Upgrading Dell Latitude E6430 WiFi Card to Dual Band

Latitude E6430

Hey,

I bought a Dell Latitude E6430 a few years back and even though it is slow compared to modern day laptops it's fast enough for me. Only problem for me was always the WiFi, I wanted to upgrade the WiFi card so I wouldn't be so dependant on using ethernet. I decided to buy a 'Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260HMW' WiFi card. This has 2.4ghz and 5ghz which I assume is good, also it has Bluetooth.. I think.. so I got it, put it in my laptop and tried it without drivers, my WiFi speed went up from 50mbps to around 150, I tried it again after downloading the drivers and got 255, which is probably as high as it will go as I'm 2room away from my router and my WiFi goes up to 300. So I tried gaming with it to test it properly and it was working fine.. until it wasn't. It would make my WiFi crash every few minutes so that I would have to sit and wait like 3minuted for it to work again. I need help with this, it seemed to work but maybe it's too powerful for the laptop?? I did this with a fairly powerful charger attached tho so I feel like that shouldn't be the reason, someone help.. please.

Responses(5)

redxps630

7 Technologist

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11K Posts

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September 10th, 2022 11:00

In my experience with multiple E6330 and one E6430S which is close enough to 6430, a clean install of Windows 10 OS never has any issue w wireless. I suspect because you switched wireless on a previously installed OS that has old driver, it may have caused some messy driver conflict. I think before you give up on the new wlan (for E7240), try a clean install of Windows 10 and let Microsoft automatically find the best driver for the new wlan. A clean install imo is better than user messing around later downloading Dell or vendor driver. You can try this if you do not mind backing up data then wiping the hdd.
If a clean install still results in Wi-Fi crash then you can choose the Dell oem dual band wlan validated for this model E6430.

redxps630

7 Technologist

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11K Posts

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September 8th, 2022 18:00

Is this the card you upgraded to: 8TF1D - Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 WLAN WiFi 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0 Half-Height Mini-PCI Express Card - 8TF1D

I find it used in Latitude E7240. I do not think power is an issue. The fact your Wi-Fi crashes may be due to installed default driver that is not updated.

FYI Dell validated oem wlan for 6430 includes some dual band model, e.g., Dell 3676J or X9JDY

Dell 3676J - Wireless Broadcom BCM943228HM4L DW1540 802.11a/b/g/n Mini-PCI Express WLAN Card

Dell X9JDY Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 62205ANHMW dual band 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi PCIe Half Mini

B

BlackStarDell

3 Posts

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September 10th, 2022 05:00

Yes that is the card I was upgrading to.

If it's a driver issue does that mean I could just update the driver? Could problem also be because the laptop itself has Bluetooth and the card also has Bluetooth? Could this have caused some kind of conflict?

So if Dell validated OEM wlan for the card : "Dell X9JDY Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205 62205ANHMW dual band 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi PCIe Half Mini". Does that mean I could just buy it install the the drivers and the card and not have a problem with it?

Also would that card you showed be more compatible than this one : " https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/66890/intel-centrino-advancedn-6235-dual-band/specifications.html "?

Thank you so much for replying and once you reply to this my whole problem should be fixed so thank you again.

U2CAMEB4ME

4 Operator

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6.2K Posts

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September 10th, 2022 06:00

@BlackStarDell

Please list the original WiFi and Bluetooth installed???

Regards,

U2