Windows Atheros AR9271

Discussion in 'Wireless Drivers & Utilities' started by kevsamiga, 16 Jan 2014.

  1. Valvados

    Valvados Member

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    "https://www.mediafire.com/?6f6lh0pxff36ad2"

    Installed will give them a few hours testing. Having serious issues on twitch but no where else with .25

    .28 is another qualcomm version, pretty sure I had these before didn't like them.


    "I should be releasing both sets of drivers within the next 48 hours baring any new "discoveries"."

    Sounds good will check back, twitch isn't working very well anymore on this computer but it used to hmmm :/. Could Hamachi interfere with that?
    --- Double Post Merged, 22 Jun 2014 ---
    Don't see an edit button. So far .28 is working just as good or better than the TP link .25 drivers. On win8.1

    When twitch messes up all I have to do is move my wifi adapter. Bad usb cable? not sure idk. Everything seems fine accept twitch occasionally.

    I've gone through a lot of things, currently have Leatrix latency fix 3.0 installed.
     
    #41 Valvados, 22 Jun 2014
    Last edited: 22 Jun 2014
  2. Петар Петровић

    Петар Петровић Well-Known Member

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    Tested drivers with wn722n and i discover less networks, the ones i discover have lower signal, connection is good, like in standard drivers.
    Does changing any advanced options you added have any effect (country code changing does not work and im not using power saving options)?
     
  3. kevsamiga

    kevsamiga Well-Known Member
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    No, the country code changing doesn't work/have any effect as with the 036NHA because we all have a locked EEPROM.

    I never expected it to but it's left in there anyway...also frag doesn't work on anything other than the Windows XP drivers either, thank poor Atheros. Power saving options are for WMM (Wireless N) to save on traffic as the AP wakes up your adapter only when it has something ready for it instead of your adapter constantly polling the AP.

    Country codes were put in there more for WifiStation EXT owners where you can in fact change the country code and set compliance test mode (after setting ignore 11d beacons) because it is set as region 00 (world).

    Just because I unlock features, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are all going to work for every card (well those with a locked eeprom mainly)

    This first release is a rough draft where I am re-implementing as much as I can to see how it all behaves. I am still learning, and still researching how all the functions work. I even found a mistake I made in the Ralink ones (which is now fixed for the next release). It's difficult to make sure 2 sets of drivers for every flavour of OS work consistently as a function in one might not exist in another, and it's very time consuming editing for every OS flavour and cross checking all this crap.

    So for now they're both still a bit rough around the edges. A preview as it were...

    If QUALCOMM wrote poor drivers for Windows 8.1, there isn't much if anything I can do about that as the code is closed source.

    At least I'm finally having a go at fixing the limited options mess, and giving more to play with...

    Wireless mode selection is working on both Ralink and Atheros.

    That has to be a bonus already right where you can trade speed for range... ;-)

    I have to say the AR9271 is the weirdest adapter I've ever owned, almost all functions you get in software in other adapters are offloaded in hardware instead, and sometimes the adapter seems to have a mind of it's own. It doesn't like high traffic loads without playing up as if the state machine in hardware gets confused, and there are huge latency spikes, or maybe the drivers wrote for it are just completely shitty. But being the fastest adapter is a big attraction.
     
    #43 kevsamiga, 22 Jun 2014
    Last edited: 22 Jun 2014
  4. Valvados

    Valvados Member

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    I bought this because it was listed as one of the best for back track and long range so assumed it would also be low heat ect. and it is. I had a $8 chinese ralink that would overhead and basically die for awhile. This atheros never gets warm so it's pretty much working better than the ralink especially since using .25, .28. I have noticed on twitch a peer 2 peer weird style video services though I have to move the adapter lately on twitches 'new version' There's probably something weird in the usb power on this computer? Currently have selective suspend and power save off and it seems more stable as well.

    I was also told Alfa Atheros is much better than than chinese usb wifi that claims 2000mW ect. I heard it was the best low price wifi the next best thing is Ubiquiti or Mikrotek which I am actually considering for my next mini pci card rig.

    This was all back in 2013 october though haven't kept up on the new stuff.
     
    #44 Valvados, 22 Jun 2014
    Last edited: 22 Jun 2014
  5. kevsamiga

    kevsamiga Well-Known Member
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    For long ranges, the 036NHA and 051NH seem to me to be the weakest of the bunch.

    The 036NHR, 036H and 036NH are definitely much stronger in range. And with the 036H special drivers I made you can switch down
    to 11b and 1Mbps to reach that little further than possible with the others, and maybe get a connection you otherwise wouldn't have.

    The potential to also switch down to 1mbps rates on the 036NHR also exists, but I haven't got around to implementing that yet.

    But if range isn't an issue, then the 036NHA will perform the fastest. Well actually the 051NH is the fastest
    due to MISO offering 300mbps and 5Ghz, but it's limited range means that any speed potential is handicapped.

    I don't have the 036NHV or 036AC 1200 to compare with yet however.
     
  6. Valvados

    Valvados Member

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    I have the NHA.

    It's supposed to be much better than ralink chipsets which are unreliable. However the drivers too seem really poor on this card bad luck I guess. I don't know been running pretty good though I did some 8 hour long gameplay no disconnections download speed is good twitch or comcast is throttling me or something. Moving the wifi card around might just be giving me some kind of reconnection.

    I got 5 bars, 65mbps from the router which is 10feet away. it's a really poor comcast router which supports their turbo boost feature. I have to run a fan on the router or it overheats often when the house is above 73* F. With a fan on it, it's pretty stable.
     
  7. FROCIUS

    FROCIUS Guest

    Here we go.

    Vista x64 here.

    These drivers are a HUGE NO GO for Vista 64 users. Maybe 32bit users too.

    During downloading, the connection drops out. Hangs and doesn't show any networks until you plug it off and on again.

    No problems like this with the previous drivers that I got from TP-Link's website. I have installed them again and everything is back to normal.


    Now a weird thing is happening. My 036H is connecting to a network but 722N isn't. For some reason, it constantly comes out with wrong password (network key) dialogue but if I connect thorough 036H, it connects. 3 bars on 722N.

    Help?.
    --- Double Post Merged, 24 Jun 2014 ---
    Fixed.

    Why cant I edit my posts?.
     
    #47 FROCIUS, 24 Jun 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: 24 Jun 2014
  8. kevsamiga

    kevsamiga Well-Known Member
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    Which version off the TP-links site for Vista would that be.. ?
     
  9. FROCIUS

    FROCIUS Guest

    What do you mean?.

    Drivers on tpl's website?.
     
  10. Петар Петровић

    Петар Петровић Well-Known Member

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    Latest driver for wn722n on tp link site is 10.0.0.25, btw i think some of the new options you enabled lowered power of the adapter.
    After i tried your driver i rolled back on previous one, it had the same issues like your driver, so i deleted all drivers and registry entries, installed 10.0.0.25 from tp link site and it worked fine.
    Can you give us unmodified 10.0.0.28 driver or tell us where did you get it?
     
  11. FROCIUS

    FROCIUS Guest

    I use 8.0.0.84.
     
  12. kevsamiga

    kevsamiga Well-Known Member
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    I already *have* since 16/06/2014 given the unmodified 10.0.0.28 driver for x86 and x64 (Win8/8.1) in the list of drivers at top of thread.

    Post #5. Seek and ye shall find...it's there along with 7.7.0.105 for XP, and they are all *SIGNED*

    I took the 10.0.0.28 as a base to modify which made sense as it is the latest driver I could unearth that is compatible with the AR9271.

    If it's a crap driver released by Qualcomm it isn't my fault, as there is not a chance I am going through the hours of updates and installing Windows 8 when Windows 7/XP dual boot is my main OS so I can't even test the drivers beyond from on the 2 most popular OS's in existence.

    I have tried Win8 several times before, and I just can't stand to be using it because I'm shall we say too old skool...

    The option is there to take the 10.0.0.28 unmodified now I pointed it out where to find it. If it's still performing crap, dump it and go bk to 10.0.0.25.

    I didn't build them, nor can I test them on an OS I don't have. They are flaky drivers on Win8 to begin with in any case for a chip that seems forgotten about.
     
    #52 kevsamiga, 25 Jun 2014
    Last edited: 25 Jun 2014
    • Agree Agree x 1
  13. Петар Петровић

    Петар Петровић Well-Known Member

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    Unmodified 10.0.0.28 working fine, im now even more sure that the problem is some of the power saving options.
    I want to thank you for modding this driver and dont want to discourage you from continuing, just trying to help.
     
  14. FROCIUS

    FROCIUS Guest

    All these chips including 036H have no win 8 support.

    Any new chip that get updates and has support?. Most that I know of are literally dead. Use XP or go home.
     
  15. kevsamiga

    kevsamiga Well-Known Member
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    036H has no Win8 support, but 036NHR and 036NHV and 036AC definitely do.

    As does 036NH and 051NH with 5.1.11.0 ralink release (but this version is bugged cosmetically).

    The only bogies/pitfalls to avoid are 036H (stopped development 2011)
    and 036NHA (Atheros taken over by QUALCOMM at the cusp of the AR9721 release, drivers forgotten about, and then Win8 released in 2012)
    and drivers by QUALCOMM released afterwards suspect/flaky. The driver for 036H should work on Windows 8 IIRC, just not the control panel.

    But then he actually said the 10.0.0.28 that I supplied (unmodified) is now working ok. I wouldn't know, I don't care to test it because I don't plan to install Win8.

    One of the reasons I run Win7/XP dual boot and kicked using Win8 into the abyss. No drivers for creaking hardware that you want to keep. Thanks, but no thanks.

    Moreover, sometimes the drivers perform better on XP than Vista/7 depending which adapter you have which is ironic considering Vista came in 2006 and Win7 in 2009.

    That's the price you pay for playing with new OS's without updating your hardware to get around these problems.
     
    #55 kevsamiga, 26 Jun 2014
    Last edited: 26 Jun 2014
  16. Valvados

    Valvados Member

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    Hmm I've been able to install everything from windows 98 all the way to windows 8.1 on every version of windows, drivers for the wrong OS. They might cause bluescreens though... I can see sticking to an old os I had a laptop that preferred vista, windows 7 was laggy with networking. But if I had the option windows 8 all the way much more stable and responsive it seems like it actually uses your memory where win7 will toss and turn to switch or not. There isn't anything I miss about windows 7 honestly everything I like was in Vista, windows 98 and windows 8.
     
  17. kevsamiga

    kevsamiga Well-Known Member
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    NEW !!

    My ASSORTED collection of ALL available existing Windows Atheros AR9271 drivers.

    143mb compressed into an 11mb rar 5 archive.

    I decided it was time to re-arrange the HD with drivers today, and just ended up cataloguing ALL of them instead of scattered here and there, which might be useful to someone besides me !

    Don't think I've missed any versions that isn't included here, but if I have let me know.

    The folders are all organised 7.7.0.x is WinXP x86/x64, 8.0.0.x is Vista x86/x64, 2.0.0.x, 9.2.x.x is Windows 7 x86/x64. 10.0.0.x is Win8/8.1 x86/x64.

    All OS flavours catered for. Plenty of drivers to test and play with going back in time to 2009 all painstakingly gathered in one complete archive, shoe-horned into 11mb for download. :)

    Untampered files. No malware. No more driver hunting (they're all here). No bullshit, just the drivers. All complete collection.

    https://www.mediafire.com/?b4ofvbulk4kbni5

    Some drivers may need .inf replacement/fixing using another .inf unless you force your device to be TP-Link or D-Link etc, but most work generically as is that I could find correct .cat's n' inf's for.

    All drivers I know of that exist are included, and most are signed for generic use.

    Give thanks to the time consuming Atheros driver hunting robot... ;-)

    --------------------------------------------------------
    AR9271 Datasheet Documents .pdf


    https://www.mediafire.com/?86611y18lgh18lu


    (says in these official company confidential documents the AL3A version is a lead free, low temperature chip NOT low power, also gives mA ratings and dBm output figures and other interesting info inside etc.)
     
    #57 kevsamiga, 28 Jun 2014
    Last edited: 28 Jun 2014
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  18. Mii

    Mii Member

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    Great! So these are the general, un-patched i.e. original .inf file variants i.e. for specials like RTS configuration option on Win8 I should wait? Thanks alot! :)
     
  19. kevsamiga

    kevsamiga Well-Known Member
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    @Mii, read the part where it says "Un-tampered".

    It seems I did miss out a couple of drivers from the list actually folks... that would be version 8.0.0.70 for Vista/7 x86/x64. And 7.7.0.87 for XP x86/x64

    Here they are to put with the other big download to finally complete your big drivers set of all available drivers for the AR9271 :

    *On another note, it appears earlier drivers don't nearly disconnect/shutdown as often (so I'm trying to establish @ what version this random "shutdown bug" was introduced) mainly affects x64 bit OS's. Anybody who owns a WN722N or 036NHA will know exactly what I mean where you must unplug and re-plug the adapter. All the Win7 specific ones seem affected by the bug, but not all Vista x64 versions are.
     

    Attached Files:

    #59 kevsamiga, 28 Jun 2014
    Last edited: 2 Jul 2014
  20. Valvados

    Valvados Member

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    The shut down feels like it is power or signal power related, I can move my adapter to get it to come on don't have to unplug it, USB cord hasn't straightened out yet though it hasn't met a summer yet. The shutdown is much less often on NHA036 using your 10.28 driver with setting changes;

    Selective Suspend; Disabled
    Power Management; Unchecked

    I can make it days before it acts up on me with my current setup, I can stream 1600-2200 kbps for 10 hours and not have it happen then other times it can happen twice in 2 hours sometimes it never happens for 2 days. It's much more random on the newest driver than any other.
    --- Double Post Merged, 29 Jun 2014 ---
    I've also tried downloading and it never seems to go out when I'm maxing out the speed on it. On the 10.20 or around there it always went out when maxing out the speed during download.
     

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