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installing intel Bluetooth drivers works fine, and this part of the 9260 actually works. but whenever the wireless adapter is recognized and initialized I receive a blue screen crash with code BUGCODE_NDIS_DRIVER. upon restart, the adapter has a "!" in the icon next to its name, and within properties the device status reads either code 56 or code 37, depending on the latest attempt I have made to uninstall the adapter and drivers and reinstall the intel proset wireless drivers. I've tried all of intel proset's supported versions for this wifi adapter, but every driver version results in a blue screen of death upon initialization of the adapter. again, Bluetooth still works, and that's why i'm very confused. why is half of the 9260 working while the other half, the wifi part, is not? is there any fix or workaround for this? thanks.
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I have two of the Intel 9260s. I am watching ASUS as they are supposed to release wireless routers capable of the 160 MHz bandwidth. That will probably be my next purchase.
I don't really think this will make my performance that much better but I like to stay up with the technology. I will be ordering a Killer Wireless 1550 when ASUS releases their new routers.
That's the article I read that gave me the idea to use drivers provided on the killer networking website!
The wifi module I have is from aliexpress (fenvi store). $19 if ordered through the smartphone app, with free shipping and pigtail wires+antennas.
After you described your procedure, I started checking and learned some things I had not heard before. One was Intel is manufacturing the Killer cards. I found one link which described this and had the statement below.
"At the high-level, the 1550 shares all the features of the AC9260. It is a 2x2 Wi-Fi module with full 802.11ac Wave 2 functionality for 160 MHz channels, including MU-MIMO"
I still can't think of a reason your system would not accept the Intel card as is, but I did have Blue Screens about a year ago on an older system for the same reason. In my case, updating the drivers stopped the problems.
It looks like now, I may be due for a new Wireless Router so I can achieve the full speeds with the 9260. A newer router may not actually increase the real world speed but perhaps help in compatibility. I may get one of the Killer 1550 cards to compare with the 9260. I did see a warning about using a 160 MHz bandwidth if your environment included many other users trying to operate in the same general bandwidth.
Decided to give it one LAST try before sending this chip back to the reseller. I noticed that there is a product that came out this year called the Killer Wireless-AC 1550, which uses the same intel 9260 (with added proprietary stuff i suppose). Went to their support/drivers page and downloaded the following:
Killer Drivers Installation 64bit - version 1.6.2134 wit release date 2018-06-05 (driver only installation)
Killer INF Package - version N/A, release date 2018-06-04 (driver info package for device manager installation
Steps:
Shut down
disconnect power
Uninstall the PCE-AC88 from machine
reconnect power
Boot up
Run "killerdrivers_1.6.2134_x64" (from the killer drivers installation 64bit)
msconfig --> safe boot (minimal)
shut down
disconnect power
install 9260 (chip only, didn't add antennas because wanted easier installation)
reconnect power
boot into safe mode
device manager -->network adapters - I see Intel Wireless-AC9260 adapter is there, already installed because i ran the killer drivers package. version of driver is 20.60.1.1, which is newer than the most recent driver available from intel's support/downloads pages.
msconfig --> uncheck safe boot (minimal) so i can boot into windows normally
restart
No BSOD on login
device manager-->network adapters- I still see intel wireless-ac9260, and no weird symbols over the icon, and status says "this device is working properly
taskbar shows wifi symbol with no reception and no available networks; remember i did not install the antenna wires or antennas, so perhaps normal.
shut down
disconnect power
remove 9260
install antenna pigtail wires
install 9260
screw on antennas to end of pigtail wires
reconnect power
boot into windows
NO BSOD, WIFI shows SSIDs!!!
connected to my router's SSID over AC
4ms, 300-ish down, 300-ish up using speedtest.net
i couldn't break 4ms with the 9260, whereas the asus pce-ac88 had 3ms with similar up and down. asus was consistent 100% of tests with 3ms ping, and the 9260 was 4ms 95% of my test, with one at 14ms, and down of 190 and up of 50.. seems abnormal.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. I hope this helps anyone else trying to install this 9260 adapter!
Its too bad you couldn't get the M.2 slot to work, but if you are happy, that is what counts.
My ASUS board (Z370) seems to have an M.2 slot which has a Realtek device installed. But it is covered and I can't see the exact configuration.
