Solved After upgrade from Win 11 23h2 to 25h2, Wi-Fi card (AC 7260) doesn't work.

My old Asus Q550LF laptop (on My computer) has a AC 7260 Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card.
It was working very well under Win 11 23h2 and after the upgrade to 25h2 it doesn't work anymore.
Or it doesn't find any Wi-Fi or it finds but it say it has no internet.
The driver seems to be update.
With Ethernet and cable it works as it should.

On Google I found a guy that said that some changes on the /register could solved but I didn't try.

Does anyone has found a solution?

Try resetting network adapter

If resetting network adapter didn’t work for you try reinstalling WLAN driver.

Maybe try uninstalling it and let it reinstall and if that doesn't work, try different drivers? And swapping the wifi card might be quite easy too if needed. I had something like this recently - can't remember exactly what the upgrade was. Eventually an updated driver appeared in Windows update - I was about to replace the wifi card!

antspants said:

Try resetting network adapter

Reset Network Adapters in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to reset network adapters in Windows 11. A network adapter (aka: Network Interface Controller (NIC) ) is a computer hardware component that connects a computer to the Internet or local area network. A network reset will remove and reinstall all your network...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Unfortunately it didn't work. Same as before

Sheikh said:

If resetting network adapter didn’t work for you try reinstalling WLAN driver.

Click to expand...

Was the first thing I tryed.

Hazel123 said:

Maybe try uninstalling it and let it reinstall and if that doesn't work, try different drivers? And swapping the wifi card might be quite easy too if needed. I had something like this recently - can't remember exactly what the upgrade was. Eventually an updated driver appeared in Windows update - I was about to replace the wifi card!

Click to expand...

I would like to buy a new card to be Win 11 compatible.
The main problem here is that the laptop is old and on old laptops the interface was PCIe and the new cards are all M.2.
The only Win 11 compatible Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card with PCIe interface that I found is an old AC 7265

If someone knows a new (AX) Win 11 compatible Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card with PCIe interface please let me know.

Megahertz said:

Unfortunately it didn't work. Same as before

Was the first thing I tryed.

I would like to buy a new card to be Win 11 compatible.
The main problem here is that the laptop is old and on old laptops the interface was PCIe and the new cards are all M.2.
The only Win 11 compatible Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card with PCIe interface that I found is an old AC 7265

If someone knows a new (AX) Win 11 compatible Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card with PCIe interface please let me know.

Click to expand...

Before buying try some 3rd party apps to search for and install proper driver. Maybe they can fix it.

Did you use: Intel® Driver & Support Assistant - to check for a driver update?

Megahertz said:

Unfortunately it didn't work. Same as before

Was the first thing I tryed.

I would like to buy a new card to be Win 11 compatible.
The main problem here is that the laptop is old and on old laptops the interface was PCIe and the new cards are all M.2.
The only Win 11 compatible Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card with PCIe interface that I found is an old AC 7265

If someone knows a new (AX) Win 11 compatible Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card with PCIe interface please let me know.

Click to expand...

Indeed, it's old. Unpopular opinion on Windows forums - but personally - wouldn't use Windows on old laptops - like your model, when there's so many Linux distributions - which work so much better (due to far lower processes and a cleaner more efficient architecture - especially for older hardware). Needs can have a saying too (like apps used) - but it's quite likely - that the apps you can use on that laptop - should have a worthy alternative - if not exactly the same app (even a Windows version). On my 12 year old laptop (used as DJ station for parties, streaming and storage) - i have https://mxlinux.org/download-links/ - latest build (equivalent of moving from Windows 23H2 to 25H2 - changes and improvement wise wise) - was releases just couple of days ago:


But hey, if you're set on struggling with Windows (or maybe scared of trying different stuff) - buy a USB NW card (plenty of those - modern and fast).

neves said:

Did you use: Intel® Driver & Support Assistant - to check for a driver update?

Click to expand...

Yes. The only card that is PCIe and have drivers for Win 11 is AC 7265

neves said:

Indeed, it's old. Unpopular opinion on Windows forums - but personally - wouldn't use Windows on old laptops - like your model, when there's so many Linux distributions - which work so much better (due to far lower processes and a cleaner more efficient architecture - especially for older hardware). Needs can have a saying too (like apps used) - but it's quite likely - that the apps you can use on that laptop - should have a worthy alternative - if not exactly the same app (even a Windows version). On my 12 year old laptop (used as DJ station for parties, streaming and storage) - i have https://mxlinux.org/download-links/ - latest build (equivalent of moving from Windows 23H2 to 25H2 - changes and improvement wise wise) - was releases just couple of days ago:

But hey, if you're set on struggling with Windows (or maybe scared of trying different stuff) - buy a USB NW card (plenty of those - modern and fast).

Click to expand...

Bellow my nick name (Megahertz) you can see that I also have Lubuntu. I've been playing with Linux since 98.
I would try a AC 7265 that, for now, it's Win 11 compatible.
If it doesn't work I'll buy a USB NW.

i found this Intel driver package for your AC 7260 Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card.
please note there is a dropdown menu available to get older versions for this driver.

after downloading the drivers it may help to uninstall the old drivers
and restart the system before installing the new drivers
but make a backup of your driver folder before proceeding.
best of luck Steve ..

I found a AX 2100 Mini PCIe on Amazon
6E-WiFi-802-11AX-MPE-AXE3000H-5400Mbps

XxXxX said:

i found this Intel driver package for your AC 7260 Wi-Fi / Bluetooth card.
please note there is a dropdown menu available to get older versions for this driver.

Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Drivers for Windows® 10 and Windows 11*

This download installs the Windows® 10 and Windows 11* Wi-Fi package drivers 24.40.0 for the Intel® Wi-Fi 7/Wi-Fi 6E/Wi-Fi 6 and Intel® 9000 series Wireless Adapters

www.intel.com

after downloading the drivers it may help to uninstall the old drivers
and restart the system before installing the new drivers
but make a backup of your driver folder before proceeding.
best of luck Steve ..

Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, but the link isn't for AC 7260. I've already fond on Intel site the latest driver for AC 7260 and it doesn't work on 25h2

First step in any diagnosis: Don’t start changing things until you have a better idea of what’s going on. You say you updated to 25H2 and the WiFi stopped working. Stop right there. The problem is most likely 25H2. What else did you change?

Second step, narrow down the problem. Your problem statement is all over the place.
“it doesn't work anymore”, “it doesn't find any Wi-Fi”, “it finds but it say it has no internet”. Do you actually see all those problems? Under what circumstances? Does the problem shift from one form to another or was there a sequence which ended up with “it finds but it say it has no internet”? These are all different problems. Is any one of the problems repeatable? Under what circumstances?

If you haven’t powered down your laptop and WiFi router, do so. Disconnect the power cable and remove the battery from the laptop. Press the laptop On button for a few seconds and keep power off for a few minutes. Also turn off your internet modem and router and pull out the power cables. Then boot up the modem first, wait, then boot up the router, wait, then turn on the laptop. The reason for this is below where I talk about Power Management.

You say you’re using a laptop, which likely has a WiFi on/off switch as one of the function keys. It’s very easy to toggle off the WiFi by inadvertently hitting the key. Make sure that’s on.

Next, it’s unlikely that the WiFi services aren’t running, but check that these services are running and on Automatic. Check WLAN AutoConfig, WWAN AutoConfig, Wi-Fi Direct Services Connection Manager Service.

Open command prompt and ping you router address (something like 192.168.0.1). If your’re getting a reply, then the network is intact and the problem is in Windows 25H2 configuration. Of course, you can also open a browser and see if it works connecting to a website.

Find the Power Management settings. Disable all “power saving” modes, especially for WiFi/laptops. You may have to go through all the Advanced settings to find those. Look for entries such as “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”. It also helps if you disable any and all Sleep or Hibernate modes and Fast Startup. The reason for these changes is that with these enabled the computer never really shuts down, even if you do Start > Shutdown (because Microsoft decided that “shutdown” doesn’t really mean shutdown). So, configurations get corrupted and are never reset.

Next, open Device Manager, find Network Adapters and see if your WiFi adapter is in the list and if it has a yellow exclamation mark next to it. If there is no exclamation mark then the problem is 25H2 (again). If there is an exclamation mark go through the steps of updating/installing a new driver and let Windows find the driver for you (use the Recommended option). There are several variations of jumping through hoops using the Device Manager, but most will not work if the device is not already working after a reboot.

Finally, about the issue that it finds the WiFi but says it has no internet. Need to be more precise here. It says there is no internet because the task bar icon shows no connection, but there is actually a connection? It finds the WiFi but cannot connect? It appears to connect but is not actually connected? If the issue is that the task bar icon says it’s not connected but it is actually connected (i.e. you can surf the internet), then that’s a whole other story. Windows has two methods of determining internet connectivity. One has two types of active probing where a periodic message is sent to a Microsoft website, expecting a specific response (related to NoActiveProbe, EnableActiveProbing in the Registry). The second method is passive probing where Windows uses observed network traffic to infer connectivity status, but this doesn’t work well.

A word of advice: NEVER jump the gun and update to a new Windows until other people debug it for Microsoft.

SumpterX said:

A word of advice: NEVER jump the gun and update to a new Windows until other people debug it for Microsoft.

Click to expand...

23H2 is EOL (End of Life/Support), so - maybe he felt compelled to upgrade. 24H2/25H2 are deemed as stable releases. His NW card is EOL by intel (since 2019), so his best chance are Windows generic drivers with limited functionality - if Win 10 drivers don't work anymore (if it was sound drivers related - he'd probably be fine - but NW drivers requirements are more strict - cause that's the main entrance - the highest security risk / 24H2 & 25H2 use the same kernel - but bring all kinds of changes - compared to 23H2 and the way Windows used to work).

I've got older Asus netbooks/laptops than that and had no issues with Windows 10 wifi on them (which is not Windows 11 25H2 I know), but have had issues on a 10th generation laptop which had a different wifi card to my near identical 10th generation laptop.

I've also had problems relating to Windows syncing with wifi not staying connected and keep asking you to re-enter the key every few minutes. Although that was only with a microsoft account on Windows 10 and ok on a local account or on Windows 11.

So there are many things it could be possibly. So yes sounds like a good idea to narrow it down.

I think the first thing I'd try is the latest Intel driver - rather than work it out you could just download the Intel support assistant and it'll install the right driver. If that doesn't work it may not be driver related. Edit sorry just seen you'd already tried the latest Intel driver so forget that. Maybe see if all the wires are connected! What does it do - if anything?

Also maybe you could try it with 24H2 and see if it has the same issue? Or could be a faulty wifi card on it's way out.

Or you could use a usb wifi dongle.

Just remembered what my last issue was - I tried all sorts, uninstalled the device, updated and tried different drivers. Turned out one of the cables had become disonnected on the wifi card. But it does seem no coincidence it happened when you upgraded to 25H2.

You might try checking to see if the update replaced your working Wifi driver. Start Device Manager, expand and highlight the card, right-click, select "Update driver", click "Browse my computer for drivers", then "Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer". If more than one driver is shown, pick one that is not highlighted and click "Next". You may have to restart the computer for the change to take effect. Be sure not to click "Search automatically for drivers", since Windows already thinks it knows the best driver for the hardware.

Ben

Ben Myers said:

You might try checking to see if the update replaced your working Wifi driver. Start Device Manager, expand and highlight the card, right-click, select "Update driver", click "Browse my computer for drivers", then "Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer". If more than one driver is shown, pick one that is not highlighted and click "Next". You may have to restart the computer for the change to take effect. Be sure not to click "Search automatically for drivers", since Windows already thinks it knows the best driver for the hardware.

Ben

Click to expand...

I changed from Intel to Microsoft driver and it seems that it has solved. Going to use for a while to be sure it has really solved. Thanks

Roll back to 23h2

Megahertz said:

I changed from Intel to Microsoft driver and it seems that it has solved. Going to use for a wile to be sure it has really solved. Thanks

Click to expand...

Great stuff Maybe a newer Intel one will come along soon.

So I have two drivers for NW. One is Intel and the other is MS.
How to remove the Intel? On device manager you can't choose witch one to remove.

If you delete the unwanted driver, Windows will probably replace the working driver with the one you just deleted. If you leave the bad driver in the driver store, Windows will see that you already have what it thinks is the best driver but have chosen to use a different one.

Ben