Replace intel 6300 with Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 wifi card in np9150

So I want to add a Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 to my sager np9150. It currently has a 3x3 intel 6300 in it. Has anyone done this yet? With the antenna be long enough for a plug and play swap? I plan on using the 6300 in an old m1530 xps that has windows 8 driver issues with its old card.

 

Should be plug and play. (I am using one now on my P150HM fwiw)

Few things to note:

It HAS to be a 7260.HMWG or HMWWB any other will NOT be AC regardless of what the description may say.
They should be around $30 shipped
It uses only 2 antennas so you will leave one of yours unhooked. In doing so you need to wrap something around the end as it's metal and you don't want that to hit something and cause a short. Most laptops have like a cable shrink wrap guard on the extra wire.

It will ONLY work on Windows 8 at the moment.

So far I love it but I seem to have an issue with the signal bouncing from 99% which is normal down to 28% randomly for a few seconds. The connection is never lost and the link shows 650Mbps during this and returns to 866.7 once the strength returns. I am unable to tell at the moment if it's router incompatibility or the device though and due to NDA I can't share router details as it's not a publicly release device yet and won't be for a bit.

That said anyone else using a 7260-AC? How's it working?

 

Although I have a Dell laptop and not a Sager, I wanted to chime in and say I have the same fluctuations that you do, Bryanu. I have the 7260.HMWWB connecting to a Linksys E3000 router running DD-WRT.

Update - I have two E3000 routers, so I connected to the one with default Linksys firmware to test the fluctuation, and now the connection is rock solid. I have to do some troubleshooting to find out what is in the DD-WRT firmware that's causing it.

 

Make sure you have an AC router, if not your current wireless card will be better.

 

I plan on upgrading to an AC router shortly. My xps needs a new wifi card so I figured I'd update my primary and put my intel 6300 in the old laptop.

Will the new intel card connect wireless N at 300 Mbps like the 6300 will?

 

Yes it should, the 6300 can do 450 Mbps mode. The 7260 will only connect 2 of the 3 antennae in your machine.

 

Any chance of a dual band card coming out with 3x3? Or does it not matter?

 

Darn you... I was in hopes I wasn't alone lol. My device (router) is running an stock firmware, though as stated not a public/final device or firmware still seems odd. When bridged to another 802.11ac router I don't see the speed issues though that signal is not as real time I suspect so who knows.

Ugg I just hope it's a fixable bug lol TBH I really don't like intel cards due to how they implment device polling etc. Intel is really built for business/enterprise. They do a lot of custom logic to handle roaming and multiSSID and it results in performance hits on the latency side but is done to guarantee a reliable connection when mobile. I wish they had a better way to disable it all for when one doesn't move/roam.

I have some registry changes done provided by network eng. but they don't impact this issue and don't seem to solve the other as well as they did on the last gen cards.

Oh well, guess have to wait for more people to get this card. Too new still to get good feel on issue(s).

 

I have mine installed in an XPS 15 L502x, and it works great with my stock E3000. Connects just fine at 300Mbps.

Hey, I figured you'd be happy that I'm one for two with my routers, lol. It's been two days and I haven't had any more fluctuations since I moved to my stock E3000. I plan on buying an Asus AC router in the future, so I hope it'll be stable with that one as well. I know you can't mention any of your other hardware, but hopefully things will get sorted. Any chance you can test with another router?

I contacted Intel support, and I got the reply I expected - namely, no help from them whatsoever. "This card is designed to be installed by OEM, yadda yadda yadda." I thought they'd want more data on their cards not performing to specs, but I guess that's not the case.

 

So will there ever be an AC 3x3 wifi card? Or does it not matter with this standard?

I am planning on buying a http://www.netgear.com/R6300 to accommodate my intel 6300 card in my other laptop and trying to figure out if I should wait for a 3x3 AC dual band wifi card or just go with the current model.

Anyone seeing this standard falling by the way side since its still just a draft spec?

 

A 3 band may be in the works but I honestly wouldn't worry about it. Right now the 7260 can link @ 866.7Mbps... Do you transfer huge gigabytes of data back and forth between wired devices? If not what's it matter? Games and web browsing won't get faster as I am sure your internet is not gig (though you could be in google fiber in which case I hate you!) hah

As for the R6300, I would say be careful. An R6300v2 was just released but it's under the same SKU in most places. You will want the v2 for sure over the first one. HUGE size difference and better performance. BestBuy has the v2 sometimes.

Anyway also keep in mind 802.11ac is not a final spec product, it IS going to change and it's possible none of the hardware sold today will be compatible with the final spec anyway. Technology changes fast. I say buy it now and enjoy.

Also, keep in mind this one has BT, say an Intel 7300 is released and it's 3 band 1.3Gbps, it won't have BT.

 

Is the r6300 larger the v2? Has there been issues with the r6300 like there was with the r6200?

 

The v2 is smaller but same design/look. It's about half as thick, and about 2/3 the size. It also has a faster CPU and USB3. It has less problems vs. the regular R6300 (which had some too, and I assume similar to 6200) also in addition uses less power and has smaller power supply as a result.

I have had 2 of them in bridge mode for a good 8 months without issue (I do a lot of hardware testing for various manufactures).

It's still somewhat in soft launch stages meaning not everyone has it or is getting a lot but I have heard users getting them at BestBuy but they sat right with the old style ones. Same price, sku etc. The boxes are also smaller of course.

Anyway I think you would be happy with it.
I have not went and tested my 7260 with one as I am testing a different router that won't be out until the end of the year at the moment but if I get some time I will try.

 

Well with 3 spacial streams you can hit those speeds further away with a more reliable connection.

 

Well, my "rock solid" connection to my stock E3000 isn't quite as rock solid as I'd like. I still get the dropouts, just not as often as I did with the DD-WRT firmware. I have an Asus RT-AC66U coming this week - I'll be interested to see if the drops increase or decrease.

 

Is it just the signal dips down for a bit or are you dropping connection or something else?

I have a contact @ Intel on the eng. side and depending what yours is doing might drag you in also.

 

The signal strength drops down to a single bar but the connection never drops, then after a few seconds it goes back to 100%. The reported speed stays the same. If I was showing a connection of 270Mbps, it stays that way even though the strength is less than 25%.

 

What is the difference between 7260.HMWG or HMWWB?

I am looking at ordering one of these cards for now and then a router later.

 

No difference it's same card just hmwwb is 100 quantity and hmwg is in 10 you can find info on Google

Sent from my XT925 using Tapatalk 2

 

If you don't have an AC router, just stick with whatever card you have. I see no difference in 802.11n performance over my Intel Advanced N 6235 card. The card is only $30, so I'd just wait until you order the router.

 

Indeed, supplies wont disappear so no need to rush just now with an N router.

 

Don't get the R6300 - It has a slower processor and less ram. The R6250 with it's dual core 800mhz ARM proc and 256RAM looks 'speedy' to say the least. All of the MIPS based stuff is using the same 600mhz proc that has lasted a few generations. I don't know if the 6250 is actually a 3x3.. but just keep in mind that in terms of 'systems' the 6250 is the best bang for the buck. Even has USB 3.0

The only way you can get hands on a 3x3 is to take apart a 3x3 router and hope the mini-pcie card fits into whatever you're throwing it into. Which is somewhat doubtful.

I have a 7260-AC and was sent 2x 7260-ANs (which were advertised as ACs).. Provantage sends the right card. Buy.com/Rakuten does not. All of the cards are worthless, as I won't be using Windows 8... ever

 

I would guess that if the V2 and V1 difference is speed - then the V2 should be the BCM4708.. ARM chip.. Yep looks that way.

http://wikidevi.com/wiki/Netgear_R6300_v2

You should then be able to tell the difference by the presence of a USB 3.0 port - as the board with the ARM chip would have USB 3.0 - the board with the MIPS should have USB 2.0 (BCM4706)

Tell your Intel Engineer friend that people still use Windows 7..

 

They are working on 7 ones. Some have leaked if i recall correct but they are not stable.

Yea many sites have them all listed wrong. only the two models posted are AC, regardless of what any description says. The sad part is as MOST people don't have an AC router they won't know until too late to return/exchange.. That said I would return those other two if I was you but that's your call.

I sent you a PM when you get a moment.



If anyone else is having similar problems with this card please let me know.

 

Yea I need to replace the dell xps m1530 intel 4965agn wifi card that has some serious issues and blue screen crashes with windows 8 seeing as how they never updated the driver, hence the reason I'm buying the card first. I have a 300mbps wireless N router, so it's atleast an upgrade on the N speed for the device. Once I get the AC router I'll put the card in my sager np9150 or wait for a 3x3 AC card and see how well AC band performs.

This is still a very new tech and if it falls by the wayside atleast I've only invested $40 (had to get the half to full wifi card adaptor) into the intel AC card and still get 300mbps put of it with only 2x2 and blue tooth.

I saw this web report http://reviews.cnet.com/best-wireless-networking-devices/ and actually was at an apple store and saw their time capsule is AC now as well. One can only hope the next iPad and iphone will have AC and push the development of this draft spec even more.

I like the options of the netgear R6300, but no word of a v2 coming out?

 

Remember if your machine only has 2 connections then you would have to put in a 3rd antennae for 3 stream cards like the 6300 if you want any benefit anyway.

 

My sager has 3 antenna and is the one the new AC 3x3 would go in if they ever come out.

The intel 6300 wifi card is going in the xps just cause its better and doesn't have issues with windows 8 like the current card does once I get the AC router.

I was asking about the r6300 router not card.

 

I replaced the old Intel AGN Wi-Fi card in my Dell XPS M 1530. I was surprised to find out that it was a three antenna card. The new Intel AC dual band Wi-Fi card went in with no problems. I did need to buy a half to full adapter for the Wi-Fi PCI card slot. Out-of-the-box installing the drivers from the Intel website had no issues. I did have to adjust some of the settings under properties to ensure a 300 Mb per second connection compared to a 54 Mb per second connection it connected with off the start. Surprisingly enough sitting right next to my Segur with the Intel 6300 Wi-Fi card it seems the AC cards connection holds true and longer at higher connection speeds when monitoring both.

Overall very happy with the upgrade and no more Blue screens of death with the old Intel card and it's lack of windows eight support. Now to just buy a AC router and see how good this card really is.

 

If you need to do any big transfers it will be a huge difference lol.

 

Slight snag on the install. I pulled the old card and now when the computer is turned on or restarted the error of "default gateway not available on wi-fi 2" occurs and requires "troubleshoot" problems to fix the issue.

Is this a matter of just resetting the router and clearing the MAC address associated with the computer or is it laptop side and something in the network settings?

 

MAC address should be built into the wifi card.

 

Before you pulled the old card did you uninstall any software and remove it from device manager?

It may think it's still installed and just disabled or something funky.

This issue won't be hardware related and your router shouldn't matter.

Go into device manager and enable the option to see hidden things and make sure under networking the old one isn't listed still.

 

You show hidden and uninstall the old wifi card fixed it.

A few surprising thing is the strength meter will go to 1 bar and 54mbps and go back to full 5 bars 10-15 sec later and 230-300mbps. Also seems like the new AC wifi card is getting better speeds at the N band with two antennas the. The intel 6300 with 3.

Anyone have a reason why the newer card would be doing better then the high end intel 6300?

 

Newer card has faster chips on it so probably can handle things better.

As for the signal issue I am having it worked on by Intel Eng but can you be sure you are running 6.1.0.14 for the version? 6.0.5.xx had a number of known issues now addressed. (They are up on Sager site if you need easy link).

We think the signal problem is fixed now but may possibly still be having a link speed dip in the spots it would normally see signal drop.

Let me know any findings.

 

The intel dual band wireless AC 7260 is using driver version 16.0.5.3.

The sager site has driver 16.1.0.14. Driver seems to be more solid then the one off intel website.

 

Even though the new 16.1 driver update is much more stable it's still disconnecting. It is showing that the default gateway is unavailable intermittently after standby. A quick Windows 8 network connection troubleshooting and resolves the problem.

Any suggestions on how to keep the power state constant? I have disabled the option to allow windows to turn off the device to save power, preferred band of 5 MHz and bandwidth changed from 20 to auto.

 

This is unrelated to the other issue the 7260 was having. The original issue was not in regards to any disconnects, just to signal and speed degradation but not resulting in any actual drops.

The issue you're seeing could be caused by a number of things from laptop hardware compatibility to driver to OS or even your router :/

Any others with this card having similar? I have not had a chance to test as I don't use sleep.

 

I googled up a handy list of 802.11ac hw(sorry don't have link handy, but should be mid July posting in the 8250 owner's thread).

Not as to wifi adapters, plenty of 3x3 ref boards but nothing that I could find retail. The 7260 is about the only one available ATM it would seem... at least for mPCIe... not too many PCIe cards for that matter either.

[EDIT]
Dug up the link:
http://wikidevi.com/wiki/List_of_802.11ac_Hardware
Seems to be fairly accurate and comprehensive... (was actually earlier than I thought, a few weeks ago that I posted, so it was early July...)

Ended up not waiting for the AC68U to appear and just got the aAC66... (replaced a netgear which was pissing me off since it was a PITA to get it properly re-link with the cable modem w/o flaking out all of the time. The ASUS was pretty plug it in, and it works, other than trying to claim that 192.168.0.x is not a legal network :O This is with the factory firmware, which BTW it looks like they actually honored the GPL and seem to have the complete code tree available for download, which I haven't downloaded and browsed yet...
[/EDIT]

 

I resume from sleep on Windows 8 - no problems with disconnecting.

 

I would also have a good check over the router settings as they can be the root of many issues.

 

I have restarted my router, Installed the updated drivers off the sager website, and removed the old NICs drivers.

Still having the default gateway unavailable error. The troubleshooter doesn't always fix the issue now.

I installed this AC card in my dell xps m1530 that is running windows 8. Would there be a comparably issue with the older hardware? Or do you think this might be something with the registry?

 

I installed Ac 7260 in my old dell studio 1555 with no problem