Aspire R3-131T Intel AC-8260 Compatibility.

Hi,

I have replaced the stock card in my R3-131T Aspire from the 1x1 Intel AC-3165 to a 2x2 Intel AC-8260, I have also tried the 2x2 Intel AC-7265 and also a Killer Wireless AC 1535.

The Intel AC-3165 Works flawlessly as you would expect from a stock card.

The Intel AC-8260 Works with both WiFi and Bluetooth Modules powering up however on the occasional reboot or power down and start up it won't detect the WiFi Module of the card and the hardware is not present in device manager aside from the Bluetooth Module. Rebooting again or loading BIOS Defaufts resolves the issue.

The Intel AC-7265 Behaves in the same way as the AC-8260.

The Killer Wireless AC 1535 however works flawlessly as far as the WiFi Module is concerned and does not exhibit the issues of the Intel cards above however the Bluetooth Module on this card does not power up at all and no BIOS setup defaults loaded or power cycles of the laptop will bring the Module up.

There appears that there is some form of BIOS lock on the cards or incompatibility?

Does Acer use a 'Whitelist' for the R3-131T to prevent/allow certain cards? You would have thought that if one Intel AC M.2 card works then they should all work.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Best Wishes

Vince

Accepted answers

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philetus

With the Intel AC-8260, when you boot, the second you see the Acer screen, tap Fn+F3 and see if it is there when it boots.

With the Killer Wireless AC 1535, see if one of the 7 BT drivers on Acer site will work for BT.

Acer doesn't have white lists. It would be nice if all adapters worked, but the software for an adapter has to be compatable with everything in the laptop.

padgett

Is it showing up in Device Manager as a Bluetooth device, as a device with issues, or not at all ? A lot of information can also be found in the submenus of MSINFO32 and the Microsoft Sensor Diagnostics Tool.

vinniemac

Hi,

For some reason after several attempts the FN+F3 key does not seem to work on my Aspire R3-131T.

The hardware is definitely being deteccted however it is the intermittent times that when the laptop is shutdown and started or restarted the WiFi Module is not being deteted - that is to say it is not showing in device manager either as a device/unknown device/problem device. It simply does not exist.

The bluetooth module of this card is ALWAYS present.

For Killer 1535 I have tried numerous Bluetooth drivers from Killer and also the ones on the Acer Driver page. In this device the Bluetooth module is simply not being detect at all, is not showing in device manager as either a unknown device/problem device/connected device.

If Acer has no whitelist I am starting to think it may be a problem with the M.2 card slot on my motherboard and/or pinouts. I have noticed on the 1x1 AC-3165 card only several pins are on the card however with the Killer 1535 and Intel AC-8260 all the pins are there.

I have gently blown out any dust or particles that might be present in the slot but have also noticed that when the cards are seated and screwed down there is quite a bit of play on the card. You have to hold the card in with your thumb while you screw down the card to the chassis. Never the less I have checked this.

Cheers

Vince

philetus

I doubt if the slot is the problem. Acers in general seem to have a lot of compatability problems with Wifi cards. Windows 10, with it's far from perfect drivers added to the mix makes it worse.

For the Fn keys, you can try reinstalling the Quick Access driver. This seems to be another thing that doesn't work well in 10.

Quick Access

Acer

Quick Access Application

2.00.3005

15.6 MB

2015/09/16

Download

If you're not at the 1.13 bios, I'd do that too.

vinniemac

Am on 1.13 BIOS, Always make sure I go to the latest even if it doesnt have anything of interest in the changelog.

I think someone mentioned hitting Fn+F3 as soon as the Acer splash screen pops up but this doesnt work. I know Fn+F3 while in Windows 10 toggles Airplane Mode which works.

It's not so much the Killer 1535 card as I can return that, it was just nice to have tested MU-MIMO on it with my router testing phases.

The concern was that although the AC-8260 is a 2x2 card with Bluetooth 4.2 and the AC-3165 is a 1x1 card with Bluetooth 4.1 and the AC-8260 is built on a newer hardware both use the same PROSet drivers and Bluetooth software.

This lead me to think it was more hardware compatibility than software...

I reinstalled the Quick Access Smiley Happy

padgett

Just a note but the AC-3165 in my R3-131 has always worked properly. Currently have the 10.11.0.8 driver. Am about 30 feet & two walls from the router & getting 53 Mbps down, 11.6 up.

vinniemac

Yeah no problem with the AC-3165 in mine either. Just seems to be when I put the AC-8260 in.

Actually the 8260 was released in Q1'2015 so no reason why it shouldn't work. I believe the R3-131T was manufactured after this but I guess it was never tested.

I'm using 18.40.0.9 PROSet drivers for the WiFi module.
76Mbps Down and 19Mbps Up.

vinniemac

Hi,

Just to update everyone in this thread. It seems to be a mixed bag of whether it is Windows 10 or the M.2 Card slot power on at POST.

This is relivent to the Intel AC-8260 and Killer AC 1535 Cards running any driver...

1. If I seat the card in the M.2 Slot and power on and boot in to Windows 10 then both Bluetooth and WiFi Radios are detected.

2. If I reboot the laptop then both radios are still detected and operational.

However...

3. If I put the computer to Sleep, Hibernate or Power Off the laptop either connected to AC or Battery then on power on the Intel AC-8260 Cards WiFi Module will fail to power up and WiFi Module on the Killer AC 1535 will Fail to power up.

4. If I power off the laptop, open her up and then remove the M.2 card and seat it back in then everything returns as it is in step 1. and 2.

Now, these cards are both 2x2 operating 866.7Mbps.

The card that came with the laptop is an Intel AC-3165 which is only a 1x1 operating at 433.3Mbps and does not suffer from the issues laid out above.

This could be either an issue in Windows 10 or an issue with the board powering up correctly the M.2 slot on POST however the latter theory is called in to question because it is a new board (I replaced the N3050 board with an N3700 board) but that doesnt mean to say that it isn't something within the BIOS V1.13, maybe a bug.

For confirmation 1x1 cards seem to work fine in this laptop... The only difference between the 2 is that the 1x1 cards have 1 amplifier (433.3Mbps) and the 2x2 cards have 2 (866.7Mbps)

This could be where the issue is and the board isnt recognising this properly and thus not switching the radios on properly.

Cheers

Vince

vinniemac

Hi All,

To update my post, I actually resolved this issue.

At the time of writing this comment I am on BIOS v1.0.17 but in reality the BIOS version did not make a difference.

This issue for me with the Intel AC8260 WiFi Card is 2 fold.

1. In the Power Mangement tab of the Wireless Adapter properties in Device Manager Turn off allowing the computer to put the device to sleep to save power.

2. In Power options (Classic Control Panel for those with the new Windows 10 update) hit 'Choose what the power buttons do' and then 'Change Settings that are currently Unavailable' and then uncheck 'Turn on fast-startup'

Reboot the system and I have a working adapter each and every time. It works whether I Hibernate, Sleep, Power Off or Restart the laptop.

The concerning thing for me though before the above solution is:

Killer Wireless 1535 card powers up with WiFi Radio each time but no Bluetooth Radio.

Intel Wireless AC8260 Powers up with Bluetooth each time but no WiFi Radio.

Suggestions would be that when Windows 10 uses Fast Start or Puts the Wireless Adapter in a low power state the Wireless adapter never recovers from this power state and a full cold start has to be performed.

It might be that the stock Intel AC3165 is only a 1x1 card at 433.3Mbps and does not have this issue, where as the other 2 are 2x2 cards @ 866.7Mbps with more modern architecture. Never the less, the motherboard in the Acer Aspire R3-131T is more modern than any of the cards so should support the card itself.

It's definitely an issue with power states it seems and turning off power management and windows fast start has resolved it. Fast Start is redundant for an SSD powered laptop anyway. I have no performance loss at all from a cold boot.

Cheers

Vince

brummyfan2

Hi,

Thanks for posting the solution, it will be helpful to others Smiley Very Happy

vinniemac

Hi,

I have been doing some more research on this issue. I purchased 2x Intel adapters. 1x Intel AC-7265 and 1x Intel AC-8265.

This is in addition to the stock Intel AC-3165 that came with the laptop.

It appears that the issue is to do with the BIOS.

For example:

If I enter the BIOS while using either the 7265 or 8265 and say 'Load Defaults' and reboot, when the laptop boots the hardware ON/OFF switch is triggered in the OFF. This cannot be set back to ON in software. That is to say, the Adapter shows in Device Manager but is not switched on, there is also no Bluetooth.

Now, if I go back in to the BIOS and 'Load Defaults' again and reboot then the issue above is restored.

The Intel AC-3165 does not have this problem, this is rather bizarre considering I had been informed that there is no whitelist in the BIOS for Wireless cards.

This also does not seem to be a comptability issue because all 3 cards work. it is just 7265 and 8265 and actually even my first card the 8260 have an issue when the laptop POSTS or the BIOS is entered.

So:

Intel 3165 = No issues

Intel 7265 = HW Switch is OFF when BIOS is entered. BIOS again restores the issue.

Intel 8265 = As above 7265

Intel 8260 = When BIOS is entered the device is missing altogether, BIOS again restores the issue.

Killer AC 1535 = Wireless Connectivity but no Bluetooth.

I fail to see this as a compatbility issue and I put the fault squarly on the BIOS as this controls the hardware connected. I believe it is a bug and can only be resolved by testing from Acer.

Of course Acer won't do this because they will say that they don't recommend changing the Wireless adapter and they don't support it.

It is likely the Intel 3165 being a 1x1 AC Card is not as complex internally and does not have many pinouts connected on the card however the others being 2x2 do.

Having said that, this is the first laptop I have used that has this really awful issue.

Current BIOS is 1.17 and there does not seem to be a later one, either official or beta.

Cheers

vinniemac

So,

I have managed to force load BIOS v1.06 (Downgraded from v1.17 but I am not going to disclose how I did it to protect other users from damaging their PCs) and everything works like a charm.

So I believe that I was right and that a newer BIOS has picked up a bug where it is not switching on the Wireless/Bluetooth Radios each time.

This would make sense as loading the BIOS defaults is essentially like a Factory Reset so will refresh the settings.

I am not going to single load every revision up to v1.17 just to find the culpret BIOS because everything is now working well, but as my laptop was loaded with v1.09 on purchase I can probably say it starts with this release.

Any way to push over to ACER Support to get them to investigate the issue?

Cheers

9000RPM

Experienced the same issue when I upgraded to a 8265. Google brought me here and thought I confirm Vinnie's findings. After downgrading from 1.17 to 1.06, it seems to be working.

It also fixed the trackpad sometimes being not detected in Antergos unless I boot into Windows first, then reboot into Antergos.

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