1 64bit) but did not see any difference to v16.10.0.5. That is reliable reconnects after sleep, but limited to about 4Mbps down and 3Mbps up. (For reference an iPhone attached to the same AP was 25M down and 11M at the same time and location). I have switched back to v16.10.0.5. The v16 drivers are more reliable than the newer v17 drivers, but the speeds for me were horrible.

[lnani]

@ GattoNero

... none of the driver updates for the AC7260 work without some form of workaround... period.

..

EDITED by Community Manager

[JMcMa3]

Unfortunately I have to agree with cantona. Workarounds are great and I'm glad we have something that works, but this really is unacceptable.

I can't imagine it's that hard to look at the differences between 16.10 and the next driver and trying to determine which change triggered this issue.

I also cannot believe that Intel is unable to replicate this. If they truly can't, we need to know what they're doing that we're not, because that would solve our issue.

It's been a very long time since this issue was introduced and there's no excuse for not having solved it.

[DWill15]

Steveweree wrote:

I loaded v16.6.0 (Dell M3800 Win 8.1 64bit) but did not see any difference to v16.10.0.5. That is reliable reconnects after sleep, but limited to about 4Mbps down and 3Mbps up. (For reference an iPhone attached to the same AP was 25M down and 11M at the same time and location). I have switched back to v16.10.0.5. The v16 drivers are more reliable than the newer v17 drivers, but the speeds for me were horrible.

I agree with that.

I'd rather put up with having to enable/disable the network adapter after sleep than the terrible speeds that the old versions have.

Of course, I'd much rather that all of the problems were sorted.

[SMoss]

Daveoc64 - thanks for the follow-up. For me, disable/enable did not reliably reconnect with the v17 drivers. Needed a full re-start, hence my sticking with v16.10.0.5 unitl Intel figures this out. Hopefully.

[JSmyt1]

At least yours actually worked ,, the intel 7260 AC i have doesnt work in windows its as if the drivers check for chipset and or cpu and dont load if they dont like what the see. what a peice of cr@p these drivers are. i ended up getting a broadcom 94532 802.11ac card , put it in first time using standard windows drivers and it worked like a charm.

Intel your a DISGRACE,you cat even get your drivers right .

[SHaig]

Well, it seems like so many people here need to get laid or something.......

That being said, 17.1.0.19 has been behaving for me the last few days.... I'm not saying its solved yet - but I haven't had to reboot to restore wireless as yet since installing 17.1.0.19....

[SHaig]

CRCinAU wrote:

That being said, 17.1.0.19 has been behaving for me the last few days.... I'm not saying its solved yet - but I haven't had to reboot to restore wireless as yet since installing 17.1.0.19....

Doh. I spoke to soon - it still does occur with 17.1.0.19

[SHaig]

Wondering if there has been any further news on this?

[MWill34]

Hello,

We have 170 systems with this problem. I can tell you we are sending them all back in short order if this does not get fixed right away. The issue is as follows:

1) Waking the computer from Sleep the ireless card does not fully wake up. Either the card is shown in the network adapters listing or not. If it is not you must reboot the computer. If it is when you walk through the trouble shooter the card works again.

2) If the Access Point you are connected to drops for a second or you lose your signal because you are walking through a dead zone the card does not come back on line.

If Joe Intel wants to contact me I would be glad to give you a host more information as well as my undivided attention. Otherwise I would be happy for Intel to compensate us for our lost time rolling out these systems and I would be happy to switch to another card if they wish to send me one to try.

I need answers last Monday. As far as I can tell this is critical and Intel should be all over this as it is obviously an issue with the card/software.

Also using some of my software for debugging wireless it might be helpful to note that the card does in fact disappear and reappear in the computer. This only compounds the issues.

HELP!

[CDurs]

We've all spent way too much time with these issues for months now. It's really about time Intel does something. And with "something" I mean either finally fix this or start a recall campaign. NOW!

(btw: I'm still using Microsoft's 16.0.0.62 since Intel's drivers are unusable, but there are other issues like internet connectivity gets suddenly lost and there's no way to restore it at all on certain networks (FRITZ!Box 7270 V3))

[MWill34]

Funny thing I spoke to a person at the Microsoft Store that said the reason they are not selling the computers I just purchased is 100% due to this Wireless Card.

Soooo if that is close to being true I would expect maybe Intel would want to pay attention!!!!!

[SMons2]

Almost rolled out a dozen NUCs into our business but some minor niggly issues aside (the machine wakes itself up from sleep, amongst other quirks), the wireless issue has prevented me from doing so. Alas, I'm with DexSouth on this matter.

Heading the IT department for an employer, the wireless card by Intel is dismally, woefully, lacking in support. Joe and others here have replied in (often) timely fashion, but the drivers are and have been continuously buggy.

The one NUC machine that our business currently has (deployed in a live setting as a trial) is having serious throughput issues. Curiously enough, from this afternoon the wireless card is being 'stopped' by Windows whenever I wake the NUC up from sleep (it wasn't doing this before). Need to disable and reenable to get the card up and running again, assuming throughput variances are low enough for it to be usable without an OS reboot. Even more curious, I noticed today that my USB mouse is being turned on despite the NUC being 'asleep'. Potentially both are related because both instances started happening today, but completely out-of-the-blue either way. Might even consider reinstalling the OS at this rate but I'm not impressed with how everything is starting to hit the fan.

As above, using the latest drivers and BIOS versions as suggested by Intel. Funny thing is, when I first bought the NUC, the drivers during the early May period were perfectly fine (wireless, BIOS, and graphics more specifically). If I do do an OS reinstall chances are I'll use those older drivers I've stored in the business repository rather than use the newer so-called 'less-buggy' drivers Intel's been putting out.

Now. As it stands I'm getting an Asus N10 USB wireless dongles from a local IT store for less than US$10 a pop and will be making-do with that. Intel, understand that the continued issue with the 7260 series cards is completely unacceptable. This isn't an issue with a 'select few'. It is widespread and I'm quite surprised that there hasn't been legal action considering some OEMs themselves are having problems.

[MWill34]

Hey Intel.... see the issue???

All I did was put my computer to sleep and wake it up.

[PDavi5]

DexSouth wrote:

Funny thing I spoke to a person at the Microsoft Store that said the reason they are not selling the computers I just purchased is 100% due to this Wireless Card.

Soooo if that is close to being true I would expect maybe Intel would want to pay attention!!!!!

I would believe it. The AC 7260 is a complete piece of junk that intel still hasn't gotten working after a year, and a laptop with unreliable wireless may as well be a paperweight. I'm actually wishing I had gone with an older model Thinkpad than the T440p, mainly because of the horrible wireless.

Also I'm pretty sure no one from Intel reads these forums, otherwise they'd do something about this. The silence is deafening.

[MWill34]

Here is my issue... a little beyond Intel. These manufacturers, like Lenovo, should be all over this. At this point we are on the verge of ending our relationship with Lenovo due to lack of support on this from them. In the end they lose if we return these...

I am looking for a replacement card. I may just go buy 170 other WIFI cards. It would be less work to swap the card. Anyone have recommendations?

[MWill34]

In the Windows Device Manager right click on the WIFI card. Select Roll back. I did this and it rolled me back to 16.5.3.6 which appears to work better (less issues with waking from sleep)

I know someone out there said they used and older driver.

From what I can tell (MAYBE) the issue is multiple driver versions installed and (MAYBE) the issue is that the drivers are not upgrade correctly?

One thing to consider might be to rollback and remove and make sure there are no drivers for the card at all on the computer. I wonder how to make that happen and be sure that this is the case.

Thoughts for any of you techies out there?

[MNich3]

I understand the frustration, and I hate to play devil's advocate. I haven't had any problems with sleep mode, switching between multiple SSID's since my last post weeks ago. I'm still using 16.10.0.5.

[MWill34]

So my steps to fix the issue.

1) Go into device manager.

2) Right click on the card and roll back the driver.

3) Uninstall the Rolled back driver.

4) Refresh hardware and the card comes back on line.

5) Check if I can roll back the driver. If so repeat the above steps.

6) Once the roll back is no longer an option I have the latest version. I am using 17.1.0.19

Also went in to remove any Lenovo (in my case) software that automatically updates the system. This is where the system went down because I did not approve this update and the manufacturer put this on my system. I would not have an issue with this IF Intel update the software correctly in the first place.

I am confident based on the errors on my test system that this in theory should be a fix. Now to just do these steps 169 more times. Like I really had the time for this....

[RCaso]

I have the AC7260 with Bluetooth installed in my Dell Latitude E6440 running Windows 7 x64 SP1

• Latest bios A08, Installed
• Created 8gb Hibernate partition for the Rapid Start
• Rapid Start and Smart Connect are enabled in bios
• AC7260 card installed w/16.10.0_Ds64 and Bluetooth 17.0.1405.02_s64 PROSet app not installed
• Rapid Start and Smart Connect apps installed and working
• Hybrid Sleep Mode Enabled

The problem is, it seems as though the card immediately loses connect upon entering sleep mode.When it wakes up, sometimes it will reconnect and sometimes not.The Smart Connect app seems to work, I have it set to check every 15 minutes 24/7 when in sleep mode. The log report (and the wireless light on the computer) shows that the Smart connect is cutting on and scanning but doesnt update the mail or webpages.

Any ideas on how to get it to work as described in this ad: https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/smart-connect-technology.html?wapkw=smart+connect https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/smart-connect-technology.html?wapkw=smart+connect . Cisco AnyConnect VPN also breaks connection, but that may be a separate issue.

[MWill34]

Thus far the issue as I see it would be that the software update is needed to fix network performance issues. (Not 100% sure as I did not read the tech notes)

But the update does not install correctly as it does not remove the old version and the system is using a mixture of the old/new drivers. That is an assumption on my part but given the errors in the logs I can make that as a reasonable assumption.

I have correlated and event where the computer needed to change the wireless access point and when it did so when the computer connected to the new access point the system could not load the drivers. In fact the error in the event viewer was that the driver installation was corrupted.

Since the card supplied both WIFI and Bluetooth I suspect it would be advisable to use the same driver version.

I will know more as I test tomorrow with a larger professional network. I have had fewer issues on my Home WIFI.