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?

[BB4]

<<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.>>

I'm now wondering whether there are different hardware versions of this card that are provided to the various vendors. Does Lenovo, for example, get a card that is changed in some way from what might released to general retail, or Dell, or SammySung, etc.

If that were true, then troubleshooting these problems, not to mention even discussing them, becomes a challenge.

[MWill34]

As I play with drivers the various drivers give me different messages. One such message was that the driver does not support this version of the hardware. This leads me to believe there is a BIOS version on the card and maybe it can be flashed.

However in my experience in working with Lenovo/ IBM has been they want you to use their software and drivers as they "test" the functionality. I suspect with thousands of systems this is no longer scalable and their testing is limited.

The reason I believe there is a power issue, and this could be a BIOS issue with the motherboard as well, is that the other day I plugged in a USB hard drive that grabbed power from the compute rto power up the drive. At the exact moment I plugged the drive in I received a message that the card is no longer functioning in the event viewer and it disconnected.

From a business perspective my systems are going back. We purchased 170 MS Surface computers to swap out what we had purchased from Lenovo as I have to move on. I would love nothing more to make the systems we purchase work Yoga 11E as they were a great fit both budget and features.

I was hoping someone from Intel would chime in here and we could help provide evidence to what the issue is and get a solution. I've lost a month working on this and it is time to cut the cord.

[BB4]

When did you buy those devices? I wonder if comparing build dates would be constructive to investigating. Although it appears that you've reached the end of your patience with yours.

Short of taking out the card, is there some way of getting Windows to report the device date code or, if it has one as you suspect, a BIOS code?

Mine would have been built in December, 2013. Maybe that was a good batch. I'll report other stats if you're interested, if I can get at them.

[AGros3]

I see this after hibernate and I posted some of the Event Viewer errors I get here:

[PDavi5]

What version of Intel Smart Connect are you guys using and did you get it from Intel or Lenovo? I think I may have pinned down the source of the problem and it will be incredibly dumb on Intel and Lenovo's parts for not being able to give us an answer if that's what it is. I updated to the latest version of Smart Connect from the Intel site and my issues with the wifi card not returning properly from sleep seem to have vanished. I'll continue testing, but I've been bringing the laptop back from sleep all day and have yet to have any problems with the wifi. Previously I had a version of Smart Connect I had gotten from Lenovo System Update (probably the same one that's on the Lenovo website for the T440p). It would also make sense why Intel can't reproduce the issue. In their testing, they're probably using the latest version of Smart Connect. I had no idea what smart connect even did. Apparently it controls the wifi while the laptop is asleep. If it's that critical to properly functioning wifi, why is Smart Connect not rolled into the wifi drivers? Also if it's that critical, why is Lenovo not distributing a proper updated version of the driver for it? They're losing customers by distributing bad/outdated drivers.

Latest Driver is Here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=23109 Intel® Download Center

[BB4]

It's not installed on my system.

[PDavi5]

Try installing it. I've been using the latest version for two days now and have yet to experience "limited access" or "attempting to authenticate" or any of that other malarkey when bringing the laptop back from sleep that made me have to disable/reenable the wifi or restart the computer. Those problems were happening roughly every 3-4 times I brought the computer back from sleep. So I would think if it were going to happen, it would have happened by now. Makes perfect sense too if Smart Connect is meant to manage wifi during sleep.

[BB4]

I don't want it installed. Wouldn't be of value to me. Also, it wasn't the source of the problem. I've always been working from a fresh install of Windows without all the Lenovo-installed stuff, including that Intel utility.

I've played with later drivers and they've all exhibited the failure to connect after sleep issue. I've stayed with 16.6 because it doesn't do that.

[PDavi5]

My wifi has been rock solid since I installed it. There's not even any kind of delay for the wifi to reconnect when coming back from sleep. Also the disconnection issues have stopped. So I don't see how you can say that's not the source of the problem. Also it seems like most of the people complaining are doing clean Windows installs. I bet the issue is that they're not realizing they need to also install the latest Smart Connect.

Anyway, my issues appear to be completely resolved. So I will not be visiting this thread again.

[BB4]

It wasn't the source of the problem FOR ME, as I never used it.

<<My wifi has been rock solid since I installed it.>>

Mine's been rock solid since I installed 16.6.0.8.

I submit that the source(s) of these multiple problems with this card and/or drivers have yet to be fully determined.

[SBo1]

I have serious speed problems with 16xx drivers , capped @ 25-30mbit on avg N router , seems like those 16xx has less problems like no connection , limited access etc compared to 17xx. With 17xx i have full speed up to 80-90mbit , depends on how crowded the air is but lots of disconnections , limited access and so on.

Bluetooth dont work with both drivers , it just shut down after few minutes of use and i need to turn it off-on to reconnect.

[BB4]

As I wrote, whatever is up with this tech isn't fully fleshed out. Problems are all over the board. You get sh it speed with 16xx, I get 866 and 300. Go figure

[STray]

Hi dpeter, may I ask what wireless ac-7260 driver version you are using, and on what OS, laptop model? I just tried installing this latest version of Smart Connect Technology on my Win7 Thinkpad x240 with no effect whatsoever -- the driver (ver. 17.12.0.4, signed by Intel, distributed by lenovo) hangs with same old "code 43" (see device manager) after waking up.

[STray]

I finally got my Win7 Thinkpad X240 to resume wi-fi after sleeping with the latest drivers (17.12.0.4). I simply turned "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" back to ON (the setting is accessible via Device Manager, select Intel AC 7260, Properties (right click), Power Management tab). I had it turned off due to instability with earlier (16.*) drivers. It did not break waking up after sleep for those 16.* drivers though. I will have to see whether there will be any issues but it's working fine so far.

[DKimb]

I ran into this problem with the 17.1.0 version of the driver for the AC 7260 dual-band mini-PCI Express card on my Dell XPS 15 L521x laptop. Basically the driver fails when waking from the sleep state and cannot connect again until you disable and re-enable the card. As far as I can tell after working with this problem for a while is that it's purely a driver bug.

Currently, the only work-around is to stick with the 17.0.3 version of the driver (which seems to work just fine) until they release a newer driver version which can recover from sleep state without failing. This shouldn't be difficult since they only need to see what changed in that part of the code between version 17.0.3 and 17.1.0. I'm a software developer with driver experience and my guess based on the error messages is that someone is trying to access virtual memory that is paged out when the system wakes from sleep state.

D.

[PWard4]

So, I posted about a week a go that the 17.1.0 IT drivers were working. Upto this point, they have worked flawlessly until I decided to go change the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" setting. It was enabled, so I disabled it. Sent the computer to hibernate for the night and next day the card wasn't working. (Device manager disable / enable).

I decided to re-enable the setting to allow the computer to turn off the device and immediately sent the computer to sleep. Upon waking from sleep, I had immediate connection.

I'm curious to see if anyone else can get the 17.1.0 driver to work with the power saving option enabled. So far it seems to be working solid as long as that option is checked.

[DKimb]

Well, this is very interesting. It appears that you are right. I'm sure I had the power saving option disabled at the time I installed 17.1.0 and it never occurred to me to enable it since it's one of the most common causes cited for post-sleep problems.

I reloaded the 17.1.0 driver this morning and enabled the power saving option. Since then I've run several sleep-wake cycles without a problem. I'll keep running this configuration to see how things go after a bit more time but it looks promising at this point.

D

[DKimb]

It looks like philsward has found a reasonable fix for this issue. I would encourage others to try his suggested configuration if you haven't done so yet.. I've been running on 17.0.1 with the power save option enabled all day now without a single problem. I'm using the AC 7260 dual-band mini-PCI Express card in an XPS 15 L521x Laptop running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit. I've run it through at least 20 sleep/wake cycles and it's connected immediately upon waking every time. I'm also getting much faster connections than I did with the 17.0.3 driver. I get 866.7 Mbps most of the time with occasional fall backs based on signal quality.but never lower than 600 Mbps and it's usually back up to 866.7 the next time I check.

D

[Jose_H_Intel1]

Our best recommendation is getting Intel® PROSet Wireless Software version 17.12 from the http://www.intel.com/support/oems.htm system manufacturer's (OEM's) website.

If this version is not available on their site we suggest asking the OEM for it.

[SHaig]

I'm a bit confused as to why we need to the ProSet software - not just the driver package?

I'd say the latest drivers people have been running are from:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24217 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=24217

For example, the driver I downloaded was:

File name: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/confirm.aspx?httpDown=http://downloadmirror.intel.com/24217/eng/Wireless_17.1.0_Ds64.exe&Lang=eng&Dwnldid=24217 Wireless_17.1.0_Ds64.exe

Version: 17.1.0 (Latest)

Date: 08/20/2014

Size: 15.37 MB

Language: English

Operating Systems: Windows 7 *, Windows 7 (64-bit)*

I don't need another 80Mb of crap on my system with the full software set.

[BB4]

I'll give 17.12 a try when it shows up in an Admin's set here. Until then, sticking with 16.6 which has no issues for me. I've tried the other incremental v17 drivers and they've all had wake-up failures.

Since I've found a working driver for my system, it's now become kind of a game to see how long this goes on until there's a version that fixes all the main complaints: loss of connection, slow connection, failure to wake. One and two were never issues for me. 16.6 fixed the wake issue from whatever version was installed on this laptop when I got it, probably 15-something. Then, the wake up problem returned in the later versions, so I guess I'm waiting to see when or if that gets addressed. Again.

But, no, I'm not installing ProSet and I'm not using Lenovo's 107 MB driver installer that won't create a restore point and can't be edited to just extract a 15 MB driver.