Atheros AR9485 Wifi adapter 5ghz

[augiz]

Hello, my girlfriend has pretty old asus laptop with Qualcomm Atheros AR9485 wifi adapter.

Just today I upgraded her windows from 7 to 10. And I couldn't get to see wifi visible nor connect.
I knew the wifi is using 5ghz standart, but previously on windows 7 it was running fine (100% sure).

Now that I googled the cards model and I see that it doesnt even support AC nor 5ghz, so can anyone really explain how it was able to operate on 5ghz with older version of windows?

Regards.
Augiz

 

[okcnaline]

It doesn't.

 

[augiz]

Thats the point, it was running on triple band tp-link router that only emissed 5ghz band at the time. I'm 100% sure of this.
Why?
Because I once brought my old laptop to her that has centrino 2200 that also doesn't support ac or 5ghz and I couldnt even find the wifi on the list while her was running just fine.
Didn't pay much attention back then because I thought her card just supports it.

 

[okcnaline]

Is the TP-Link adapter USB or a router? Just making sure.

As far as I'm aware AR9485 is not rebadged Atheros anything.

 

[augiz]

Its TP-link router.
Laptop is asus x54c
the wireless card is qualcomm atheros ar9485

Not super expert on this but it says link speed 300/150.
And the 5ghz band was exactly that speed - 300mb/s (according to my phone)

 

[okcnaline]

Yeah - it's not 5Ghz. 300Mbps is still N specifications. AC, which is truly 5Ghz, is 600Mbps and above.

 

[augiz]

You're absolutely right. But I still don't understand how it could be connected and well to that wifi, even though my lenovo laptop with intel centrino 2200 wasn't even able to detect it. Also after upgrading windows the laptop didn't see it anymore too. Also my phone showed it as 5ghz network.

 

[okcnaline]

Perhaps it's 1) a 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz network lobbed into the same SSID and 2) the OEM disable N mode for the Centrino 2200.