Intel AC 7260 Wi-Fi PCI-e in Asus G73SW Laptop + Win10 Pro 64 - No-Go

This laptop originally shipped with some Atheros ABGN 2.4 Ghz only card which works just fine but it's quite slow by todays standards. So I googled and found the Intel 7260 Dual-Band AC card and acquired one.

I was expecting it to be a simple plug-n-play operation but that has not been the case.

After installing this Wi-Fi adapter in my laptop, I found that it shows in device manager with an excl mark next to it. It says "The device cannot start (Code 10)."

The event log is showing these two "ERROR" events

Device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B2&SUBSYS_42708086&REV_63\0C8BFDFFFF07EB6700 had a problem starting.
Driver Name: oem56.inf
Class Guid: {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Service: NETwNb64
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters: vwifibus
Problem: 0xA
Problem Status: 0xC0000001

and

Device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_08B2&SUBSYS_42708086&REV_63\0C8BFDFFFF07EB6700 had a problem starting. Driver Name: netwbw02.inf
Class Guid: {4d36e972-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Service: NETwNb64
Lower Filters:
Upper Filters: vwifibus
Problem: 0xA
Problem Status: 0xC0000001

I presume the second one is for Bluetooth.

I have attached the device manager screenshot as well.

Where to from here?

Here is what I've tried so far:
- Install the driver through windows update (no go)
- Install the latest driver from the Intel Website, then fully uninstall it with "Discard", run disk cleanup, install again, reboot - no go. [per the steps in this thread]
- Uninstall the driver thru device manager (Right Click > Uninstall > Delete Drivers) then install the latest driver package from intel website - no go.
- Ensured the BIOS of the laptop is the latest version.
- Reinstalled Win 10 and first thing I installed was the Intel Driver - still no go. Device cannot start, code 10.

I was beginning to think the card was faulty until I booted up Ubuntu 18.04 Live on my machine - the wi-fi works great out of the box so obviously this is some sort of Windows driver problem.

Any insight appreciated.

Mine is Asus S400CA. I also changed my wifi chip to intel 7260.
All work fine.

@Caledon Ken - thanks for the warm welcome!

I am glad to see others having it working.

To answer your question it is being picked up by the laptop just fine - HOWEVER No matter which driver I use (be it the one provided by Intel or the one through Win Update), I can't seem to get it to work - it just says "Device Cannot Start (Code 10)" in device manager.

I tried the FN+F2 button on the laptop which is responsible for doing wi-fi switching - there is no reaction from the system.

Perhaps this is some kind of Driver issue?

I have uninstalled all the Intel drivers from my system, then I ran Driver Store Explorer from the GitHub link and verified the drivers are well and truly gone. I then re-installed the drivers but I still can't get it running - Code 10, device cannot start.

Would you be so kind as to export your drivers using Driver Store Explorer, zip them up and post them so I can download and try installing?

I don't care about BT - I am more concerned with Wi-Fi as the laptop is unusable without it.

Also - I'd like to add that I have actually hit FN+F2 which is the wi-fi switching key on this laptop - if I hit it once, I get a message on screen saying "BLUETOOTH OFF", then hitting it again gives me a message saying "BLUETOOTH ON" so the wi-fi is definitely switched on & should be working!

Device manager still shows "Code 10 - Device Cannot start"

Finally, no matter what I do it looks like windows tries to use its Built-In drivers for this card. If I:

1. Uninstall the PROSet / Driver from Add/Remove programs in control panel
2. Go to device manager, uninstall both the BT and Wi-Fi 7260 and tick the box that says "Delete driver"
3. Check in the driver store manager app mentioned in post #3
4. I have disabled "AUTO DRIVER INSTALL" under System Properties > Hardware tab > Device Installation Settings > "NO (your device may not work as expected).

If I right click > Scan for hardware changes - the 7260 shows up and the drivers are installed automatically. Is it possible this is the issue???

Not sure what happened to my post -- but basically I Tried everything mentioned in post #3.

Wireless switch is on - My laptop has FN+F2 for wi-fi switching - I have tried both "on" and "off", neither make the card work.

I think the problem runs deeper than wifi switch. Driver Explorer doesn't show any installed "Intel Corporation" drivers, or any drivers pertaining to wi-fi for that matter.

It just says Device Cannot Start (Code 10).

The card works for sure - I tried it in Ubuntu.

@Caledon Ken

Thanks for supplying that - unfortunately I can't even the driver package installer to run. When I double click it I get the spinning intel logo thing coming up, then it disappears.

Can you go to C:\Program Files\Intel\ -- in there, there should be a folder called "WiFiDrivers" - in there you should see a bunch of INF files etc. Can you just zip up that whole "WiFiDrivers" and upload that!

Thanks Again!!

breakaway said:

@Caledon Ken

Thanks for supplying that - unfortunately I can't even the driver package installer to run. When I double click it I get the spinning intel logo thing coming up, then it disappears.

Can you go to C:\Program Files\Intel\ -- in there, there should be a folder called "WiFiDrivers" - in there you should see a bunch of INF files etc. Can you just zip up that whole "WiFiDrivers" and upload that!

Thanks Again!!

I don't have any wifidrivers folder in that location.