Windows 7: Windows 7 drivers for Intel Wireless AC-9260

Has anybody managed to find drivers that will work with the Intel Wireless AC-9260 on Windows 7? Or successfully use a work around for this wireless adapter ?



P.S. There is an old thread on the forum regarding modifying a script to make it work but it was abandoned by the helper - so I did use the search honest :)
P.P.S Telling me to use a usb wifi dongle etc helps your post count but not me
P.P.S If you tell me to use Windows 1984 I will put a curse on your favourite gadget

I am the helper. I gave up because once the script modifications were correct the device still would not start, which meant there was something else lacking that I could not figure out. I'll take another look at it in a minute. Here's the thread....
Intel Wifi AC 9260 driver fir Win7 x32 x64

I remember now. The script installation section for the WIN10 installation package referenced registry entries that do not exist on W7, so rather than suggesting the user create them within W7 and then run the install again and see if it would maybe work, I gave up since the odds were looking so low because of the differences between the W10 and W7 packages. To be honest, since I do not have a 9260 here with me that I am dying to get to work, I do not have the motivation to dig back into this to the degree needed to modify and debug the script knowing that it probably will not succeed. Sorry. One question though - are your specs here current? It shows an old asus P5Q-E. Current, detailed specs are always needed here!

Fair enough :) I have more than one system
The system I'll be needing this for is
It is a laptop
Clevo 750WU
i7-8550
Intel HD Graphics 620
16GB Ram

Would a Windows 8 driver have a better chance on a Win 7 system?

Hi

MOST likely a red herring but this card uses the same interface as 8260/8265 and 3165, which all have w7 drivers


Roy

I looked at the win8.1 install package for intel wireless and did not see the device ID for a 9260. The 9260 bluetooth functions (not wifi, bluetooth has its own driver) do appear to be compatible with win 8.1, but that does not help you.

Also looking at the win10 package a little deeper, the 9260 is not included in the netsw04.inf install script that is also in the win7 package, its only in the netsw06.inf script that is unique to the win10 package. This is further indication that getting a 9260 to work on win7 is a long shot, as its likely tied to win10 only.

Free input from the peanut gallery... If your laptop had an AC 8265 in it right now you would probably be happy with it. Sure the 9260 is faster at its peak, but for everyday use the two are not gonna be perceptibly different. The only thing between you and an 8265 is installation effort and money. That's what I would do in your shoes, pop in a new 8265 to replace the 9260.

If this link is correct your 9260 card has an m.2 interface and you can buy an m.2 8265 for not too much money.

Wireless – Clevoparts for Clevo laptop parts and barebones / chassis

And here's a guy taking apart your laptop for reference as to how to do it. I don't think he touches the wireless card though.

Clevo N750WU How to build your own laptop with HD graphics - YouTube

I could not find the service manual for the N750WU. The Clevo website has an area for "drivers and manuals" but as far as I can tell it just has drivers for that machine, no manual. So then I found this thread

Where are Clevo service manuals hosted these days? | NotebookReview

where clevo service manuals are discussed, but no reference to your machine. So I looked at the service manual for the P750 at this link

https://mega.nz/#!PE1FVLAY!hA3fMtewF...Z_FnKP1KnsbLU0

and on page 2-18 it tells you how to replace the M.2 wifi card. Those steps will probably work for you.

Hi thanks for answering I really appreciate all the effort you put in it was kind. :) But how do I know the 8265 will definitely work?

the ac8265 is the final intel wireless card with win7 driver support

Download Intel(R) Wireless Bluetooth(R) for Windows 7*

But I just realized you have another problem. I think that clevo machine uses a coffee lake cpu (i.e. 8th gen, cpu starts with an 8). Intel officially supports neither kaby lake (7th gen) or coffee lake (8th gen) for integrated graphics on win7, however there are steps you can take to get 7th gen working (my current system is an i7-7700k running win7, no problem). There are a lot of 8th gen users out there running win7 but as far as I know none of them use the integrated graphics and all have a separate video card. Since you're going to be on a laptop I assume you will be needing those integrated graphics and to my knowledge there is not a way to get an intel cpu 8th gen integrated graphics working on win7. Have not really dug into it though.

It is Kaby Lake
i7-8550
Intel HD Graphics 620

then you will need the win7 beta version of the intel HD6xx driver, which was written right before intel made the decision to NOT support HD6xx on win7. But the beta works.

http://download.gigabyte.us/FileList...16.4508_w7.zip

or you can hack a somewhat later version of the driver as outlined here...

Intel g4560 kabylake on windows 7 64 bit