Re: Intel AC7260 problems - Page 7

NK5 · ‎09-17-2013

Hi there, I just excitedly bought 3 AC7260 cards for all our laptops in the house cause we upgraded our router to the RT-AC66U and let me tell you I am soooooo NOT impressed with these cards. They are horrible, I cannot keep a consistent connection with my router.

Computer # 1 is a Dell 7720 running windows 8 and all I keep getting is constant unable to access network page errors that only say on a chrome web page:

Error code: ERR_NETWORK_CHANGED

In my intel event viewer I get around 3 lines marked Information..... authenticating wireless profile XXXXX every minute!!!!!! This can't be right???

Computer # 2 is an XPS 15 running windows 7 home and I get the same problems as computer # 1 just not as many chrome ERR pages.

Computer # 3 is an Alienware M18 and it consistantly drops the wireless connection too. I had a bigfoot card in there previously and NEVER had any problems with losing wireless connections.

I'm using all the latest newest drivers on all my laptops and i just can't believe how troublesome these 7260's are. Anyone else actually have a 7260 thats rock solid and if so, how did you do it?

idata · ‎04-29-2014

I have a clean install of Win8.1, I always wipe out the manufacturer's pre-installed OS (in this case Dell) due to all the crapware that comes with it. No 3rd party software like firewalls or anti-virus is installed, it's a plain Win8.1. I also have Ubuntu 14.04 installed as dual-boot, I'll use it tonight and watch out for these issues to see if they happen there, too. I don't recall seeing them in Ubuntu, but I haven't really used it too much on that laptop.

I could live with intermittent delays as I haven't noticed any problems just browsing the web (other than that it takes a little longer if I happen to browse to a site right when the network is down). But when I need a persistent TCP connection to work (like for SSH), this is a deal breaker. I constantly lose my SSH session, which is very frustrating when you're in the middle of something.

Like I said, I'll use Ubuntu tonight and see if I observe the issues there, too. If not, then at least I can rule out a hardware issue.

Also, I doubt that it's interference on 5ghz. There is only one other 5ghz network (far away) that I can see. Lots on the 2.4ghz band, which is why I got this router. But I have the exact same issue when I take my laptop to work and use the 5ghz network at work. Dropping connections all the time, just like at home. So it's most likely not my router, the hotspots at work are a completely different manufacturer.

MBona2 · ‎04-29-2014

TomB-

What access point and authentication/encryption do you use for home? And, what access points and authentication/encryption do you use for work? At home, I have a Netgear that only does 802.11n with WPA2 encryption and I have association issues. They are very slow but never do I loose my connection. At work we have a campus wide Aruba system with 802.11ac/802.1x/PEAP/MSchapV2 available in my office. Sometimes it takes a long time to associate, and it eventually does it but I don't see any errors. Plus I can roam between AP's with no problems.

Hint: If the wireless "experience" is good with Ubuntu, but not with Win8, the difference is the kernel/drivers. The OS has no control over the wireless. The drivers do. I have my laptop dual-booted with Fedora20 and it works just fine on wireless. Let us know how it works with Ubuntu.

idata · ‎04-29-2014

@wifi: I use 802.11ac with WPA2-PSK at home. I believe I remember seeing the same issue when I use my 2.4ghz network, but I can try again tonight. At work I'm not sure what exactly, but we have 802.11ac with domain authentication (whatever that's using underneath, I don't know). I experience the same issues here at work, I periodically lose the connections (e.g. while SSH'ing or with remote desktop sessions) and a few seconds later it recovers).

I know the difference, I'm a software engineer myself and actually have done kernel driver development in the past. So I am well aware of this, which is why I want to try and see how well it works in Ubuntu. If it works well there, it's probably not a hardware issue. I don't recall what driver stock Ubuntu uses for this card, I'm guessing it's an open one and not one from Intel, but I could be wrong.

MBona2 · ‎04-29-2014

If you go to your work SSID and left click on properties, it will give you those details. Here is mine:

Hope this helps you.

idata · ‎04-29-2014

I don't have the laptop with me today, but I'll check next time I have it with me.

idata · ‎04-29-2014

Ok, so I've been using Ubuntu 14.04 for the last half an hour or so, and I do see similar spikes in ping times, and it appears to be in similar intervals as on Win 8.1. However, it hasn't dropped any TCP connection so far, my SSH sessions haven't been interrupted. They do however become slightly lagging for a few seconds while the ping times spike. I have seen ping times even above 600 ms on the local network. I don't have any explanation for such extreme ping times, there is virtually no other network traffic going on on my network, and there is only one other 5ghz network in the neighbourhood that I can tell, and it appears to be far away.

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=247 ttl=64 time=1.12 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=248 ttl=64 time=1.31 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=249 ttl=64 time=1.80 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=250 ttl=64 time=0.756 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=251 ttl=64 time=1.94 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=252 ttl=64 time=160 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=253 ttl=64 time=80.8 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=254 ttl=64 time=35.6 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=255 ttl=64 time=0.936 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=256 ttl=64 time=1.26 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=257 ttl=64 time=0.737 ms

64 bytes from 192.168.0.2: icmp_seq=258 ttl=64 time=1.44 ms

So, even with Linux I get ping spikes on a regular basis, but no dropped connections.

tvete · ‎04-29-2014

Can you do a ping test on both Linux and Windows exactly 500 times and see if you get spikes in any of them? I think it's okay to get 1 spike every 1000 ping times but if it occurs multiple times on the 500 ping time test, it sounds like the drivers are forcing the adapter to go to low power mode or something.

idata · ‎04-30-2014

I attached ping logs for both Ubuntu and Win8.1 with 500 pings each. I definitely see ping spikes many times on both, in practice every few minutes. I actually had suspected power management issues as well, so on Win 8.1 I actually had unchecked this feature:

Didn't seem to make any difference, though. Connections drop just as frequently whether it is checked or not.

NChua5 · ‎04-30-2014

hate to break it to you TomB. this is a problem that many of us have. i think the only people who post on here to complain about it are the ones who notice it. for a low level user browsing the web ping spike won't be apparent. we are just waiting for the next patch hoping it will be solved but somethingn tells me it's more hardware defect if there's so much variation between users-some get disconnects, bluetooth disconnects, etc.

idata · ‎04-30-2014

Yeah I suspect that too, like you say I don't really notice these issues when just browsing the web. Now that I looked at my win8.1 log again I don't think it would have actually dropped a connection in this log sample, usually when I lose TCP connections I have one or two pings that completely fail before everything recovers. I'll re-run it tonight when I get home again.

I haven't tried bluetooth since I don't really have any use for it.

I can live with the ping spikes, not ideal but wouldn't be reason enough for me to rip out the card. I don't do any gaming, though, or anything where it would matter much. But dropping TCP connections all the time is just unacceptable. I can't even use this thing during meetings to remote to my desktop machine, or do anything that requires a persistent connection like SSH.

NChua5 · ‎04-30-2014

I bought this laptop to game and the ping spikes are annoying but infrequent enough that it's tolerable. It's more the fact a brand new laptop with lag issues is infuriating. i regret getting this wifi card cause i don't even need AC. Should've stuck with Killer gaming cards.

would TCP connection drop be related to ping spikes?

idata · ‎04-30-2014

In my case it is. I don't always lose TCP connections when a ping spike happens, but there are phases where I do. I have never lost a TCP connection without a ping spike. Ping times rapidly increase over a 1-2 second period, then many times one or two pings time out or error out, and when that happens I also lose all TCP connections. 1-3 seconds later everything recovers. Repeats every 4-5 minutes. It seems thought that not all the times I lose TCP connections, in some instances ping times just degrade and it recovers and I don't lose the connection, in those cases I don't usually seem to see pings that completely timed or errored out.

While I see the same ping spikes on Ubuntu, I have yet to see it drop TCP connections on Ubuntu. The TCP connection just becomes a bit laggy while the ping times spike, but they don't seem to drop. I'll try some more tonight to see if I can get it to drop anyway.

vkotl · ‎04-30-2014

no matter what tweaks i did there were ping spikes every 4mins or so. During gaming its extremely annoying, with external usb wifi card this doesnt happen

tvete · ‎04-30-2014

vai wrote:

no matter what tweaks i did there were ping spikes every 4mins or so. During gaming its extremely annoying, with external usb wifi card this doesnt happen

I believe that not all 7260 (AC or N) has this ping spikes issue. It is certainly not present on mine when I ping my access point 500 times as you can see on the screenshot. I believe Windows 8.1 screwed the way it manages power saving on PCI-E devices. At least it didn't screw up with the USB devices (e.g. USB WiFi). I think if you guys clean install Windows 7, you'll probably have no ping spikes when pinging the router/ap/modem 500 times like I do:

idata · ‎05-01-2014

I'm not sure if it is really related to Win 8.1. Like I wrote before, I see the exact same spikes even in Ubuntu 14.04. The only difference is that I haven't observed any connections being lost on Linux. But the ping spikes are there, in the same intervals as when I run Win 8.1 on the same box. To me it looks almost like a combination of a hardware/firmware issue (ping spikes) and a driver issue on Windows (lost connections). But I'm just blindly guessing.

tvete · ‎05-01-2014

The best thing to test is to buy another 7260AC and see if ping spikes still persist on all of your OS. If it is, you may be right that on some hardware combinations, the 7260 doesn't work as well as some other hardware combinations.

idata · ‎05-02-2014

I'm not going to throw money at something I suspect is not going to work anyway, if anything I'll be buying a card from another manufacturer. Either Intel can fix this issue, which given the number of people running into it, shouldn't be that hard to reproduce. And if not, they should at least offer to replace malfunctioning cards. I just have a hard time believing that it is my hardware. Originally, it came with a Dell wifi card, which I swapped with a intel wifi link 5300 that worked flawlessly. Then once I got a 802.11ac router I got this card to utilize this new technology, and I've had nothing but problems. I bet if I switched it out for the wifi link 5300 again, it'll work great again. If it wasn't such a pain to open up my laptop, I'd be more willing to do it. I'm just hoping Intel can come up with a driver fix to at least fix the dropped connections.

Jose_H_Intel1 · ‎05-07-2014

Perhaps you may want to report your case as /message/233246# 233246 expressed before. This way we will have more visibility of your specific issue.

idata · ‎05-07-2014

I already did last week.

idata · ‎05-10-2014

So there seems to be some positive news for me. I installed a recently released BIOS/Firmware update with the hope of it fixing some touch pad related issues. While it didn't fix my touch pad issues, it seems like it may have fixed the dropped connections issue. It now seems to behave exactly like in Ubuntu. I still see ping spikes and laggy TCP connections when these spikes occur, but I haven't had it lose ping packets and the TCP connection hasn't been lost, either. Maybe I've been just lucky the past couple of hours, that's absolutely possible. I didn't always lose the TCP connection prior to this, in some periods it happened frequently, followed by periods where it didn't drop them. So, I'll give it some more time and report back if this indeed fixed the dropped connections for me. In case anyone wonders, this was a BIOS/Firmware update released in April 2014 for a Dell Inspiron 11 Series 3138 laptop.

Jose_H_Intel1 · ‎05-12-2014

We have released Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software 17.0.2. It now offers the option to enable/disable uAPSD in the adapter properties window for better compatibility with certain AP models, thus improving throughput.