One guy's solution to getting his 7260AC network adapter working and connected consistently, with optimal speeds:
The players:
Thinkpad T440p, bought December, 2013. Core i5 4300M, FHD Display 1920 x 1080
Hardware upgrades, from the low-end basics offered, knowing that I was going to put in better stuff:
- Samsung 840 Evo, 1TB
- RAM, GSkill 16GB (2 x 8G) DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Class 9
TP-Link Archer D7 modem/router. There is one firmware update but I haven't run it. Release notes describe a couple of issues that I'm not having. I am a believer in not fixing what isn't broken.
OS: Win 7 Pro 64. Fresh install from a downloaded.iso, activated with the CoA that came with the OEM install from Lenovo.
Drivers from Lenovo:
- fingerprint reader
- onscreen display/hot keys
- SDHC card reader
- trackpad
- camera
No Lenovo "helpful" utilities.
Drivers from providers:
- Sound from Realtek
From Intel
- chipset
- 4600 graphics
- ethernet
- wireless
- bluetooth
- Rapid Start
All others are generic MS.
Sequence:
- Downloaded chipset driver and graphics from Intel, saved to USB key.
- Install Windows from iso burned to DVD.
- After restart, install chipset, restart.
- Install graphics so I could see better than the VGA that came up on install.
- Next, navigate to Intel and run driver update. Installed what it found. I don't remember versions that far back.
- Then, installed Lenovo Update to let it search for what it wanted to install. I hid everything it found except for those devices noted above. Installed from there.
_____________________________________________________
Conditions of use: I live in a baroque-construction cut stone house in Italy on three levels that is very unfriendly to wireless on the 5Ghz band. The ADSL2 modem/router, two band, is located on the middle level. The signal will barely penetrate the ceiling. With the Thinkpad on the top level, connection speed is limited to double digits, typically no more than 20 Mbps. Up here, from where I'm writing, I use the 2 band. Windows' network status tells me I'm getting 216 to 270 right now, with spikes to 300.
In proximity to the modem on the second level, I get 750-866 on the 5 band no sweat. On the lower level, about 350. On the lower level on the 2 band, 300 steady.
_____________________________________________________
I picked up this Thinkpad in the US at the end of January, 2014. Problems noted early on:
1) Thinkpad often wouldn't shut down. Would hang after leaving Windows but wouldn't turn off without hard button press. Solution found at Lenovo Forum to update the fingerprint driver. Fixed.
2) Turning on bluetooth, to talk to my tablet, would cause the wireless to disconnect. Had to restart the Thinkpad to reconnect. Solution: set broadcast channel in router to 1, on the 2GHz band. Default channel had been "Auto".
_____________________________________________________
Things seemed to be fine for quite a while, until I got the bug to experiment with later wireless drivers. I had gotten on 16.6 pretty early and all was well. This was the full install of the driver package which included ProSet, but I never used any of that software, letting Windows manage my connections.
Then, I switched to 16.8 sometime in April I think it was, and I found that the wireless connection was off and wouldn't reconnect after sleep, in my case, Deep Sleep aka Intel Rapid Start sleep on the hibernation partition. But I don't think the type of sleep/hibernation matters. Others are having the problem who don't use RST.
I was traveling away from the Thinkpad off and on at that time and I think that I just didn't put that together with the driver. So I kept trying with the later slew of drivers, into the 17s. Then I started to rethink what I'd done after reading more and more threads here and elsewhere about peeps talking about drivers. I kept messing around with the ProSet app and it didn't do anything to help. Restarting the Thinkpad would connect. Uninstalling/reinstalling the adapter in Device Manager would connect. Disabling/enabling would connect.
This was not optimal and all the online talk about drivers, and some concerted study about wireless connections, router settings, and bands finally hit me with the clue-by-four. Roll it back to when it worked.
So I cleared the table. I deleted ProSet from the PC. I uninstalled the adapter. I downloaded the IT Administrator's Set of drivers from Intel for the earliest version that I could find, which is numbered 16.10.0. This driver, when installed with the re-installed adapter shows in Device Manager as 16.6.0.8, dated 10/14/13. The 16.6 is the one that I remember working, and which was also cited by others, for example at notebookreview.com.
It works. It doesn't disconnect. It's on when the Thinkpad wakes up. It gets maximum rated speeds per band under optimal conditions of proximity.
___________________________________________________________
My wireless settings:
Bare driver from Admin Set 16.10.0 from here: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?DwnldID=23628
No ProSet.
Adapter settings:
802.11n Channel Width (band 2.4/band 5.2) Both Auto
Ad Hoc Channel 802.11 b/g 1
Ad Hoc QoS Mode WMM Enabled
ARP ofload for WoWLAN Enabled
Bluetooth® AMP Enabled
GTK rekeying for WoWlan Enabled
HT Mode VHT Mode
Mixed Mode Protection CTS-to-self Enabled
NS offload for WoWLAN Enabled
Preferred Band Prefer 2.4GHZ band (because that's what I need the most where I use the PC)
Roaming Aggressiveness Medium
Sleep on WoWLAN Disconnect Disabled
Transmit Power Highest
Wake on Magic Packet Enabled
Wake on Pattern Match Enabled
Wireless Mode 802.11 a/b/g
Other settings discussed in these threads don't appear in this version/type of driver install. Under Power Management, I have "Allow the computer to turn off the device" enabled. "Allow the device to wake the computer" is disabled.
______________________________________________________________________________
Bluetooth:
17.0.1401.422 dated 12/16/13
______________________________________________________________________________
Router settings:
2GHz band
11bgn mixed mode
Channel 1
Channel width auto
SSID broadcast yes
WPA2-PSK AES
Short GI enabled
Client isolation disabled
WMM enabled
5GHZ band
11a/n/ac mixed mode
Channel Auto
Channel width Auto
SSID broacast yes
WPA2-PSK AES
That's it. No MAC filtering, nothing else that I can think of that would make a difference.
_______________________________________________________________
There you go. That's a wall of text, to be sure. Glean from it what you will, but all of those things or some combo of those things might work for you. This wireless adapter has clearly been problematic for many, but not necessarily because the hardware itself is to blame. I don't think it is. I've gotten mine to work with some study and some tweaking.
Not everyone cares to do a fresh install or do without utilities provided by their OEM. For my own part, I like a bare bones Windows install with minimal fluff and "help" from the manufacturer. As I noted above, I also don't fix what isn't broken, and it was my own failure to take my own advice that got me into trouble in the first place with connection issues with this hardware. I'll be honest, I trusted in Intel more than I should have with this driver business. I'm a confirmed believer in their processors and have never been disappointed with their motherboards and/or CPUs, and 4600 graphics on this FHD display is stunning. I extrapolated from that that their adapter parts and driver updates would deliver similarly. They haven't, at least the drivers haven't. Lack of release notes is another criticism. Dear Intel, when you release a driver, tell us what you did.
But I've got this part working now and I'm leaving it alone.