How to fix my network driver? How to fix my network driver?

rohithkaza · September 2020

My Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 doesn't work properly most of the time. I am thankful, for at least it allows me to contact you. My network connection goes off at a sudden while I work. I can't even see Wifi, Bluetooth icons. When this problem occurs, I check my Network Adapters in Device Manager, I can't see "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265" in that list. All of a sudden, it appears again, and then I will get connected to my network for a short period of time. And again I will lose my connection. For sometimes, I can see "Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265" in Device Manager but it doesn't display any available networks at all. And for sometimes it displays an error icon under driver in device manager.

I am facing this problem from the past 3 months. I didn't made any hardware changes. Driver for my computer is pre-built. Actually most of the time, everything is fine with my laptop, but sometimes the problem arises and it lasts for a long time.

I tried the following methods to solve:

Scanning for hardware changes
Updating driver( It shows that it is the latest driver)
Uninstalling and restarting my PC( This works for many times)
Network reset
Installing other drivers( when I install a driver from the Acer website and run, it just says that latest version is already installed )

My problem still persists.

My laptop details are as follows:

Acer Swift SF314-52
BIOS version: V1.08
Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit (version: 1803)
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-8250U CPU @ 1.60GHz
Network device: Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265
Memory: 8GB

Help me out from this problem.

Commodore_1995# · September 2020

Does the same problem occur when disabling power management by the device manager? Also, what happens when you update the driver on the intel website?

rohithkaza · September 2020

Yes, the problem still exists even after disabling power manager. In Intel website it shows that the driver is up to date and the status as "This device is working properly".

I also contacted Intel. The response I got from them is as follows:

"We can see that you are working with driver version: 19.51.29.1 which is the Intel latest generic driver. As your computer is a laptop, it’s worth mentioning that the load of a customized driver may be causing this behaviour. This is because system manufacturers regularly customize Intel generic drivers to meet the needs of their specific system design. My recommendation would be to try downloading the OEM driver and test results."

billsey · September 2020

Try downloading the driver that Acer has on their support site, then uninstalling the current driver from Device Manager click the remove files option). Install the Acer driver and then reboot.

rohithkaza · September 2020

I already uninstalled (by clicking on removing software and files option) the driver in device manager. I also downloaded the driver from the Acer support site. But, when I run the setup file for the newly installed driver, it says that the latest driver is already installed in your system. I don't know any other ways of installing it. Please help me out.

billsey · September 2020

So for some reason it's not removing the files when uninstalled. You can take the downloaded drivers from Acer and extract them to a folder on the desktop, then use the driver update process except do a install from disk and navigate to the extracted files. That should allow an installation to a back revved version...

Joe9844 · September 2020

If you can't see wifi and bluetooth in the device manager, it means there is something wrong with the software RF kill switch. Maybe updating your bios.

OLD laptops used to have a hardware radio kill switch, now it's some sort of software fn key. The kill switch is directly connected to 2 pins in the wifi/bluetooth card. When they are activated, you don't see any wifi/bluetooth items in the device manager. People bypass the RF kill switch by taping the 2 pins in the wifi/bluetooth card.

https://thecomputerperson.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/how-to-mask-off-the-wifi-power-off-pins-on-m-2-ngff-wireless-cards-the-old-mini-pci-pin-20-trick/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3HCmC1zu24

rohithkaza · September 2020

billsey said:

So for some reason it's not removing the files when uninstalled. You can take the downloaded drivers from Acer and extract them to a folder on the desktop, then use the driver update process except do a install from disk and navigate to the extracted files. That should allow an installation to a back revved version...

@billsey Can you please elaborate the procedure of updating the driver. I followed some procedure but, I didn't understand it fully.
Procedure I followed:

Extracted the downloaded drivers to a folder on desktop.

Selected "Update driver" option in device manager.

Selected "Browse my computer for drivers" in the popped menu.

Selected "Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer".

Selected "Have disk" option.

And then browsed for extracted folder on desktop. But, it is only searching for files of type: ".inf". There is no .inf file in my downloaded driver folder.

I don't know whether the procedure I followed is correct or not. Please help me.

rohithkaza · September 2020

Can anyone help me in solving this issue? Please provide a solution to me @egydiocoelho @MaClane @brummyfan2 @JackE @Kno63 @IVAN_PC @billsey @laurent_14 @xapim @andylb .

brettgardner · September 2020

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Commodore_1995# · September 2020

Does the same problem occur after updating the driver on the intel website? Is the wireless network card configured for high performance in power options?

rohithkaza · September 2020

On Intel website it says that my driver is up to date. In device manager, there is no restriction for my network driver in power management( I already deselected "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" option. Can you please tell me where to check whether wireless network card configured for high performance in power options.

Commodore_1995# · September 2020

check here:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/sn/iqeytja1gyjs.png

rohithkaza · September 2020

Yeah, it is configured for maximum performance in not charging mode and maximum power-saving mode in charging mode. Now I changed to maximum performance in charging mode also.
Do I need to defragment my hard disk for any better performance?

Commodore_1995# · September 2020

Does the same problem occur when updating windows? You are still using version 1803.

rohithkaza · September 2020

Yeah even after updating windows, the problem persists.

The response I got from Intel Community is as follows:

"We can see that you are working with driver version: 19.51.29.1 which is the Intel latest generic driver. As your computer is a laptop, it’s worth mentioning that the load of a customized driver may be causing this behaviour. This is because system manufacturers regularly customize Intel generic drivers to meet the needs of their specific system design. My recommendation would be to try downloading the OEM driver and test results."