Anybody used Broadcom BCM94352HMB Dual Band AC Wireless WiFi BT Card?

krzemien · 08 Jul 2019

As per the thread - anybody?

Broadcom BCM94352HMB Dual Band AC Wireless WiFi BT Card AzureWave DW 1550 -W32 | eBay

I'm interested in this chappy as I might have to consider replacing otherwise perfect Intel's AC-7260HMB that I installed nearly 4 years ago in my trusty SONY VAIO laptop: as some of you are aware, Microsoft introduced changes/restrictions re: weak encryption keys via Bluetooth last month, resulting now in BSOD the moment I connect my wireless keyboard to this laptop since Jun 2019 OS CU, and Intel also very conveniently stopped supporting this card last month (I'm sure it's a coincidence, but I digress).

The Intel(R) Wireless 7260 Family and Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160...

More on the exact problem here on Intel forums (for aficionados only):

Forums

Also, could you advise that this is like-for-like replacement for the one I own already? This is the link to the product I own:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00N7474CS/

Finally, and out of interest, does anybody know what's the difference when compared with this one (being double the price)?

Azurewave Broadcom BCM94352HMB 802.11 Ac 867 Mbps Wireless-Ac Wlan + Bluetooth | eBay

Any feedback (or ideas!) will be appreciated.

Try3 · 08 Jul 2019

I bought an AzureWave Broadcom BCM94352HMB from Amazon for £21.98 in 2016 [it costs more now] to replace the built-in WiFi card in my Dell Inspiron 1545.

The only problem I have had is that lately when I resume from hibernation no WiFi networks can be found.
- Bluetooth works even during this problem [my mouse is Bluetooth]
- I run a small [elevated] batch file to disable then re-enable the card and then WiFi networks are seen and it all behaves normally again

Code:

netsh interface set interface "Wi-Fi" disabled
netsh interface set interface "Wi-Fi" enabled

Driver & installation notes

A These links provided a driver for it [the same driver in all three cases]. I recently checked Device manager for any updated driver but there was none [I did not investigate any further].
a Broadcom link that I seem to have kept no record of - I have a vague recollection that I returned to it later and they had stopped providing drivers directly and said to use the MS update catalog instead.
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/...adcom+802.11ac
http://www.dell.com/support/home/uk/...driverId=HY6W8

B Afterwards, it was running fairly slowly until I made these adjustments

In Device manager, Network adapters, Broadcom 802.11ac network adapter -
1 Change Band preference from "None" to "Prefer 802.11a"
2 Change Bandwidth capability from "11a:20/40;11bg:20MHz" to "11a/b/g:20/40MHz"

Denis

Try3 · 08 Jul 2019

Addn notes about driver
- The current driver is Broadcom 7.35.295.2 dated 20 July 2015.
- MS update catalog offers this [albeit a week older yet with a higher version number]

https://catalog.update.microsoft.com...adcom+802.11ac
https://catalog.update.microsoft.com...d-dcedc9a14573

- Dell provides the same driver that it did before [Dell states version numbers of their own devising]. The version number shown in Device manager is Broadcom 7.35.295.2 dated 20 July 2015 even when using the Dell-sourced one.

Denis

Try3 · 08 Jul 2019

Addn notes about compatibility

Looking at that Amazon product page you linked to I can see that the connections appear to be almost the same as the one I bought [which I gave you a link to above]. I do not know if the difference is significant so I suggest that you read the user reviews for the one I bought & your own ebay links to see if anybody there mentions your computer model.

Denis

krzemien · 08 Jul 2019

Thanks, that's very useful. Yes, I think it will work fine, but my concerns based on the above now are:

* rather dated driver (Intel's drivers are dated Mar/Jun 2019) - but I'm not that fussy
* more importantly: possibly the same issue that I started encountering with June's (and now July's Preview version as well - checked it only yesterday) Windows CU.

I might temporarily replace AC7260 back to original non-performing Broadcom one (BCM43142) to check if this unexpected problem I now have with BSOD upon connectivity to keyboard goes to sleep.

(I did replace Broadcom BCM43142 with AC7260 back in 2015 due to very poor wireless network speeds I was getting:

Re: Sony VAIO SVF1531C5E - BCM43142 Wireless Netwo... - Sony

and was very happy with it, only until last month!)

Try3 · 08 Jul 2019

I agree that dated drivers are a concern.
- Old drivers are an advance warning that one day the item might be incompatible with an updated Windows 10 version and will need to be replaced.
- But there is no telling if that is going to be this September or sometime in 2099.

Personally, I would keep searcehing the user reviews in Amazon to find a reference to somebody else having used the WiFi-BT card in your computer model. You might also try searching for online articles about swapping the WiFi card in your computer model because they might give some useful pointers to compatible WiFi-BT cards.

It's not a subject I know about but I am on Ver 1903 and my WiFi keyboard continues to work alright.
- I had not known there was any change to system requirements in this respect. You are the only one I have seen mention this topic.
- And you might have meant Bluetooth keyboard anyway. The only Bluetooth devices I use are earphones & mice so I haven't needed to learn anything properly.

Denis

krzemien · 13 Jul 2019

I need to double-check that the issue I'm having definitely sits with AC7260 Intel's Bluetooth driver, not with the MS Foldable Keyboard, as the latter would be different kettle of fish.

So what I think I'm going to do first is that I'm going to get a cheap second-hand USB Bluetooth dongle (I'm thinking about F8T065BF from Belkin) as it's very small and I have ports available I can use. And try to connect keyboard to it once OS is up to date and see what happens.

I connected this keyboard to my Windows 10 PC (AC3165) with recent CU in place without the issues however, so it indicates that the fault lies within Intel domain for AC7260 really (hardware or software-wise)... And as AC7260 otherwise performs excellently, especially where network speeds are taken into account, I would not want to get rid of it.

(this is Win 8.1 system by the way - my above enquiry here was about the hardware)

Try3 · 13 Jul 2019

Perhaps your phone has Bluetooth. If it does you can test the keyboard by connecting it. I have done this successfully with both Bluetooth keyboards & WiFi keyboards [that need a dongle connected].

Denis

krzemien · 13 Jul 2019

It's the OS that BSODs since June CU - OS with May's CU in place works absolutely fine:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...date-kb4503290

Addresses a security vulnerability by intentionally preventing connections between Windows and Bluetooth devices that are not secure and use well-known keys to encrypt connections, including security fobs. If BTHUSB Event 22 in the Event Viewer states, “Your Bluetooth device attempted to establish a debug connection….”, then your system is affected. Contact your Bluetooth device manufacturer to determine if a device update exists. For more information, see CVE-2019-2102 and KB4507623.

(I don't have that entry in Event Viewer at all)

krzemien · 27 Jul 2019

Well, I got this dongle (F8T065BF from Belkin) cheaply now, but once installed (and once Intel Bluetooth @AC7260 is further disabled) it does not seem to be curing situation at all I'm afraid: laptop still crashes upon connecting to MS Foldable Keyboard keyboard (once paired, obviously, but also after it's disconnected - i.e. keyboard is powered off and back on - and Windows tries to reconnect to it) in exactly the same way.
So I don't believe that AC7260 -> BCM94352HMB swap will change anything here as problem must lie elsewhere.

--

EDITED TO ADD #1:

System crashes with SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (7e) and indicates that it's bthport.sys fault.

I found this post just now - they even reference my post @ Intel forums:

https://answers.microsoft.com/ja-jp/...2-a356aaaac31d

It looks like in their case it was hardware (BT mouse) that suddenly became non-supported, from June 2019 CU onwards.

(use Google Translator as it's in Japanese)

So I will probably raise this with Microsoft to check where the problem is exactly - I suspect MS Foldable Keyboard suddenly became out of fashion due to this change:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/...-applying-june

--

EDITED TO ADD #2:

Cursory analysis of the DMP file indicates this problem:

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: AV_bthport!SMPInt_DispatchSecurityRequest
BUCKET_ID: AV_bthport!SMPInt_DispatchSecurityRequest
PRIMARY_PROBLEM_CLASS: AV_bthport!SMPInt_DispatchSecurityRequest

However, keyboard does work and connect without any issues to my Windows 10 PC (via AC3165 adapter that's on-board). I am still puzzled where the problem is exactly.