Question Laptop wifi upgrade AX210 into Mini PCI-E

[ennis4570]

My Router is 6E capable (Xfinity XB8). Laptop is Asus Q550LF w/4th gen i7 processor. Windows 10. My current wifi card is 802.11ac, intel 7260HMW AN, in mini PCI-E slot. There are adapters that allow inserting the Intel, AX210, 802.11AX, M.2 wifi card into that mini PCI-E slot. There are also non-Intel cards which are native mini PCI-E that seem to use AX210 and Intel drivers. (MPE-AXE3000H) Any advice on which way to choose? Has anyone actually used one of these methods? My goal is to get all my devices using 6E.
EDIT: I see this should be in the Wireless Networking section. I couldn't figure out how to move it. Bad start for 1st post.

 

[bill001g]

m.2 cards are fairly long compared to mini pci-e. I am not sure they would fit in a laptop especially when you add in some adapter that takes some space also.

The other vendors that sell ax210 in the mino pci-e format I suspect will work fine. The actual wifi chip is a intel ax210 it is the interface that is different. This is the same way you get a full size pcie card so I can't see why it would not work. Intel just decided to only sell m.2 under its own brand.

They have been on the market long enough that it doesn't matter a lot who makes them. All the software and drivers are all intel.

 

[dwd999]

My Router is 6E capable (Xfinity XB8). Laptop is Asus Q550LF w/4th gen i7 processor. Windows 10. My current wifi card is 802.11ac, intel 7260HMW AN, in mini PCI-E slot. There are adapters that allow inserting the Intel, AX210, 802.11AX, M.2 wifi card into that mini PCI-E slot. There are also non-Intel cards which are native mini PCI-E that seem to use AX210 and Intel drivers. (MPE-AXE3000H) Any advice on which way to choose? Has anyone actually used one of these methods? My goal is to get all my devices using 6E.
EDIT: I see this should be in the Wireless Networking section. I couldn't figure out how to move it. Bad start for 1st post.

Note that you would most likely need to use Windows 11 for wifi 6E. There are hacks to modify Windows 10 for 6E but I've never seen one guaranteed to work and any windows update might nullify the hack.

 

[ennis4570]

I saw that a while back a registery hack was required. I am hoping that the current drivers 22.200.2 might not need that. They supposedly support 64 bit Win 10. The WPA3 in 6E is part of the reason I'm doing an upgrade. "Intel® Wireless adapters fully supports WPA3-PSK H2E (Hash-to-Element) when using Windows® 10 version 21H2 update or later, and Wi-Fi driver 22.100.x or Later " If bill001g's reasoning is sound I think I'm going to roll the dice and see what I get. That is the drug that keeps all tech addicts going. That moment when something actually works the way we wanted or "holy sh!t how do I fix this?"

 

[dwd999]

I saw that a while back a registery hack was required. I am hoping that the current drivers 22.200.2 might not need that. They supposedly support 64 bit Win 10. The WPA3 in 6E is part of the reason I'm doing an upgrade. "Intel® Wireless adapters fully supports WPA3-PSK H2E (Hash-to-Element) when using Windows® 10 version 21H2 update or later, and Wi-Fi driver 22.100.x or Later " If bill001g's reasoning is sound I think I'm going to roll the dice and see what I get. That is the drug that keeps all tech addicts going. That moment when something actually works the way we wanted or "holy sh!t how do I fix this?"

Well if you do get that to work please let us know! I have an alternate m.2 that I can boot up into Windows 10 and it has driver 22.200.2.1 but it does not show any 6E available connections.

 

[ennis4570]

Well if you do get that to work please let us know! I have an alternate m.2 that I can boot up into Windows 10 and it has driver 22.200.2.1 but it does not show any 6E available connections.

I got it working. I had to use an earlier driver. 22.45.1.1 found instructions and link to driver on intel support forum.

community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/ax210-window-10-21h2-not-showing-6GHz-networks/m-p/1341116#M39195

 

[ennis4570]

I got it working. I had to use an earlier driver. 22.45.1.1 found instructions and link to driver on intel support forum.

community.intel.com/t5/Wireless/ax210-window-10-21h2-not-showing-6GHz-networks/m-p/1341116#M39195

One problem with this method is that with every Windows 10 update, I have to go into device manager and roll back the driver for the AX210 network adapter to the 22.45.1.1 version. Not hard to do but, it is a nuisance. Microsoft apparently really wants everyone to be on Windows 11.

Edit: There is a way to stop Windows update from updating drivers using the "group policy editor" . That should allow updating the rest of Windows while not updating the Network adapter driver.

https://www.makeuseof.com/windows-stop-automatic-driver-updates/#:~:text=Use the left pane to,Hit Apply followed by OK