t440s new WLAN driver fails

[liblit]

I have the Intel Wireless AC-7260 card.
I keep hoping the powers that be will eventually come out with a driver that doesn't shut itself down spontaneously in the middle of a work session.
The newest driver (17.12.0) seems to be a step in the wrong direction. It shuts itself down every time the machine goes into sleep mode.
I've rolled back to previous version (16.xx). Is there some setting I need for the new driver? Does it really offer any advantage or am I better off sticking with the older version?

T440s
Win 8.1