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Intel (R) Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 issue

DSill
Beginner
13,093 Views

Hi all,

I own a Dell inspiron 15 7537 and have been experiencing issues with my connection. Now I've been doing some searching and notice people been have same issue but i'm not sure if there's any alternative fixes, as I already have the latest drives but still issue persist and that issue is that my connection drops terribly or disconnects. Now I have another laptop for 3 years and it has no issues,. also could someone explain why on Intel site it shows that my wireless adapter is called "http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/wireless/db-ac7260 Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260" but not a "Dual Band Wireless-N 7260"?? And why it says I have a 17.0.5.0 but on device manager it's title as Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 and is version 17.0.5.8?? I'm not sure what is best issue as I think that all versions are not helpful and it's just the wireless adapter itself, but do correct me as i'm unaware of these sort of issue containing wireless connectivity.

Thanks

Danny

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54 Replies
MHern9
Beginner
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I threw away my intel 7260N. It was utterly useless. That piece of junk would disconnect ever 5 min (with the latest driver). I now have a 7260 AC (not by choice, BIOS whitelisting forced it on me). But at least now, I get connection for 2 days b4 dropping.

The lifetime warranty from intel is garbage! They claim I should go to my mfg and the mfg says warranty is expired. So in the end, I hate Lenovo and I hate Intel. Both are cheap company. I will go AMD and broadcom or realtek on my next comp. Oh and Lenovo will never get my $ again.

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tvete
Valued Contributor II
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Indest wrote:

I threw away my intel 7260N. It was utterly useless. That piece of junk would disconnect ever 5 min (with the latest driver). I now have a 7260 AC (not by choice, BIOS whitelisting forced it on me). But at least now, I get connection for 2 days b4 dropping.

The lifetime warranty from intel is garbage! They claim I should go to my mfg and the mfg says warranty is expired. So in the end, I hate Lenovo and I hate Intel. Both are cheap company. I will go AMD and broadcom or realtek on my next comp. Oh and Lenovo will never get my $ again.

Intel's performance when it's working perfectly is phenomenal but stability is really annoying. I only get it though on really terrible environments such as WiFi hotels (my phone connects immediately while 7260N gets a bit more time then times out but luckily connects on the 2nd time). BTW, many phones use Broadcom chips (ex. Samgalaxy S5 with their 2x2 802.11ac Broadcom chip) so don't hesitate to try Broadcom on your next PC purchase.

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MHern9
Beginner
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Honestly, intel card may be fast, but what good is it when the drivers suc*s? Also, lets be real, if this was a driver problem it would be fixed now on both the AC and the N version of the card. In fact, the driver gets worst, not better.

Example: /message/248741# 248741 https://communities.intel.com/message/248741# 248741

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DSill
Beginner
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Hey Indest,

How do you find out what is compatible with your motherboard?? Because i've been looking at what you have said a Intel 7260-AC but that's what i'm going by unless there's other NIC mini cards that I can put in my laptop.

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MHern9
Beginner
2,717 Views

DL you BIOS

DL Andy's tool

Run the bios through that to get the bios dump

Get a universal hex searcher

Go through the dump and look for the 8680 (which is the inverse of intel's product IF 8086). Be best if you use your intel wifi card as guide to find the whitelist section of the BIOS.

Example, if you have the 7260 N, your product id might be PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B2 (you can get this from device manager).

This means the hex is:

8086 08B2===.> invert this by pairs and you get ===> 8680 B208 ===> combine the numbers ===> 8680B208.

When you get ur block, copy all the 8680 + 4 next # 's/letters. Then work backwards.

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DSill
Beginner
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Hey Indest,

I've been looking around and came across this http://www.sbbala.com/DellWWAN/Whitelist.htm Do-It-Yourself and remove the "White list" in Lenovo's S10 Netbook as I thought this one was quite helpful. I'm just wondering do the same rules apply for today's time? Also one thing I don't get is if I were to get a NIC card, how would I know the code for that card do see if it's in the whiteless?

Joe wrote:

This might also be a disconnected antenna wire.

/message/248803 Intel (R) Dual Band Wireless-N 7260 issue

I'll take a look into that.

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DSill
Beginner
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Sorry for the no replies as I've been busy. I have taken apart my laptop and has seen that everything is connected and nothing is loose. So I would still say this is just the matter of the Network card to be poor.

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tvete
Valued Contributor II
2,717 Views

Intel's detection software is utterly worthless. Device manager uses hardware IDs imprinted on the firmware of the 7260 so it knows which correct driver and name that will work with that device.

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DSill
Beginner
2,717 Views

Hmm..Seems that I cant really do much as it looks like it's just the card itself. Well as I'm still in the warranty of Dell, does anyone know any good cards that would work with my type of system? Also I forgot to mention that, if I'm right next to my router, it doesn't disconnect me or lose speed. I still maintain a stable connection, but if I were to move away from it, like sitting in my bedroom which is not that far than, I get the problems. I just don't understand why such a unstable card would be put into a latest laptop if there's issues with it.

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Jose_H_Intel1
Employee
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Hi Danny, perhaps you would like to elaborate more the description of the connectivity issues that you are experiencing so we can further assist you.

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DSill
Beginner
2,717 Views

Hi Joe,

Ah...Well idk. Seeing from the posts it still seems that the problem with this card still got issues. So all I can say is that from time-to-time my connection speed drops like i said. This is only if I'm in my bedroom or away from the router. I also sometimes get disconnected from my router too for odd reasons. My xbox maintains a good connection, so does my tablet but this laptop doesn't at times. That's pretty much what i can think of.

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BB4
New Contributor II
2,717 Views
if I'm right next to my router, it doesn't disconnect me or lose speed. I still maintain a stable connection, but if I were to move away from it, like sitting in my bedroom which is not that far than, I get the problems.

This might also be a disconnected antenna wire.

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Jose_H_Intel1
Employee
2,717 Views

You may want to disable uAPSD, channel bonding for 2.4 GHz, and update your router's firmware.

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/sb/CS-034875.htm Intel® Wi-Fi Products — TechNote: Access Point interoperability issue with uAPSD

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DSill
Beginner
2,717 Views

Hi Joe,

Did what you said and so far it has kinda improved (i think) but at times there are still issues where even thought it shows I got a full bar of wifi it still tends to drop and lose connection, but I'll keep you posted.

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DSill
Beginner
2,717 Views

Sorry for bringing up a dead thread but as I still experience low speeds and unstable connection, i'm starting to think of getting a new NIC or a USB one. I'm not sure which, so please post on what is best.

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Jose_H_Intel1
Employee
2,717 Views

Perhaps you can try connecting at 5 GHz if the router supports it.

The http://www.intel.com/support/oems.htm system manufacturer may be able to provide you with a better suggestion regarding your last question.

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DSill
Beginner
2,717 Views

Thanks for the reply's. I've tried looking around on my router settings but no luck. I'm unaware of whitelist to be part of my laptop but, I'll contact Dell and see it is.

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LMain
Beginner
2,717 Views

I found that disabling wireless-n on my router and just using G has really helped with the speed issues. Let me know it that helps at all

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LMain
Beginner
2,717 Views

The one other thing I found that seems to fix all problems on the latest drivers is to uninstall PROSET software. I have no idea why that would work but it has dramatically improved my internet throughput

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DSill
Beginner
2,476 Views

I don't think, I have PROSET software on my PC. Also is it worth to get the NIC replaced with the same version? I understand there have been negative reports on it but from a technical point of view, would it be worth a go to replace it?

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