Intel WiFi 7260AC BSOD with Win7 32-bit

[NCref]

Hello! I attached my system data along with 3 minidumps I got from 3 BSODs.

On different occasions I ran Windows Updates and I tried to download a game from Origin. I removed the card from my laptop and temporarily put my old one in place (Atheros AR928X), until I get some answers and hopefully some fixes. I just can't work with it like that. I'm running a fresh Windows 7 SP1 32-bit setup on my ASUS M51Vr laptop with an Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 @ 2.66 GHz, 4 GB DDR2 RAM and a Samsung 850 Pro SSD. If it matters, the graphics card is ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3400 Series.

What is the problem, oh gurus of computer wisdom?

[ASouz7]

Nicu,

Is this the wireless adapter that came installed by factory in your system? If so, our first recommendation is for you to contact your computer manufactuer in order to obtain the latest drivers. If after trying the drivers provided by your OEM you notice that the issue still remains, you are welcome to try our latest generic drivers. (version 18.40.0) For your conveniece, here is the link: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25833/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-for-Windows-10 Download Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software for Windows® 10 - This new version contains lots of fixes that might work for you. Follow the procedure below:

1. Download and save the drivers informed in the link above.

2. Go to Control Panel, Programs and Features and Uninstall the current "Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software", if it is installed. When prompted, choose the option to "Discard settings".

3. In Control Panel, Device Manager, Network Adapters, right click on the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 and Uninstall it. Make sure you mark the option to "Delete the driver software for this device".

4. Reboot the PC or scan for hardware changes, check device manager and if an older driver is detected and installed, repeat the actions to uninstall and delete it as well. Repeat this process until the OS does not allow deleting the driver, or until the controller shows as Unknown Device.

5. Reboot or scan for hardware changes, then uninstall and delete any older driver versions as you did for the Wireless adapter.

6. Install the Intel® Wireless driver. During the first steps of PROSet/Wireless installation, make sure to customize the installation and install all the 3 driver components.

Please let us know the results.

[NCref]

Hi, Aleki. Thanks for your reply and detailed info.

I will be able to give it another try once I get back from vacation, next Monday. I bought the laptop in 2009, so it's way older than the wifi card - which works just fine under Linux Mint 17.3 64-bit (based on Ubuntu 14.04 with kernel 4.2), but I needed Windows for the WebEx conferences and that gave me headaches. So while on the road, I got back to what worked.

Shouldn't I get https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25835/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-Windows-7-?v=t Wireless_18.40.0_PROSet32_Win7.exe? // Windows 7 32-bit here.

[ASouz7]

Nicu,

Yes, please try this version: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25835/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-Windows-7-?v=t Wireless_18.40.0_PROSet32_Win7.exe since you have Windows* 7. We will be looking forward to hearing from you with the results.

[ASouz7]

Hello Nicu,

We would like to know if the latest driver version we sent to you in the link above helped you to resolve the issue.

[NCref]

Hello again, aleki_intel!

Thank you for getting back to me. Catching up after the vacation took more time than I hoped but I plugged the new WiFi module back in and tested it after I removed the previous driver and put the new one in place. I installed an update through Windows Updates, I downloaded a 1.6 GB game from Steam (Crash Time II ) and I was happy everything went well. I was about to make a joke about the game's title but then the BSOD happened again.

However, this time I might have some valuable info. I had something else to do on my desktop PC and I kept moving the mouse on my laptop so it won't go in stand-by, because I'd have to enter the password again. And I kept it awake for almost 2 hours before I forgot to move the mouse and it went in stand-by. I woke it back up, I entered the password and a few seconds after that, the BSOD happened.

I got back in Windows, I tried to grab the dump files, but before I could do that, another BSOD happened. (I don't know if it's relevant but the Steam client auto-started and wanted to update itself. It always downloads the update in advance and it prompts the user to update after the next start, so no internet was necessary for the update, which I hope it went well before the second BSOD happened.) I think it was not yet connected to wifi while that happened but I'm not 100% sure - I just remember that the network connection systray icon displayed either "no internet" (exclamation mark) or "no connection" (red X cross).

I booted back to Windows, logged in and the Intel network utility pop-up said it connected to wifi. I also don't remember seeing a notication from the connection utility after the first BSOD. So it looks like the BSOD happened sometime between the boot/resume and a successful connection to the network.

Come to think of it, when I first installed and tried the new WiFi card I had a big download (about 5 GB) and I just let the laptop do its thing while it worked on it. And I think the BSOD happened after the laptop entered stand-by. So if I remember correctly, the same thing happened before (old driver) but I just didn't make a note of the context.

By the way, I wrote this post after the second BSOD today, after I secured the dump files attached to this post.

In short:

1. Uninstalled old drivers, installed new ones, ran the laptop for about 4 hours, downloaded an update and a 1.6 GB Steam game successfully.

2. The laptop went in stand-by.

3. Coming out of the stand-by, before it could get a network connection and internet, a BSOD happened.

4. While I was trying to collect the dump files, without a network/internet connection up and running, a new BSOD occured.

5. I booted Windows again, the network connected quickly, I grabbed the dump files, wrote this post, nothing went wrong.

It would be interesting to put the laptop to sleep on purpose, to see if I can reproduce the BSOD, but I'm not a fan of those and I prefer my file-system intact - unless you advise me to give it a shot and before I do I'll make sure to have everything closed, so no running app would be affected. What do you think?

[NCref]

I tried to reproduce the stand-by issue but it quickly reconnected to WiFi and the problem (BSOD) didn't show up. Regarding the previous behaviour it's still consistent, but anyway, I went to the WiFi configuration utility to explore some features. From one of the menus I chose an option to display the status of the networking device or something like that. Sorry for being vague but I ended up uninstalling and you'll understand why, by reading below.

As I waited to get the status of my card and nothing happened for 5-10 seconds, I thought about running a diagnostics instead. At some point during the 3rd/4th (I guess) diagnostic test, the status window popped up showing nothing helpful. Back to diagnostics - all the tests ran well until the AP association was tested and failed for some reason. I waited for the diagnostics to finish but they kept trying to do something and I clicked cancel because it felt like a waste of time. I also closed the status window, which didn't help with anything.

Soon after that, the WiFi connection utility stopped responding, it became responsive again, but then it still felt laggy, like something kept going on in the background. OK, so my attempt to reproduce the BSOD didn't succeed. As a result, I decided to disconnect from the WiFi (from the Intel utility) and see if the BSOD would show up again while the software tries to reconnect. It didn't, so I tried to reconnect but it didn't work, altough it didn't report an error. I used the same utility to disable and enable back the WiFi, just in case it needed it to come out of that weird state. It didn't help, again, without error messages.

After this, I tried switching to the Windows tools to get a connection but strangely, that didn't help either. So I deleted the wifi connection I had set up from the Network and Sharing Center and refreshed. Scanning for networks no longer worked, so I was stuck. I switched back to the Intel WiFi connection utility and deleted the profile that was initially created for my SSID, but scanning still didn't work, so I abandoned. I wanted to exit the utility but it was quite stuck with whatever was going on, so I had to wait for it. This time a different BSOD happened and I didn't note the error message but I have no dump files.

Not knowing what to blame, I thought about removing the WiFi connection utility and stick with a driver-only setup, so I removed the PROSet. The driver was also uninstalled, so I plugged in a trusty USB dongle and I got the Intel Driver Update Utility. The "funny" thing is it proposed me two drivers, as seen in the picture below. Only the version differs, so I wonder what the fudge is going on. Regardless, just when I thought I wouldn't regret anything by using a sledgehammer on this brand new WiFi card I remembered I only have issues with it in Windows - which is at the moment a necessary evil for WebEx, because Cisco couldn't care less about full Linux compatibility.

Awaiting instructions.

[jbenavides]

Hello Nicu,

Please consider the following, since the issue persists after you tried a clean installation of the driver, and also using the "Driver only" package::

- Keep in mind that we do not recommend nor support custom integration of Intel® Wireless Adapters. You must contact the manufacturer of the system and determine if the wireless adapter is approved for use in your specific system. In this case we cannot guarantee that the adapter is fully compatible with your PC and it may not work correctly. Please check the following documents for details:

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking/000005687.html?wapkw=regulatory+information+regarding+hardware+installation Regulatory Information Regarding Hardware Installation or Upgrade

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking/000005600.html Install Intel® Wireless Drivers and Software

In our best effort, here are some additional troubleshooting steps that might help:

- Go the Device Manager, under network adapters, look for the Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 and open the properties. Go to the "Power Management" tab and toggle Off/On the option "Allow the computer to turn off this devices to save power". Then check if the behavior changes.

- Set you power plan settings for Maximum Performance of the wireless adapter. This is also done in the Power options for you active plan (or any other that you may use) - Change plan settings - Change advanced power plan settings - Wireless adapter settings, then set it to Maximum performance when plugged in and on battery.

[NCref]

*sigh*

Hello, Jonathan.

You can probably guess how thrilling it is for me being referred to the regulatory stuff. I bought the laptop in 2009 and the manufacturer no longer cares about it. I contacted them for other questions I had about an upgrade (CPU & RAM), and their reply was discouraging. Surely, any manufacturer prefers consumers to buy new hardware. I could go to ASUS again and ask about this module, although I assume the answer would be useless for one good reason: even their support page is partially broken for my model, which means they "moved on". All I see is the result - I get issues with this adapter. The http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/network-and-i-o/wireless-networking/000007292.html Regulatory Documents for Intel® Wireless 7260 Family states this equipment is compliant for Germany (and EU members), which is where I bought the adapter from, and the place I use it - although it's standardized technology and it should work wherever I may roam. There is literally no point in selling individual components in so many shops worldwide if the manufacturers never bother to impose clear product documentation that warns the buyers to only buy if they plan to use that in certain configurations.

I wish hardware would simply respect the standards and they were was built like black-box software development. And I wish hardware manufacturers would understand that most users don't buy hardware for hardware but as a platform for their preferred software. And buying Intel products seemed like a good idea until recently, when I found out the hard way why the hardware is not good enough, unless it has good enough software (drivers). It turns out that even a company as Linux-friendly as Intel is, you can't just assume you'd have your back covered by buying Intel hardware. It wouldn't be fair to put the blame on Intel alone or to reduce everything down to one component's functionality. It's more complex than that, but that's exactly why hardware standardization should just work. Honestly, I expect Intel to have reliable drivers on launch for both the latest Windows version(s) and at least the latest stable Linux kernel, if not also back-ported to the latest LTS kernel. This is off-topic, but when I bought my new Skylake CPU there was no full GPU support in any Linux kernel, which is absurd from the standpoint of a consumer.

Back on topic:

1. Turning off the power management from the Device Manager didn't help - the BSODs still occurred.

2. I switched to Maximum performance for all the power plans, just in case - I still got a BSOD.

Even worse, after I changed these settings I barely managed to connect to WiFi again. I had to turn on/off the power management from the Device Manager to get back online - which worked eventually, but I expect more BSODs.

While the WiFi couldn't reconnect the network manager sometimes failed to refresh the list of networks, Windows froze for a minute or two - couldn't move the mouse, nor switch the Caps/Num Lock LEDs because the system was completely unresponsive but "it came back to its senses". After I turned the power management on and off (a BSOD and a restart later) I managed to connect to WiFi again and I browsed the web normally for about an hour. I'll try using it some more in the following days and report back if I find something new.

I still don't get why the Intel Driver Update Utility recommends and preselects two wireless drivers. Can you please enlighten me?

P.S. I just checked the driver version in Device Manager and I'm puzzled why it says 18.33.0.2 when I uninstalled the deleted the old driver, then used Wireless_18.40.0_PROSet32_Win7.exe to install the latest version.

[idata]

Nicu,

At this point, our recommendation is for you to contact the computer manufacturer since there seem to be a compatibilty issue with this configuration.As for the driver, the Intel® PROSet package is the 18.40.0, however, the driver version installed, depends on the model of the adapter. In this case, the driver version for the adapter you have is the 18.33.0.2 as mentioned.

[idata]

Nicu,

We haven't heard from you for in a while so we would like to know if you still need our support.