Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Driver Update

[ChoateRA]

Looking for latest drivers for both Dell 2350 and Dell 2720 AIO devices, both not upgradeable to Windows 11 and both with the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 wireless cards installed (driver version 18.20.0.9).

These devices are hard-wired connected to an eero Pro 6E system but unable detect the network via the Wi-Fi option. 

Understand these drivers are formally no longer available through Intel Support, but what driver options, if any, are available to resolve this issue?

Much thanks!

[RC7]

Thank you, Thank you! The Driver worked perfectly for my new Wifi 6 Router. I appreciate you.

[zy359846203]

你这个链接我打不开，有没有网盘下载地址。

[Tony27]

I just ran into a problem on my Dell M2800 with 7260 unable to see the HUAWEI OptiXstar EG8145X6-10 SSID but able to see plenty of other SSIDs. I'd not had this type of problem before so it took me a few hours to get to this thread. I had the 2017 dated WLAN driver and ended up going back to 17.15.0.5. Problem solved! I've downloaded all of the 7260 drivers from your archive for future use.

A big THANKS for your time and effort to put this together! 

[DG_FM]

Great Scott!!!

I literally created an account just to say - THANK YOU!!!

This driver bug completely offline-bricked AC 7260 on my old machine.
I had to uninstall/rollback driver a few times every day just to get it to see available networks and get back online!

You made my week.

THANK YOU!!!

[manpower]

Dear n_scott_pearson, 

I have installed your bluetooth driver : "BT_21.10.1_64_Win10"  for my intel wireless AC7260 on Windows 11 64 bits 24H2 and it works perfect. Thankyou very much for the bluetooth driver.  

My problem after installing Windows 11 was that only my Wifi intel wireless AC7260 workt but not the bluetooth. After installing Windows update Intel drivers also my Wifi stopt working either.  Only solution to fix my Wifi problem was to reinstall Windows 11 again. And instal only your bluetooth driver.  I have solved my bluetooth problem as follow: 

• opened device manger
• uninstalled bluetooh driver (standard Win 11 driver) 
• then I have installed your bluetooth driver.
• After restarting my laptop
• my bluetooth worked again.       

Now thanks to you I have bluetooth functionality on my 14 years old laptop.

[Woody_J]

I installed this driver on my HP ZBook 15 running Windows11 and it worked! Thanks a lot for saving this driver archive!

[JaakJensen]

Huge thank you for sharing this. We were about to throw out a couple of perfectly good Windows 10 laptops after we moved to our new workspace with a WiFi 6 router. They were all intermittently connecting and dropping Wifi. After installing your update, we're back up and running. Appreciate you sharing the files and knowledge.

[endreamz]

I bought a baseboard product that came with windows 11 pro installed. Do I need to revert to windows 10 then install?

[robbiestewart89]

Only the drivers for version 18.20.0.9 had the bug in the 7260/3160 driver/firmware that made it incompatible with WiFi 6 Routers. This is the driver that I was running after Windows Update updated it from version 17.15.0.5, which is the initial version that Windows 10 installed when I first installed the wireless card in my PC. All was fine. That was until Comcast Xfinity recently upgraded me from an Arris TG1682 modem gateway up to an Arris TG4482 modem gateway which is branded as their xFi Gateway and also has the WiFi 6 Router built in to it. After that upgrade happened, I started noticing issues with the 5.8 GHz side of my wi-fi network in that it wasn't showing up at all when searching for network connections. I had no problem connecting to the 2.4 GHz side of my wi-fi network, but I really needed to be able to connect to the 5.8 GHz side since I do a lot of streaming. So, I came here, discovered your information about the bug, and found your driver for version 18.33.17.1. After downloading and installing your driver, I'm now happy to report that I'm now able to connect to the 5.8 GHz side of my new Arris TG4482 modem gateway again. 

Apparently, Microsoft is also listening to you, because they have now updated their Windows Update Catalog site for both the WLAN Driver and the Bluetooth Driver as well.  

[ezekial]

thank you - what a nightmare i have had for hours now & how ridiculous this all is.  

[JoeBananas]

Thank you so much!

I think I'm the first guy creating an account only to thank you! Lol

[n_scott_pearson]

LOL! No, I see this somewhat regularly.
...S

[Edsel]

You saved me $100s. My old laptop is online once again. THANK YOU for sharing the drivers.

[irfanmisson]

i install your diriver on my hp elitbook g1 840 and wireless is intel dualband wireless N-7260 but its not working kindly provide driver for my laptop if you have

[The_Doctor]

Cheers Mr. Pearson,

I was going out of my mind trying to reconfigure this Dell 9020M Micro PC; it kept crashing when phones connected to the WiFi hotspot.

[Babejulid]

Oh all I can say is THANK YOU so much. I just bought a Wi-Fi card, and your driver link really helped me. Thanks again.

[ChoateRA]

Solution perfecto... Driver update worked for the card on the Dell 2350 AIO as prescribed, proceeding with the update for the same card in the Dell 2720. ...Thanks a bunch, much appreciated! 

[n_scott_pearson]

@Puzzled,

The final driver package releases supporting the (discontinued) 7260, 3160 and 7265 Rev. C Wireless module families are both version 21.10.1 (included Wireless driver version is 18.33.17.1 and Bluetooth driver version is 20.100.5.1).

Intel is not (reliably) hosting these packages on their website any longer. I archived the final versions myself and have set up a share where they can be downloaded. Use this link: https://1drv.ms/f/s!AtacZBU04mo-j-tQ34BdSDv6y1BFsg?e=7gn50T to access my archive. Subfolders provide final driver packages for most of Intel's discontinued Wireless adapters (see folder names for supported adapters).

Hope this helps. All I can say is that, because the drivers are also discontinued, if this update doesn't solve your problem, there is really no recourse other than replacement.

...S

[Puzzled]

Thank you for your assistance.  I downloaded the driver through your link and this time v 18.33.17.1 was installed correctly.  When I started in Normal mode, Internet access was possible for a short time then the problem reoccurred.  Maybe this is not a driver problem.  Time to try Linux maybe?

[n_scott_pearson]

I think you're right; this is starting to sound like a hardware issue (actually, I was suspicious of this right from the start). By all means, try it on Linux if you can. If it also occurs there, we'll know it's the hardware.
Replacing - or upgrading - the card is not too expensive; ~US$15 to replace or ~US$35 max. to upgrade to the latest.
...S

[Puzzled]

Linux installed, system woks perfectly.  Windows side still with problem.