Intel® Wireless-N 7260 - slows

[SGowr]

Hi,

I have a problem with Intel Wireless-N 7260. The card works just fine, but after a few minutes transfer slows down to about 4Mb/s (802.11n -> 802.11b?).

I tried with all drivers and always have the same problem (now I have ,16.6.0.8). Sometimes the card loses connection and I must reset it.

Windows 7 64bit Professional on Lenovo Z510

Sorry for my english.

[BB4]

Indeed. I don't know what we do. I don't know if we're even talking about the same part, sometimes. I mean, my two PC devices were built in October 2013 and December 2013, and both work to spec. So the cards were fabbed way earlier than that. The only thing that I had to tweak was the driver--until 16.6 came out, the cards wouldn't wake after sleep. Once that driver came out, I had no other issues. Not only that, but later versions of the driver reverted the problem! All of the 17s until 17.12 had the same sleep problem, again. With 17.12 they've fixed it, again. For my card. That suggests to me that the cards are different.

But jeez Louise, look at this forum now. Did they change the card in later mfg runs? That's got to be it, in which case what I suggest or what works for me may not for you. Some of these threads span that period of what very well may be multiple iterations of the card.

And so I and a few others get flak for being Intel stooges when we are all, ultimately, talking apples and oranges. Maybe that's where we're at. It's such a shame.

[JSaud]

I'm not sure I understand your stance. I have first hand seen the 7260 work, but likewise I have seen first hand the 7260 fail. The same can be said about our vehicles, for example. I have a buddy who despises Ford because he and his co-workers are burning up transmissions left right and sideways in their work vans, meanwhile my wife's Ford has been the most reliable, problem free car I've ever experienced first hand, whereas our van made by GM already had a transmission replaced (thankfully with a transmission that addresses the initial widespread issue that had caused it to fail). He speaks from experience because his Ford work trucks burn up transmissions while the GM vans they have don't, yet I speak from experience in opposite. That's not to say I have a problem with him liking GM and being happy with what works for him, just as much as I won't question his experience since it is, after all, his experience. But his experience does not make my experience wrong. I still have a very reliable Ford and a GM van that needed a replacement transmission, but I am happy as I now have two working vehicles that are problem free. It sucked getting it replaced, but in doing so I got a better iteration of the transmission that ensured the same issue that bit me the first time at 54,000 miles won't bite me in another 54,000 miles. Likewise this doesn't make his experience wrong. His transmission failed, that's a simple fact, and that fact formulated his opinion, one that I do not share but also one I do not disagree with either.

But at the end of the day, the best I can offer is my own experience, which is why I'm a little abrasive in regard to Intel's behavior with this card. If it were just me, I'd let it slide and move on to the next chip and be done with it. After all, I can take it. I can work around nonsense BIOS whitelists (already have on my Lenovo; feel free to choke hard on that one, Lenovo), I can swap out wireless cards, I can do tweaks and tests and report my findings back to the manufacturer in an effort to make the tech world a better place for users who have these frustrations. That said, when a company does seemingly nothing and I see your users of an average tech level left and right getting stuck with laptops that have a whitelisted unit, cannot change the card, and do not like the idea of flashing a proper BIOS to allow a different card to function, all in all they're only getting jipped of their hard earned cash with a device they paid for but is not functioning as it was intended. It may miff me a little bit when a product doesn't work for me, but I'm a DIYer by nature, so I can take it. When it happens to end users who simply bought a device with a simple expectation of it working, and it doesn't, and they have little/no direction, that burns me up in ways I cannot begin to describe.

Intel put the product out there. It's their responsibility to own up to these issues, whether it's 0.2% of users out there having issues or 90%. Either way, responsibility sits the same. Nobody's experience is wrong. The only person and/or body of persons that's in any way shape or form wrong is, unfortunately, Intel.

[MDarl]

Thank you for speaking up for my and others' behalf. I will double-post here as I hope to receive a response or receive good advice on how to correct the issue.

I just spent $1600 on an ASUS UX303LN Zenbook to replace my 3 year old Macbook. Problem is, whereas I receive upwards of 8MB/s of wireless downloading speed on the Mac, I receive only 0.5 to 2 MB/s on this brand new expensive intel-Laptop. I've tried a number of troubleshooting changes, ie, updating drivers, changing power-saving settings.

It is extremely disappointing to me that ASUS would use this faulty product, and that Intel is doing little in the form of resolving these issues. What are the chances I would have this issue if I purchased a brand-new Macbook Pro?

[JSaud]

Depends on what wireless card is in the system. If it has a 7260, it wouldn't surprise me if you have issues. Given that I've seen this issue on various versions of Windows and Linux alike, I'd bet my car that a 7260 equipped Mac would do the same thing.

[MDarl]

Oops, I should have mentioned (although it is in the topic title), yes it is a Dual Band 7260-N wireless card. And I don't even get 3MB/s from it. Terribly frustrating.

[AAnke]

Hey MichaelWDarlington - not that it matters too much as we know this is related to the intel card but I noticed you have the same new Asus laptop that I just purchased as well Did you see my earlier post about the success I had where I was getting the same download speed as you? I was able to make the changes I posted and get the new laptop up to the same d/l speed as my other two older Asus laptops.

[tstob]

dual band N7260 in my HP is working well with 17.13.0.9 drivers dated 09/29/2014 so far. no issues. i didn't change any options; U-APSD support etc.

I have only connected to 2 different routers, both are Asus routers running Merlin software. well see what happens when i travel with it, last time was rough. I carry a couple USB wireless adapters with me.

[MDarl]

Hi Aenathema

Thanks for taking the time to reply - actually I did not see your previous post. Is there an easier way to find it than scrolling through 17 pages of content? I went to your profile but must be too much of a noob to find your posts. Would you mind re-posting it?

Actually I am baffled because now when I start the laptop, WIFI is on but "no connections available". So I disabled + enabled the driver (Device Manager) and received an instant connection and speeds of nearly 40MB/s. I was at my second home location when this happened, haven't tested back at home where I had 0.5MB/s whereas my 3 y/o Macbook had ~8MB/s. Nevertheless, receiving 40MB/s has definitely given me hope. Having to disable + enable the driver is ridiculous though.

Looking forward to reading your suggestion, thanks!

[AAnke]

Ah weird, I had trouble finding my old post too, here you go, sorry for the repost:

This seems to be the defacto thread on the interwebs for Intel 7260 slowness. Just got a brand new Asus 303LA Zenbook and was shocked to find I was getting 2-3Mbps via speedtests when my two other Asus laptops average 20Mps+ on wifi. I used info here plus other sites and via some magical combination I have now got this laptop performing the same as all my other wifi devices in the house.

Home Router is a Linksys N300

I'm using the Intel ProSet Utility + Driver 17.1.0.19

I updated this magical combination of settings to get full throughput on my connection (connected at 300Mbps and 20+Mbps download speeds)

In Advanced Driver Settings:

HT Mode = HT Mode Only

Preferred Band = Prefer 2.4Ghz Band

Roaming Aggressiveness = Highest

U-APSD support = Disabled

All other settings were not touched. Good luck to you all!

[GBals]

Acer told me that the 7260 AC was meant to function as either a wireless card, or a Bluetooth adapter, but not as both at the same time.

Can anyone confirm this? I thought this card would have been able to function as both at the same time?

Thanks!

[IKind]

You don't really believe that crap - sorry. Just a lousy excuse from a new poorly trained technician.

Would mean you cannot stream music/video via WiFi and listen to it via a bluetooth headset.

Ingo

[KFied]

did anyone try my solution from answer # 70 ? It truly works with my lenovo z510 with wifi N7260 card.

I'd like to hear the feedback from you guys

[JMeye10]

Hi,

i bought a new notebook (Samsung ATIV 9 Plus) with Intel N7260 last week.

The wifi is terrible... slow and often the connection is lost completely.

Today I installed new driver 17.0.5.8 - so worse as before.

My way to get a stable connection:

1) Disable HT

2) Disable Energy Saving mode

So I have max. a 54 Mbit. That is very slow but the connection is stable.

Any tips for me?

Regards,

Johannes

[Jose_H_Intel1]

These are the links for the new drivers (17.0.5) while we make them available through the search.

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for IT Administrators

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23988 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23988

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software for Windows 8.1*

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23994 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23994

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 8*

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23993 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23993

Intel® PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers for Windows 7*

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23992 https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?lang=eng&changeLang=true&DwnldId=23992

[rroot1]

Nope. 17.0.5.8 still SUCKS.

I can't believe this is happening and you guys could have not fixed this for almost a year by now.

On np940x3g (Ativ Book 9 Plus), the dual band wireless-n 7260 is useless unless I disable HT mode.

With HT mode enabled (+ uAPSD disabled) it connects to my router at 300mbps (wireless n mode) and then fluctuates between 11-54mbps.

However, the actual downstream speed is not even close to that, and I get between 2-4mbps.

With HT mode disabled (+ uAPSD disabled), it connects at 54mbps (wireless g mode), then it still fluctuates somewhere between 11-54mbps.

While the downstream speed I get does not go above 12mbps, at least it stays somewhere in between 4-12mbps.

At the same time, my other tablets and smartphones get downstream of 45+mbps and connects to the same router at 150/300mbps.

Secondary problem is that it seems like when I keep on using HT mode enabled and uses the laptop extensively, it messes up the router, causing it to drop connections for all devices.

It happened to multiple routers I've tried and only when I do not use this laptop or have HT mode disabled helped the router not to drop connections.

In this thread, someone else also mentioned of this problem though it does not seem to be prevalent.

This is unacceptable and ridiculous.

[RLubi]

Maybe there are design, compatibility, or quality-control issues with the N-7260 that no driver update is going to be able to remedy? Hopefully that's not the case, but by this point it's starting to sound like a real possibility.

[GBals]

I think you're right on with that point. I've installed another card, so I am happy for now, but I really wish that laptop manufacturers would stop putting this card in their laptops. Intel should issue a recall...

[JBeck13]

17.0.5.8 is still very bad, so it really ends up on a hardware issue.

For testing I swapped to an old "Ultimate-N 6300" and everything is fine now.

Unfortunately this card has no Bluetooth, no AC, so it's just a temp workaround.

Don't want to use intel wifi cards anymore, so I'll try to support another supplier in the future.

[MCall1]

All,

I didn't look at all the threads so I apologize if this has already been covered. I have an Elitebook Folio 1040 with the 7260AC card. Like everyone else I was seeing terrible throughput, ping times were all over the place and random drops were common place. Tonight I disabled U-APSD support and I have been doing great ever since. Ping times are consistently 2ms (high as 300ms before) and no drops. I'm running the 17.0.5.8 driver. Hope this helps somebody else.

[ORAUC]

Hi,

I've purchase a brand new Samsung ATIV Book 9 plus NP940X3G and I've got a lot of problems with "intel Dual Band Wireless N-7260" on Windows 8.1 update.

Wifi disconnect randomly all the time. Even when HT is activated or not. uAPSD disable or not, didn't change anything. Same for all power management settings.

My microsoft Bluetooth mouse is extremly slow and begin slowest and very hard to control when wifi is in use.

Intel MUST found a solution !

Wifi downstream is awful, very very slow and unstable. I try theses drivers : Wireless_16.7.0_De164, Wireless_17.0.0_De164, Wireless_17.0.5_De164

Here we're a lots of user with same hardware troubles : johannesmeyer, rootk.

I'm so desperate its impossbile to work without a reliable Wireless connexion, I want to change this card. johannesmeyer if u change it on your laptop, could you help us and tell how do you proceed ?

[Jose_H_Intel1]

We are interested on getting more information about the specific scenarios where issues persist after installing latest drivers. I hope most of you can provide some details:

1. Does the issue occur in 2.4 or 5 GHz?
2. What is your operating system?
3. Where is the issue happening? Is it happening only at home or across different networks?
4. How many APs or wireless networks are broadcasting in your area?
5. Does the issue occur when doing some specific actions, such as copying files, streaming, or gaming?
6. Is the issue affected by disabling Bluetooth*, uAPSD, or VHT?
7. What is the brand of your system?
8. Was the Intel® wireless adapter installed by the system manufacturer?