Help With New Wifi Card

[nightninja96]

Hello, I just got my new atheros ar9380, but I for got how I the antennas were oriented before I took my old wifi card out? Where can I find windows 7 64bit drivers for it?

[axur-delmeria]

Regarding the antennas: grab a copy of the Hardware Maintenance Manual for your Thinkkpad model (use the HMM link at the top of this page, or use Google search), the necessary instructions are there.

Regarding drivers: if that card is from another laptop brand (HP, Dell, etc.) use that company's drivers.

[RealBlackStuff]

Once card is mounted, grey antenna to left, optional white to middle, black to right.
Drivers from Atheros website.

[nightninja96]

Qualcomm's website does not offer any drivers, and atheros, the unofficial driver site, supplies drivers, but I have absolutely no idea how to install them. Can someone help me out with this?

[Screamer]

Use this, its a compatible driver suitable for your AR9380. Just remember that it does not have a installer for setting up the drivers, since they are no longer needed as far as I know.

Unzip the files in the driver zip I gave you, then put them in a folder anywhere you prefer. Then, open up device manager and look for a 'Ethernet Controller' device. It should show up as a question mark and might probably not be listed as an 'Ethernet Controller', it might be a 'Network Device' for all I know.

Right click on the 'Ethernet Device' and click proprties, then navigate to the driver tab. You should see a 'Update Driver' button, click that and a prompt window should pop up. There should be an option labeled 'Browse my computer for driver software'. Click that option and then a address bar should show up, enter your driver's directory location and then click next.

The driver installation should start and it should work after that's done.

EDIT: Confirmed the options this time around, should help you if you are doing the driver installation this way.

[dr_st]

It's usually simpler to just right-click the INF file in the directory you unzipped the driver to, and choosing 'Install'.

[Screamer]

Woops, my bad. I completely forgot about that shortcut, but the driver .inf may not support that feature and might throw a "The INF you selected does not support this method of installation" error.

[dr_st]

Yes, that's why I said "usually".

Moreover, sometimes Windows can decide that the current driver is better than the new one. Via device manager it will tell you that. Via the right click it will still say "success" even if the driver was not in fact installed. Obviously it's irrelevant for when there is no driver to begin with, but it is something I've encountered in the past.

[nightninja96]

Thanks for the help everyone!

[nightninja96]

Use this, its a compatible driver suitable for your AR9380. Just remember that it does not have a installer for setting up the drivers, since they are no longer needed as far as I know.

Unzip the files in the driver zip I gave you, then put them in a folder anywhere you prefer. Then, open up device manager and look for a 'Ethernet Controller' device. It should show up as a question mark and might probably not be listed as an 'Ethernet Controller', it might be a 'Network Device' for all I know.

Right click on the 'Ethernet Device' and click proprties, then navigate to the driver tab. You should see a 'Update Driver' button, click that and a prompt window should pop up. There should be an option labeled 'Browse my computer for driver software'. Click that option and then a address bar should show up, enter your driver's directory location and then click next.

The driver installation should start and it should work after that's done.

EDIT: Confirmed the options this time around, should help you if you are doing the driver installation this way.

Can I delete the unzipped files after the driver install is finished?

[axur-delmeria]

Can I delete the unzipped files after the driver install is finished?

Yes.

[nightninja96]

Once card is mounted, grey antenna to left, optional white to middle, black to right.
Drivers from Atheros website.

Ok, I have the antennas mounted as you mentioned, but my reception seems to be awfully weak. My card says channel 1,2,and 3 where the lenovo one says main and aux, maybe this is the problem, I'm not sure, what is your 2 cents on this?

[Screamer]

The drivers may have been pre-configured to be geared more towards saving power, so it might be the transmit power that could have been set to the lowest or something that is very inadequate.

You can go to the device manager, right-click on the AR9380 and click properties. The advanced tab of the device window should give you the options required to set the power transmittance to your liking. Though, I wouldn't have a clue if such an option is still included in the newer drivers. I would set the power transmittance to the highest if I were you, just for the best reception.

[nightninja96]

Hmm... Interesting.

This is all I see: https://ibb.co/kPbvYz

Also, what driver version would you recommend?

[Screamer]

Uh-oh, it appears that the option is no longer there. Try setting the Dynamic MIMO Power Save option to something that does not relate to saving power instead, I don't think I can help you much on this if that does not work.

The driver version I would recommend is 10.0.0.336, which I believe it is the latest that supports your AR9380.

[nightninja96]

Ok, thanks for your help anyway! Does anyone else know what to do?

[nightninja96]

How about my aforementioned problem with the antennas?

[RealBlackStuff]

As said before, when AR9380 card is mounted:
- grey antenna to left (CH0), optional 3rd white to middle (CH1), black to right (CH2)

These wifi cards can have different connector names, from L-to-R:
CH0-CH1-CH2
1-3-2
TR1-R0-TR2

On 2-antenna cards they are also often called, from L-to-R:
MAIN-AUX
1-2

I have installed at least 50 of these cards, mostly in FrankenPads (T61 mobo in T60 chassis).
Majority with W7 64-bit, never a wifi problem.
Drivers from here: http://www.atherosdrivers.com/atheros-w ... 64bit.html

[nightninja96]

Thanks, it turned out to be a driver problem; I downloaded a driver from a Czech website recommended to me by another member and they were out-dated drivers. Thanks again for clearing things up!