intel wireless-ac 9260 blue screen crash when installing adapter

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!

Where are you seeing windows 10 1803? I only see my version is 10.0.17134 build 17134.

There seems to be some early adopter issues at this time with Windows 10 1803, if you can, I recommend you downgrade to your previous version until the Spring Creators Update matures with future cumulative updates.

Press Control + Alt + Delete

Click Sign out

At the Sign In screen, hold down the shift key on your keyboard while clicking the Power button on the screen

Continue to hold down the shift key while clicking Restart

Continue to hold down the shift key until the Advanced Recovery Options menu appears

Click Troubleshoot

Click Advanced options

Click Go back to the previous version of Windows

Windows Update might attempt to upgrade to Windows 10 1803 again. See instructions how to block it:

https://www.groovypost.com/howto/block-windows-...

Note: This is a non-Microsoft website. The page appears to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

I already tried updating my motherboard's bios to the latest bios version, but that did not solve the issue. this would be bios 1.3 on the x299 extreme4 motherboard from asrock. 

chipset drivers are up to date. 

it is strange that the wireless part of this card is not working, but the integrated Bluetooth part of it IS working. 

I also just did another fresh install of windows 10, using the windows media creation tool from Microsoft, and attempted to manually install the intel drivers only (without proset software). The system crashed with the same BUGCODE_NDIS_DRIVER error code, and device status reads "windows is still setting up the class configuration for this device. (Code 56)." system restarts did not change the device status and wireless functionality is still absent. 

The exact make and model of the system? It is my own make, so system manufacturer, model and SKU fields show "to be filled by O.E.M."

From system information:

OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

Version 10.0.17134 Build 17134

Other OS Description  Not Available

OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation

System Name [Redacted]

System Manufacturer To Be Filled By O.E.M.

System Model To Be Filled By O.E.M.

System Type x64-based PC

System SKU To Be Filled By O.E.M.

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-7960X CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 16 Core(s), 32 Logical Processor(s)

BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. P1.00, 10/2/2017

SMBIOS Version 3.0

Embedded Controller Version 255.255

BIOS Mode Legacy

BaseBoard Manufacturer ASRock

BaseBoard Model Not Available

BaseBoard Name Base Board

Platform Role Desktop

Secure Boot State Unsupported

PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible

Windows Directory C:\Windows

System Directory C:\Windows\system32

Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1

Locale United States

Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.17134.1"

User Name [redacted]

Time Zone Pacific Daylight Time

Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 64.0 GB

Total Physical Memory 63.7 GB

Available Physical Memory 59.2 GB

Total Virtual Memory 73.2 GB

Available Virtual Memory 68.4 GB

Page File Space 9.50 GB

Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Kernel DMA Protection Off

Virtualization-based security Not enabled

Device Encryption Support Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: TPM is not usable, PCR7 binding is not supported, Hardware Security Test Interface failed and device is not InstantGo, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected, TPM is not usable

Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes

Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes

Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware Yes

Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

The motherboard is ASRock x299 Extreme 4, processor is core i9 7960x, ram is 4x16gb g.skill tridentz dims, hard drive is Samsung 970 pro nvme 1tb. the motherboard has 1 m.2 socket (key e) supports type 2230 wifi/bt module, and the intel wireless-ac 9260ngw is type 2230 and supports key a or e socket for attaching the module. again, it is installed and the Bluetooth functionality works, it is just the wireless driver i'm having issues with.

What is the exact make and model?

Open Start, type: system information

Hit Enter

Click System summary

Look in the right pane

Copy the system sku info into reply here.

See example: https://imgur.com/qzektpA

Which version of Windows 10 is currently installed? See how to verify:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wik...

Which version and edition Windows did you originally upgrade from or was installed prior to your current version:

Windows 10 - 1703, 1607, 1511, 1507 (build 10240)

Windows 7 Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Windows 8.0 Core, Windows 8.1 Windows 7 Professional, Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 8.0 Pro, Windows 8.1 Pro

It could mean you need to update your BIOS and Chipset drivers.