XPS 13 9350 aftermarket upgrades

This is the third different XPS 13 I've owned. I had the early 2013 LX322 Ivy Bridge. I had the late 2013 9333 Haswell. And now I've got the late 2015 9350 Skylake.
I've got the 256GB Samsung NVMe SSD (which is in the M.2 form market). I know I can upgrade that part to say a 1TB in the future.
And like everyone else I've got the Broadcom AC WiFI card. Again I think its a M.2 part. Which is the best compatible WiFi card for us on the market. I know about the Intel AC7265. What about the new Intel 8260 card?

 

I just ordered an 8260, I'll let you know. I ordered and XPS 13 (the gen before 9350) a couple months ago, and put the 7265 in hers and it worked perfectly. I put the same thing in my 9350, and I can't keep Bluetooth working beyond the first reboot, until I uninstall and reinstall the card. Then it works fine until the machine sleeps or reboots.

So perhaps my XPS will be happier with the 8260.

 

Did you have any better luck with the 8260 in your 9350? My WiFi is seriously lacking and I really want to upgrade the network card. Could you share your experience please? Thank you in advance!

 

Up, Malberttoo did you finally test the Intel 8260 please ?

Thanks in advance.

 

Sorry guys, I had to put the Broadcom card back in. After trying two different models of Intel wifi cards, including the 8260 which Dell actually has drivers for, with both the cards, it rendered the Bluetooth inoperative. I tried many different things to resolve it, but could not.

 

I put an intel 8260 into my XPS 13 (9350) before reinstalling windows - used latest Intel wifi and bluetooth drivers (separate downloads).

It all works perfectly with 2 mice (one used at home, another more portable), a presenter/pointer, a mobile printer and my phone (used as modem when mobile).

 

Hi Wr1ghtyUK,
thank you for confirming that both bluetooth and wifi works in the XPS 13 9350 with Intel 8260 wireless card.
Could you please specify which model of 8260 did you get?
I ask this because there are multiple tipes of 8260 out there; specifically there's:

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260, 2230, 2x2 AC+BT, eFE, LTE Coex, No vPro
8260.NGWHLG.NV

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260, 2230, 2x2 AC+BT, eFE+LTE Coex, vPro
8260.NGWHLG

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260, 2230, 2x2 AC+BT, No vPro
8260.NGWMG.NV

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260, 2230, 2x2 AC+BT, No vPro, Low Power
8260.NGWMG.NVS
8260.NGWMG.K

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260, 2230, 2x2 AC+BT, vPro
8260.NGWMG

Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260, 2230, 2x2 AC+BT, vPro Low Power
8260.NGWMG.S

Thank you for your time

 

Hello, not sure as the only references to a model number just say 8260NGW.

 

So on the label of the wifi chip it doesn't state the model number? Just 8260NGW? Strange...
Could you please link where you bought it?
Thanks

 

For what it's worth, I don't think the exact model matters. The problems with Bluetooth look to be related to having Broadcom's 'WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software' still installed, i.e. Intel's and Broadcom's Bluetooth stacks are conflicting with each other.

I ended up with a 8260.NGWMG (MM# 942165 on the label) and had the same issues Malberttoo had on initial swap. The clue to the resolution is Device Manager's yellow warning icon on 'Bluetooth Hands-free Audio', which led to this post: https://community.sony.com/t5/VAIO-...h-driver-issues-windows-8-1/m-p/406410#M26706 . Broadcom's white paper here https://www.broadcom.com/collateral/wp/1000-BTW-WP100-R.pdf also claims 'Bluetooth Hands-free Audio' as their own.

The 'broadcom bluetooth driver' that calumc instructs to uninstall in the Sony forums manifested itself as 'WIDCOMM Bluetooth Software' (version 12.0.1.720) on my XPS 13. After removing that via 'Programs and Features' within 'Control Panel', everything was smooth sailing. For example, I can log in from a cold boot with a Logitech K830 over Bluetooth.

I suspect those that have had success without running into any issues are probably those that did a clean install of Windows: Wr1ghtyUK mentioned 'reinstalling windows' so the Broadcom stack would have been eliminated from the start.