Windows 10: Intel AC 7260 Wi-Fi PCI-e in Asus G73SW Laptop + Win10 Pro 64 - No-Go

This laptop originally shipped with some Atheros ABGN 2.4 Ghz only card which works just fine but it's quite slow by todays standards. So I googled and found the Intel 7260 Dual-Band AC card and acquired one.

I was expecting it to be a simple plug-n-play operation but that has not been the case.

After installing this Wi-Fi adapter in my laptop, I found that it shows in device manager with an excl mark next to it. It says "The device cannot start (Code 10)."

The event log is showing these two "ERROR" events

Device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B2&SUBSYS_42708086&REV_63\0C8BFDFFFF07EB6700 had a problem starting.
Driver Name: oem56.inf
Class Guid: {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Service: NETwNb64
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters: vwifibus
Problem: 0xA
Problem Status: 0xC0000001

and

Device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B2&SUBSYS_42708086&REV_63\0C8BFDFFFF07EB6700 had a problem starting. Driver Name: netwbw02.inf
Class Guid: {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Service: NETwNb64
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters: vwifibus
Problem: 0xA
Problem Status: 0xC0000001

I presume the second one is for Bluetooth.

I have attached the device manager screenshot as well.

Where to from here?

Here is what I've tried so far:
- Install the driver through windows update (no go)
- Install the latest driver from the Intel Website, then fully uninstall it with "Discard", run disk cleanup, install again, reboot - no go. [per the steps in this thread]
- Uninstall the driver thru device manager (Right Click > Uninstall > Delete Drivers) then install the latest driver package from intel website - no go.
- Ensured the BIOS of the laptop is the latest version.
- Reinstalled Win 10 and first thing I installed was the Intel Driver - still no go. Device cannot start, code 10.

I was beginning to think the card was faulty until I booted up Ubuntu 18.04 Live on my machine - the wi-fi works great out of the box so obviously this is some sort of Windows driver problem.

Any insight appreciated.









:)

 

Intel 7260 AC Wi-Fi adapter


Wow, it is going toward the 72 hours of operating Wi-Fi with Hyper-V without any error!
Beside the absence of bug check error 0x50, Intel 7260 is AC device, so now I am connecting with 867 Mbps instead of 300 Mbps with the old Broadcom chip.

The best $24 I ever spend! Thanks Intel *Thumbs

 

Intel 7260 AC Wi-Fi adapter


I have a Dell XPS 8700 that came with a Dell 1704 A/B/G/N Wi-Fi adapter. This is a rebranded Broadcom card.
After Windows 10 Pro conversion since July 2015, the Wi-Fi adapter worked fine but if I activated Hyper-V with Windows 10 Pro, I got BSODs with error 0x50 like:

On Fri 1/22/2016 4:14:34 AM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\012116-7046-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: bcmwl63a.sys (bcmwl63a+0x8EA6F)
Bugcheck code: 0x50 (0xFFFFF6FB400037A8, 0x0, 0x0, 0x6)
Error: PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\bcmwl63a.sys
product: Broadcom WiFi Driver wireless driver
company: Broadcom Corp
description: Broadcom WiFi Driver wireless driver
Bug check description: This indicates that invalid system memory has been referenced.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: bcmwl63a.sys (Broadcom WiFi Driver wireless driver, Broadcom Corp).
Google query: Broadcom Corp PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA

I even run memtest for a long time to rule out memory problem with 8-9 passes.

I experimented with several versions of bcmwl63.sys. Again it works fine with Windows 10 Pro but as soon I work with Hyper-V I still get BSOD occasionally..

Frustrated, I purchased and replaced the Dell 1704 card with an Intel 7260 AC. I just let Windows 10 installed the driver.
After one day of working Hyper-V with Windows 10 Pro. It is still running fine!

I am not solving my problem just side step for now! Have any one have similar experience?

I am at Windows 10 10586.71 with this XPS 8700.

 

ASUS Z97-PRO Wi-Fi locks up with onboard Wi-Fi enabled

I've been running my ASUS Z97-PRO Wi-Fi ac USB 3.1 for many months now on Ethernet, but just recently had the need to try the built in wireless connectivity. Unfortunately, whenever I enable the onboard Wi-Fi in the system BIOS, it will lock up attempting to boot into Windows 10 64. Disabling the onboard Wi-Fi in the BIOS clears the problem and the system boots up just fine. I'm not sure if this is a hardware or software issue yet.