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?

[SMons2]

Intel NUC D54250

Windows 7 x64 Pro SP116GB RAM

240GB C:

Intel 7260AC

Was on driver 17.0.6 until this morning when the card stopped connecting (stuck on 'identifying'). Same issue despite reboots and disable / enable actions. Completely out-of-the-blue. This driver has been perfect for me since I installed it a while ago (to the point I stopped frequenting these forums here as some people still had issues with 17.0.6.

Taking into account 17.1.0 sounded worse than 17.0.6 from what I've read thus far, I thought I'd go back to 16.10.0 (despite having had limited success in the past, I thought why not, considering people prefer it over the version 17 drivers). So I uninstall all relevant drivers via the Device Manager window (not Uninstall Programs; I install only the driver, not the ProWireless bundle). Reboot. Install 16.10 downloaded from Intel.com. Reboot again.

No go; same issue with 17.0.6; it will NOT connect, and remain stuck on 'identifying'. It sees APs like 17.0.6, but will not connect...

So I go back onto my laptop, a six-year-old workhorse with an Intel 5100, and reluctantly download 17.1.0. I uninstall and reboot after each action as above.

17.1.0 now works, but severe throughput (speed variance) issues. 17.0.6 didn't have ANY issues for me until it just went belly-up this morning (and causing all other previous drivers to become ineffective to boot).

Another thing to note is I've noticed my NUC waking up from sleep by itself. Sometimes from a power-off state. Gotta research a bit more into this but anything related to wake-timers, as well as all relevant power settings are set in Windows and in the BIOS so as to prevent this from happening (yet it's still does...). Powercfg in cmd says the USB3 controller is to blame, but yeah. Some more digging for the waking issue to be had.

[LYang24]

I thought v16.10 solve the issue but actually it didn't.

I happen to let my laptop sleep for 2 days. After it waked up, it can't connect to the original AP.

I think the time your laptop sleep also affect the issue. It seems like the driver will accumulate error during the sleep.

[JSmyt1]

For those who have given up on using this peace of crap intel 7260 card , if you want some advice on a good replacement , i'd suggest the broadcom BCM94352HMB

i got one to replace the intel dual band 7260 , it worked right away no issues

[EWein]

Thank you so much Delphian, I had in the past looked high and low for a non-intel card as this is not the first model to have significant reliability issues but I had never come across anything from BC that was a combo WiFi/BT. The latest Intel Drivers made things better for me, yes its true I have to right click the Intel tray icon and reset ProSet almost every time I wake it from sleep but at least that works for me for now. I am going to give Intel a bit longer but if not its GREAT to know there is finally competition (as there should be.) This hopefully will let Intel know they are not the only game in town (Intel thinking they were the only game in town must have caused R&D has been cut to a single guy in a basement who doesn't actually get paid anymore and loves his red stapler). so Ironic, when I used to buy notebooks by the pallet I would make sure they were Intel not BC because BC was total junk, man how the tables seem to have turned.

[MWill34]

Based on the specs on Amazon I'm out of luck on this card.

• Broadcom BCM94352HMB
• WI1 chip1: Broadcom BCM4352
• Dualband 2.4 Ghz und 5 Ghz abgn+ac, 2x2
• 802.11A/B/G/N+ AC 867 Mbps DUALBAND Wireless Lan Karte mit Broadcom BCM4352 Chipsatz 2.4 Ghz und 5 Ghz 802.11N WLAN wird unterstützt sowie 5 Ghz und Bluetooth 4.0! 802.11AC Routers need to support
• Not compatible with HP/Lenovo

We have 170 Lenovo systems.

We will begin our testing today of my fix. Roll back the driver. Uninstall (REMOVE THE FILES). Keep rolling back until that is no longer an option. Uninstall the last driver and reinstall.

I'm thinking more of a software issue than a hardware issue based on the messages in Event Viewer. Honestly if that is all it is Intel should build an UNINSTALL utility that makes sure everything is clean up before installing the new driver.

[SMoss]

DexSouth, I have not tried your rollback/uninstall procedure, but I suggest you thoroughly test the 17.1 before rolling it out across the rest of your laptops. v17.1 appeared to work fine for me for a couple of days before the Limited access after sleep came back. (ref previous posts 27 Aug and 2 Sep). Also be aware of wildly varying speeds. Good luck.

[SSven]

I have exactly the same problem with a 7260 AC on a Dell Latitude E7440. Dear Intel Engineers, here's how to reproduce the issue:

1) buy a Dell Latitude E7440 with Windows 8

2) put it into standby (suspend to ram)

3) wake laptop up after 8 hours at work

4) enjoy the lack of internet

Then again, the issue seems to exist on so many other laptops. Maybe you don't even need to buy a Dell

The workaround is the same as many people describe: disable the network adapter (in the hardware manager for example), enable it again, and after 2 seconds you have Wifi again.

If only I had Linux installed on this laptop, I could let you know whether it's a hardware issue or a driver issue. Maybe, there would even be some diagnostic output in the kernel log. God, how I hate Windows.

[SMoss]

OMG do I loathe the Intel AC 7260 Wifi card. On a brand new Dell M3800 (Win 8.1 64bit) 3 weeks ago, I tried all the drivers, and eventually settled on V16.10, which was the most reliable although the speeds were horrible at 3 - 4 Mbps. Last two weeks I had no problems connecting and then today it went all to hell again. Just spent 45 minutes of disable/enable, driver changes, full restarts until I finally get it to connect to my iPhone hotspot. No way will it connect to the hotel wifi. Dell M3800 Win 8.1 64bit. What a piece of junk. I have a Broadcom card on order, I will let you know if it fits and works. Joe_Intel has gone very quiet on this months old thread.

[MWill34]

We are being told by Lenovo that the issue is a Norton Antivirus problem. We remove this junk software and we are being told that Norton is leaving behind drivers and not properly unloading them.

We will be testing this tomorrow.

https://support.norton.com/sp/en/us/home/current/solutions/kb20080710133834EN_EndUserProfile_en_us;jsessionid=96002C4AFD136159A0EC3EE334E3761C.4?entsrc=redirect_pubweb&pvid=f-home Uninstall your Norton product using Norton Removal Tool

Normally I rebuild systems for our base OS because all these PC manufacturers put on this junk no one wants. It does nothing but corrupts the computers. If this is in fact the case I will be ticked off beyond belief as this is just a total marketing ploy and in my opinion Lenovo should be charged with the lost productivity.

I think the Surface comes junk free!!! ANOTHER WIN for Microsoft Hardware if that is the case.

[PShu1]

I don't know definitively if this makes a difference, but I removed the Lenovo connections manager (ThinkVantage Access Connections), too. My 7260 has been stable for over a month now running on a Thinkpad T510 with win7 x64, Intel driver only (no PROset), v. 17.0.5.8. More details here: /message/248504# 248504 https://communities.intel.com/message/248504# 248504. Note, disabling WMM effective disables U-APSD.

I agree with the others, I suspect that remnants of prior installations are causing problems. I cleaned out the registry once, but I am sure there are still some leftover cats & dogs. Since my system is working (except for the BT needing to be manually started), I have left well enough alone. A clean install of the OS would be nice, but I don't have the time nor interest to do that at the moment.

[SHaig]

This isn't a Norton problem. I don't have anything Norton related on my Dell and still have the same issue....

[STray]

Thinkpad X240, win7-64bit user here. I tried various driver versions, I tried disabling various features (power management, U-APSD, ...), I tried uninstalling Lenovo Access Connections. Found no good solution but can at least recommend the latest lenovo OEM as the lesser evil.

• 16.6.0.8 (what laptop came with)
  • ac mode not working, connectivity OK immediately after reboot/reset but degrading fast, no apparent problems when waking up from sleep
• 17.0.6.1 (.zip distribution for IT admins)
  • ac working but performance not good, driver doesn't crash when waking up but connectivity after sleep very bad/nonexistent until complete driver reset (Disable/Enable in Device Manager)
• 17.1.0.19
  • ac working but performance not good, driver crashes (error 43) when waking up
• 17.12.0.4 (lenovo OEM, http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/downloads/ds036007 available here)
  • ac working, performance good, seems stable, driver crashes (error 43) when waking up

When computer wakes up, just go to Device Manager and Disable and then Enable the AC 7260 adapter (right click). This helps with all driver versions so you don't have to reboot.

[MWill34]

Yes that is great for adults to be able to do. But I'm working with young students. Attached is the Arp table on one of my systems. This ARP table is showing an IP address that is all broadcasts. In fact this system and many of the others with the same card are sending this ARP and DHCP broadcast storms. As if the card is broken. Working with one of our vendors and other school is having the exact same issue and they are removing the EMC software. However we have a few users with Acer laptops with this card in them. They have very poor performance and also cause our network problems.

At this point it does not look like just a driver issue to me. This is a very low level process that if it is not handling this correctly is ultimately a major problem. the 10.21.# .# has a mask of 255.255.0.0 so I believe that makes this problem worse.

Our packet traces on our network shows that the broadcast storms are always created by systems with this card in it.

[BB4]

glimz wrote:

Thinkpad X240, win7-64bit user here. I tried various driver versions, I tried disabling various features (power management, U-APSD, ...), I tried uninstalling Lenovo Access Connections. Found no good solution but can at least recommend the latest lenovo OEM as the lesser evil.

• 16.6.0.8 (what laptop came with)
  • ac mode not working, connectivity OK immediately after reboot/reset but degrading fast, no apparent problems when waking up from sleep

Too weird, glimz. 16.6.0.8 on my T440p is the only one that works like it should. Always on when waking, no disconnects, and speeds that would be expected at distances from the router or through walls, etc. I am, however, working on a fresh install of Windows and not Lenovo's, and I'm using bare drivers and none of the ProSet software.

I recently tried 17.1 for shits and giggles but after a few days it failed to wake after sleep one time. So I rolled back and all is well.

Maybe you should try a fresh install of Windows. You'd be working from a blank slate then without all the Lenovo overhead and junk. I used a downloaded windows.iso and activated on the CoA that came with the laptop. Kind of a hassle to reinstall everything, but it might be worth a try.

[MWill34]

We normally remove the crap by building an image.

Please note to you lenovo users... here is a critical thing to read.

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/documents/ht081844 Excessive network traffic may cause network disconnections or denial-of-service - Lenovo Support (US)

Now this looks like this is from earlier in the year and the computers they just sent us are brand new so they used old software on their image that is know to be buggy. WOW !!!!

[SSven]

I'm sure Lenovo users appreciate the feedback. However, that seem unrelated to the main issue discussed here, namely that the Wifi card simply won't connect anymore after suspend to RAM.

I have a Dell, no wifi-related bloatware, not even Intel's PROSet utility installed. Just the driver (17.1 under windows 7 64bit at the moment).

[MWill34]

Either way we are sending back the systems with this card in them...

I have tested all of the drivers above and unless Intel/ Lenovo want to compensate me for my time I have no desire to keep trying to make these work.

Young students can not deal with this type of issue and it will cause a lot of problems in the classroom.

[CDurs]

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. All that "could be this could be that"-discussion is nonsensical. I for one am using a Samsung so there isn't and wasn't any Lenovo-manager involved.

I did a clean Windows 8.1 install and the pure driver. It's not some third-party-software that's causing this.

It's really embarrassing how this is dealt with by Intel.

[SSven]

I'm fine with the "could be this could be that"-discussion. But it should focus on things that are important - not on some Lenovo software if users are clearly experiencing this across all brands.

I didn't find much about the Access Points or Wifi Routers that people are using. I'm a TP-Link WR841N v8, which has an Atheros Chipset. It's running some recent DD-WRT build. I had no troubles with any other device (other pre-AC-era intel Wifi cards even). https://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_TL-WR841ND_v8.x https://wikidevi.com/wiki/TP-LINK_TL-WR841ND_v8.x

[BB4]

<<But it should focus on things that are important - not on some Lenovo software if users are clearly experiencing this across all brands.>>

True enough. At some point, though, you have to start eliminating variables to make a stab at finding out what it is that makes for these problems.

And the standard refrain--update your BIOS and install the latest drivers--is obviously not sufficient, when, as we've read here, users have done that and much, much more.

[MWill34]

The simple fact is I have tried every Microsoft, Lenovo, and Intel driver. Also just noting to those with Lenovo products you have yet an entirely separate issue.

If you would like to go toe to toe on a technical level I would be happy to do so. The issue is the card is having major problems. The problem is not just with coming out of sleep. It also frequently loses connection with the network. The EMC software creates more issues because when the network returns it launches a DOS attack.

In looking at the details at a lower level the card appears to have a power issue where the card is powering down which is what is the root cause of this. The errors in the event viewer etc. all indicate that the card is not loading correctly no matter what driver you have installed. Thus leaves me with the belief there is a malfunction in the card. If there is a way to flash the BIOS on the card there may be a solution.

The card problem has nothing to do with the WIFI network being used as the system reports issues with the actual hardware.

This has been a useful discussion for my needs even when people provide details on other systems. This only solidifies a physical card issue.