Function Key not working, how to turn on wifi on Windows 7

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Here are two posts where folks have stated the 3168 AC wifi card works on W7.

One says sp79134 worked for this model...see the next to the last post.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/I-need-graphics-driver-for-HP-...

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp79001-79500/sp79134.exe

This person stated the latest W7 driver from Intel works for his 255 G6 (AMD)...see the next to the last post.

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/drivers-for-HP-255-G6-1WY47EA/t...

[Ian50]

Thanks for persisting, looking out for this, Paul. Much appreciated.

As we know, the actual 3168 AC wifi card *driver* is not the issue. It's activating the F12/airplane key to turn the power on for the card.

[HP250 Celeron G6 machine, running Win7 Pro x64 after installing Win7 in place of Win10]

1) The newer Win20.70.0 PROset driver does not do anything for the power issue

2) the file sp79134.exe will not fully download from the ftp site you've listed. About 50% of the file downloads then stops as if finished. The file is corrupted, of course, and won't install at all.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

I don't know how these two folks are claiming the card works on their notebooks with W7, then.

I had no problem downloading the entire sp79134 file.

File size indicated 114 MB, and that is what downloaded (actual file size after downloading is 117 MB).

You might want to try it again.  Maybe the FTP site was flaky when you tried downloading the file.

[Ian50]

Paul

Sorry for the delay in replying - a work project turned critical.

I've downloaded sp79134 from the ftp site now. It is for Win10 only, so useless for Win 7.

As I'd noted, the upgraded WiFi PROSet driver 20.70.0 does not address the F12 airplane key power issue.

I think the two people who said they had solved this issue likely were referring to a Win10 installation ?

I greatly appreciate your continued interest in this.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Interesting.

Both of those guys stated they installed W7.

Maybe they gave up and installed W10, and didn't tell me that.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

OK, guys...we are getting warmer...

I don't know if you want to go through the hassle of taking the notebook apart and masking pins, but check out this thread.

Masking pins on the wifi card worked for the RTL8723DE wifi card which does the same thing as the Intel one.   Drivers install but the card doesn't work...

See the next to the last post...

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Wireless-and-Networking/wireless-button-radio-driver/m-p/6821...

[abhi08404]

so do we have any solution for this problem or not. i have tried everything on this forum(except masking pins)  bt nothing works at all.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

There is no solution at this time.

Nobody has tried masking the pins yet on the 3168 AC, so even that is uncertain.

[Berformet]

Unsure if this was answered yet but I just solved my issue with this, hold down the windows key and press x to open up a menu for the function options. Sorted out my wireless issue from there. 

[JamesSydney]

Masking is working!!! As you can see in the photo, I masked two pins. After masking, wifi came up and also bluetooth