[Fix] Intel Wireless 7260 AC Wifi Speed Issues in Windows 10

By
Trouble Fixers
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For many users, Intel Dual Band Wireless 7260 AC has been an issue of distress because of the highly cynical speed of Wireless, and this has affected the networking via Wireless and highly variable speed in the internet surfing. Overall you’ll face fluctuations on the internet and would observe a disastrous difference between you really used to have in Windows 7 or 8. And it’s not like that things have been any better with 7260 AC card with Windows 8, but it was manageable. Now, you’ll have great trouble in playing online games like Counter-Strike, where lower the ping the best situation is a must. So, let’s fix this issue:

Fix Intel Wireless 7260 AC WiFi Speed Issues in Windows 10

Solution 1

Intel Dual Band Wireless 7260 AC card designed for work mainly for 5Ghz AC connections. But since most users using laptops of many manufacturers say HP, Lenovo or even Dell have this card in their laptop. Intel shouldn’t have sold this card in bulk as, in the end, it’s the consumer who suffers. However, to fix this issue, let’s begin:

Download the latest drivers from Intel here. You’ll get two choices to choose from i.e.

For Windows 8 / 10 32 Bit For Windows 8 / 10 64 bit
Wireless Driver Only – Version 18.12.0 Wireless_18.12.0_De132.exe Wireless_18.12.0_De164.exe
Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software (includes Drivers) – Version 18.12.0 Wireless_18.12.0_t32.exe Wireless_18.12.0_t64.exe

This driver is applicable for following Intel adapters:

PROSet version = 18.12.0

Driver version = 18.12.0.3 for Windows 10 for 7265, 7260, 3165, and 3160 adapters.
Driver version = 15.18.0.1 for Windows 10 for 105, 135, 2230, 6205, 6235, and 6300 adapters.
Driver version = 15.12.0.9 for Windows 10 for 2200, 6150, and 6250 adapters.

  1. Install the Intel Wireless Driver. If you had Intel PROset previously in the laptop, install that one otherwise installs the driver version only.
  2. Now many users might face internet connectivity issues and shall see “Limited Connection” or the Internet might be prolonged to load new pages. This happens because it’s not the manufacturer version driver; hence it needs to be appropriately configured for using it on older hardware. These solutions provided below are valid for Windows 7, 8, and 10 for all the wireless adapters I listed above.
  3. Right-click on Wireless icon and select “Open Network and Sharing Center.”
  4. Click “Change Adapter Settings.”
  5. Right-click on the wireless connection and select Properties.
  6. Click “Configure.”
  7. When Network Adapter Properties open, select the “Advanced” tab and change the settings as given below:
  8. Login into your router settings and disable P2P settings and Enable WMM (WiFi multimedia)WIreless Advanced Settings
  9. If you play Xbox or have the app installed, open and sign in and then go to settings and disable “Game DVR.”
  10. Open Wireless Settings and disable auto-connecting to wireless hotspots.
  11. Also, last if you’re not using any Bluetooth device, switch OFF Bluetooth too in Windows 10 settings.

Solution 2

Another issue for fluctuating speed could happen because of Power Save Polling (PSP) issues with Access points. According to Intel, if a WiFi router doesn’t support the Power save Polling (PSP) feature, then it can create issues like Intermittent loss of WiFi connection, Inability to initiate a WiFi connection, Poor WiFi connection data performance. These issues are most noticeable when the computer is on battery power.

PSP mode is a feature built to increase the battery life of laptops and notebooks. However, this mode requires coordination between the Access point and the WiFi router. But later on, it was discovered by Intel that some access points or routers are not able to support PSP correctly or doesn’t support at all.

The only solution to check or ask the manufacturer if there is any updated firmware of the router. If there is no such update, then there is one turn-around to set the WiFi adapter of your computer to Continuously Aware Mode (CAM). Enabling this would disable the PSP feature. You can enable the CAM feature by following given methods:

  • Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Connection Utility
  • Network control panel applet (NCPA)

Be cautious, as this feature in some models can hinder Bluetooth functionality.

How to Enable Continuously Aware Mode using Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Connection Utility

From the Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Connection Utility:

  1. Click Advanced > Adapter Settings > Advanced tab.
  2. Windows XP*: Select Power Management, uncheck Default / Auto, and move the slider to Highest / Maximum Performance.
  3. Windows 7 or 8 or 10: Select Transmit Power, change Value to 5. Highest.

How to Enable Continuously Aware Mode using Network Control Panel Applet (NCPA)

  1. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel.
  2. Double-click Network Connections.
  3. Right-click the wireless connection and click Properties.
  4. Click Configure.
  5. Click the Advanced tab.
  6. Windows XP: Select the Power Management setting, uncheck Default / Auto, and move the slider to Highest / Maximum Performance.
  7. Windows 7 or 8: Select Transmit Power, change Value to 5. Highest.

Above method fixes WiFi issues of following Intel Wireless adapter models:

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27 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks a lot!! I got a stable connection again after trying around for over a month! I was short of returning my laptop back to the dealer because of this intel wireless issue…

    thanks again!

  2. hi, i have similar problem, could you help me? i cant play online game becouse my ping i jumping from high to low, actually i have proset ver 18.33.0.2
    what should i do now?

    • I have listed out every possible way up to my knowledge. Also don’t have proset to replicate the issue at my end. So sorry for that..

  3. Thank you very much Robert !!!
    I just bought this used ASUS laptop (almost bright new) with this 7260 AC from bestbuy, and I think it has some compatibility issue with my COMCAST router. Anyway, I was able to fix it by following your instruction.
    Thank you

  4. Hi,

    I will keep it short 🙂 I have MSI GS70. After update no wifi, adaptor error, no wifi networks available near routers etc etc. I tried to uninstal the driver for Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 726 but after instal windows instaled the same bad driver.
    How i solved :D. I removed my wifi adapter from the computer. Uninstaled the driver and deleted all the files with Revo Uninstaler then i restarted the laptop. All good no drivers. I placed the wifi in my laptop ( random throw :))) ) and i powered my laptop. WIndows 10 instaled the adapter and now my wifi works like new.

    Have fun.

  6. Robert thank you so much all though my WiFi is a 3260 intel I have had a lot of disconnect in windows 10 normally while playing online games, I have followed your advice and fingers crossed no dc’s

  7. hi, I have a dell inspiron 15 that came with win 8.1. after update to win 10 my problems started. I have been trying everything with both dell support and D-link for router and it has something to do with config. I have followed your tips and so many others I found on web without results. I factory reset to win8.1, updated to latest intel drivers, reverted to old ones from Intel or Microsoft, updated everything possible and check all setting on router with dlink support etc.. but does not make it better. It is only my device that has problem! My previous wifi adapter was intel 3160 AC and basically stopped to work max 4/5 mbs instead of previous 55 mbs, now with new model 7260 AC it reaches 35 mbs but on and off, keep loosing network and very weak, Dell has also replaced antenna.
    All other devices reach up to 85 mbs wifi with my router which is older dir-615 with only 802.11 g and n, but all other devices even 2009 xp dell laptop works great on wireless. No one can tell me what it causes, even at work instead of 300mbs I could reach it goes up to max 94mbs close to source, and in evey case speed and signal go down quickly as soon as I move a few meters away the router.
    I am sure has something to do with Win10 config, but what? Can someone help me please? It is 6 months I am having this problem and recently even by cable my speed went down to 98 to max 70 mbs, so maybe the problem is not wifi adapter but something upstream shared by both cable and wifi that slow down connection?!

    • Upgrade to Windows anniversary update. I believe speed issue was taken care of in that update. Also, if wireless adapter after the update keeps bugging you, buy a new USB wireless adapter (300N) from the market and disable the internal of Intel you have.

  9. That’s haven’t work for , have 0.000 mbps , so I reset what you say to do and only change “802.11n channel Width for 2.4Ghz conenctions to 20mhz” and the 802.11n channel for 5.4Ghz , and in “Roaming Agressiveness” I put it to max ( he was max at the beginning not medium ) and then I had my full internet connection. Also , Thanks you for your post , even if he don’t fully work for me ^^.

    Sorry for my bad english , i’m french xD

  10. If the above solutions do not work, then go the advanced settings of your device and change the channel width of 2.4GHz receiver into 20MHz only.

  11. This post is a godsend. I recently purchased an Alienware Area 51 that has this card in it and have been looking for a couple of months for a solution to keep it connected. Solution 1 did the trick. Thanks so much for sharing.

  13. I have a Dell XPS 9Q33 with the Intel AC7260 wireless adapter. I experienced a litany of connection problems with this adapter, and tried every solution I could find on the web. And I do mean every possible solution…..
    I think that I did finally resolve the issue. From Control Panel>Uninstall programs, I uninstalled the Intel PROset Wireless software. I then re-installed the most recent version from the Intel web site. The new version also updated my wireless & bluetooth drivers.
    My problems may have been due to updating drivers on the device manager without updating the PROset software. There seems to have been a conflict between the software and the installed drivers. My wireless adapter has now operated for the past two weeks without any dropped connections.

  14. Solution 1 is very poor advice as its disabling 5Ghz entirely and forcing you onto the typically more congested 2.4Ghz band.

    Clearly whoever wrote this has no idea what they are doing as they also point out to set HT mode to VHT, which wont do a thing when you have 5Ghz disabled as that is an 802.11ac function and you just disabled 802.11ac by turning off 5Ghz.

  15. Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayName “Wireless Mode” | Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayValue “4. 802.11b/g”
    Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayName “802.11n channel Width for 2.4Ghz” | Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayValue “20 Mhz Only”
    Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayName “Roaming Aggressiveness” | Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayValue “1. Lowest”
    Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayName “Wireless Mode” | Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayValue “4. 802.11b/g”
    Get-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayName “HT Mode” | Set-NetAdapterAdvancedProperty -DisplayValue “VHT Mode”

  16. Robert, what an excellent article for troubleshooting and fixing the problem. Tried your steps of configuring the Wi Fi Intel Card and it worked!!! Have been facing this problem of “Request Timed Out” for about 50% of packets in trying to reach the Gateway of the router.

    Generally it would work well for about 15 minutes and then the problem would surface. After the fix, it has been running for over 2 hours & so far so good.

    Thanks for taking the pain to pen it down 🙂

  17. i never could get the intel dual band wireless-ac 8260 chipset to work reliably in several new (VERY expensive) Panasonic CF-54 laptops. my experience has lead me to believe the problem is the massive Proset bloatware, not the barebones drivers or the chipset. This is my fix for W7, but the steps are the same for W8/10:

    I tried everything I could think of and many suggestions from intel and the internet as well. nothing worked. the chipset was balky in connecting if it would connect at all, and when it did connect, it was almost always REALLY, REALLY, REALLY slow! And this was the case on multiple routers, both old and new.

    In complete despair, I finally decided to completely nuke the MASSIVE (and as far as I could tell, nearly useless) bloatware known as Intel Proset/Wireless and instead just install the basic Intel WiFi drivers and let Microsoft manage the WiFi (which Microsoft has almost always done flawlessly since Vista SP1) and see if that might fix the problem. It did fix the problem!

    Here’s what to do:

    1. Download the barebones Intel drivers specific to your OS version for the 8260 wifi chipset from here:

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/27206

    For my Windows 7 x64 system, I downloaded WiFi_20.0.2_Driver64_Win7.zip:

    https://downloadcenter.intel.com/downloads/eula/27206/Intel-PROSet-Wireless-Software-and-Drivers-for-IT-Admins?httpDown=https%3A%2F%2Fdownloadmirror.intel.com%2F27206%2Fa08%2FWiFi_20.0.2_Driver64_Win7.zip

    2. Unzip the downloaded driver file into its own folder, but don’t do anything else with it yet.

    3. Go to Programs and Features in Control Panel and Uninstall the installed Intel Proset/Wirless software. Remove everything, including “settings”.

    4. Next, manually delete the two intel wifi driver files from Windows/system32/drivers, namely netwfw02.sys and netwfw02.dat OR netwfw04.sys and netwfw04.dat (or perhaps both or even some other number besides 02 or 04). This is an important step, because uninstalling intel driver software lately does not always actually delete the old driver files, and I’ve had replacement intel driver installs silently fail because they were unable to delete and/or replace existing driver files, leaving a total mess.

    (The worse case i’ve encountered is that after uninstalling the intel HD Graphics 520 display drivers, over 200 driver files are left behind that HAVE to be manually deleted AFTER uninstalling, because if they are not manually deleted, the new driver bundle will absolutely NOT install correctly leaving things like graphics acceleration completely broken.)

    5. Now go back to the unzipped barebones wifi drivers folder and execute DPInst64.exe (DPInst32.exe for 32-bit systems) followed by executing iprodifx.exe.

    And that should be it. Windows should popup a balloon from the taskbar telling you that a new wifi device has been installed and you should be good to go. Not only should the intel wifi now function flawlessly, but you’ve also eliminated a massive amount of unnecessary bloatware, including several background processes that run at all times, consuming both CPU and memory.

  18. Wow! Thank you for this fix! Before following the steps in Solution 1, I did a speed test and the results were: Ping 18ms Download 22.41Mbps Upload 25.98Mbps. After changing the settings according to Step 7, my speed test results were: Ping 14ms Download 58.05Mbps Upload 48.95Mbps! Unbelievable! Before posting this reply, I did one more speed test and the results were: Ping 9ms Download 58.07Mbps Upload 52,79Mbps Wow! Thanks again for this fix!

  20. I gave up on the AC 7260 adapter after trying to make it work properly for about four years. I swapped it for an Intel AC 8260 adapter and it is working flawlessly. The 8260 is available on-line (e.g., Amazon) for ~$20, well worth the trivial cost in comparison to the amount of time wasted trying to make the 7260 perform.

  21. this driver Wireless_18.12.0_De164.exe is perfect for windows 10 on laptop dell e6430 thank you very much, zero disconnection, I got a stable connection.

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