Yearly Router Updates

How to: Update your Router's Firmware once or twice a year for improvements, bugfixes and security patches.  Upgrades take about 5 minutes and on most devices, the process is semi-automatic.

See this article for how to update older Linksys Routers:  LinkSys WRT110 Firmware Upgrade.

Once or twice a year, you should peek at your routers to see if they need a BIOS or Firmware update.  I typically look once or twice per year and the newer the device, the more frequently I look.  After about three years, your vendor will likely have abandoned the device and looking for updates may not be worth the bother.

You may have one or two routers in your network, depending on how your wireless is setup.  A common scenario is a DSL or Cable Modem, connected to a secondary router.  For example, the first is a Cable or DSL modem, followed by a Wireless router, which connects all of the devices.  Illustrated below is a Century Link DSL router and a Linksys Wireless router.  In a simpler network, you may have a single Cable or DSL router, with your computer plugged directly into the router.




Updating Firmware - Prerequisites

You will need the following, for each device, in order to update firmware:

A.  The IP Address of each router (see below)


Finding IP Addresses: If you do not remember the IP Addresses of your devices, they are easy to find. 

From a DOS/Command Prompt, type this command:
tracert www.google.com

The command takes a minute to run.

The first one or two responses are your devices.  If you have a Wireless router, as illustrated above, this will be the first line, and your DSL/Cable Modem will be the second device.  If you only have one device, look at only the first-returned line.

For example, in my house, my Linksys Wireless is 192.168.100.1
My DSL modem is 192.168.0.1


B.  You will also need the administrative login/password for each device.  Typically, the login is  "admin" or "administrator", followed by a password you setup when the device was first installed.  You did write them down, didn't you?  (The administrative logins may be different than the password you use to authenticate to the wireless.) 

If you do not have the passwords, they are not recoverable and the network needs to be rebuilt.  See these articles:
Installing a Netgear ADSL Modem
Linksys EA2700 Router - First Time Setup

With the IP address and the Administrative account, you can begin the upgrade.


Upgrade Steps:

You must be in the local network to perform these steps, this cannot be run from a remote location.  You can update either the Cable Modem/DSL Router or the downstream wireless router, in either order.  This example demonstrates a Linksys EA2700 Wireless Router.

1.  From any browser, on a wired or wireless connection, open a browser.  Type the IP address you wish to update into the URL line.  For example, to connect to my Linksys Wireless router, type "192.168.100.1"

2.  At the login screen, type your administrative credentials (password). Often, on many devices, the user-id is blank and all you need is the password.

3.  In "Router Settings," Connectivity, click "Check for Updates".  Your router may be different.

If an update is found, it will take several minutes to download and install.  The process is automatic and your router may even to offer to do this automatically, as soon as you administratively login.

DSL/Cable Modem Updates

Your DSL/Cable Modem may also have an upgrade.  Follow these same steps, using the second IP address.   As a caution, my DSL modem warns that an update may force you to re-configure the device, although this has not happened.  Have your configuration settings handy, just incase.  See this related article: Installing a Netgear ADSL Modem


Keyliner related articles for first-time setups:
Installing a Netgear ADSL Modem
Linksys EA2700 Router - First Time Setup

Old routers upgrade steps:  Linksys WRT110 Firmware Upgrade.

Windows 7 Update Hangs and how to Fix

Problem:  Windows Update (Windows 7 Update) hangs.  Shows Downloading xx updates (0KB total, 0% complete).  Windows update hangs with 0% complete.

This article is obsolete.  Especially if Windows 10:
See this newer Keyliner Article:  Windows Update Hangs


Symptoms:

• Windows update hangs at the downloading step with no progress.
• Progress bar does not move
• Hangs, even if you wait a long time
• Likely, this is the first update that you have tried to run in a long time; perhaps an old image was restored.

Possible Solution:

1.  Confirm the machine is on the Internet.  Probably the easiest way to test is to launch Google and do a search on anything. Do not skip this check.  Confirm you can actually reach the net.

2.  Wait some period of time (~15 or 20 minutes), giving background processes time to download updates.  Be patient, even if no activity.

3.  Then click the Start Menu, Shutdown

If you see a "Shield" and "Install Updates then shutdown your computer", Windows needs to update the Windows Update program itself and I believe this does not show on the status bar.

4.  Gracefully shutdown and restart the computer.

When the machine begins to shut-down, you will see "Please do not power off or unplug your machine.  Installing update xx of yy.

5.  Re-open Windows Update and attempt again.

If there are no pending updates

Windows Update may appear to hang (showing 0% downloaded), but if you wait (again, 15 or 20 minutes), the update should begin, with percentage changes showing.  This is especially noticeable on large office Service Packs. Be patient.

Without pending updates, a simple reboot has helped in several instances.  I have noticed on some older-imaged machines, multiple reboots are required and after each reboot, Windows Update finds even more updates to apply.


If these steps fail:

Here are some technical items to use:

1.  Open and run the Microsoft Windows Update Troubleshooter

Link: 
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Open-the-Windows-Update-troubleshooter


2.  Restart the Windows Update Services and clear the Update Cache.  This is safe to do at any time.  Follow these steps:

Start a command prompt (DOS prompt) as administrator (other-mouse-click the Command Prompt icon, select Run As Administrator).  Type these commands to reset the Windows update services:

net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
net start wuauserv
net start bits
exit
(then Reboot the computer and attempt the Windows Update again)

3. Consider running the System File Checker if you think your machine was compromised by a virus. 

Start a command prompt (DOS Prompt) as administrator.  Type this command to run the Windows System File Check (which can repair damaged system files):

sfc /scannow
(Type exit, then Reboot the computer when done)

4.  Consider re-installing the Windows Update Agent.  I have not needed this, but here is the Microsoft link.  This is safe to do.:

http://support2.microsoft.com/kb/946928/en-us



Comments:
I see this problem particularly when the workstation has been off the network for a long time or if Windows Update is set to manual and has not run in a long time. 

For example, with a laptop, I restored an image from 2 years ago, after pulling the machine out of moth-balls.  I found Windows Update hung multiple times and required 7 different reboots, as it applied 1.7G of patches and was finally caught-up.

I have seen other articles on the Net, suggesting flushing cache, registry hacks, disk-repairs and scan disks.  So far, that all has been nonsense.  A quiet reboot after waiting has worked for me on several different machines. 

Solution: Excel YYYY-MM Dates show as 1905

Problem: Excel date formatting YYYY shows date as 1905.  YYYY-MM dates show as 1905.

Article re-arranged, showing the final solution(s) at the top.  Detailed explanations, below.  Revisited and tightened again on 2023.10.

Consider this sheet, where:

Cell A3 contains a real date:  10/22/2023 21:58 and is formatted as a Date.

Then build separate cells for YYYY and MM (consider these as a sub-date)
Cell B3 is =Year(A3)           = 2023
Cell C3 is = Month(A3)   = 10  (month 10)
 
Goal:  Display YYYY-MM  (2023-10)
Goal:  For a pivot report, or graph, where you want to show YYYY-MM, regardless of the day.
 

Click for Larger View.  Green is good.

Problem:  
Assembling a YYYY-MM from "intermediate dates" will always cause problems because these "sub-dates" are not "dates" -- they just happen to look like dates.

Importantly, look at Cell C12, which has a simple formula:

=B3   (where B3 points to the subdate "2023")
but displays as "7/15/1905" !!!


C12 was improperly assembled from a "sub-date," using a formula =B3 *and* it was formatted as a date.  Both are mistakes.  (By default, Excel sees C12 and, by extension =B3, as a "date" and formats both cells as Dates.)

Rule:  Do not use intermediate or sub-dates for any date-calculation or format.  Always point to a full-date cell.  If you try to assemble the constituent parts as "YYYY" + "MM", it will fail -- neither the "2023" or the "10" are dates and will display as 1905 in a date-formatted cell.  Reason below.

Solution: YYYY-MM as Text:

Cell C7 shows the proper way to build YYYY-MM:

• Assemble with concatenated =Text formulas, and always point to the "real date" in Cell A3.
  Do not point to a sub-date; do not point to intermediate cells, such as =Year()
   
• assemble YYYY-MM (in cell C7) using this concatenated text formula:
  
  =Text(A3,"YYYY") & "-" & Text(A3,"MM")
  
  where cell A3 is a "real" date
  (Gloriously, it does not matter how A3 is displayed or formatted).
   
• Format the YYYY-MM (cell C7) cell as either "general", "Date", or "Text";
  I favor "Text".  Since this is a "text" creature, it sorts and groups the way you want.
  

Less than good solutions:

a)  This formula correctly shows as YYYY-MM, but takes two intermediate cells (the Year, and Month cells).  I am not fond of this because of the extra cells and extra formulas.

=B3 & "-" & C3

b)  You could take the real dates and "format them" (with a custom formatting picture clause), forcing them to display as  "YYYY-MM"

This kind-of-works -- it "looks right" but will not group and sort correctly in a pivot.

=A3   (formatted with a custom date of "YYYY-MM")

Custom formattings may not show the day but they still remember their "days" and will sort as-such.  Usually, when "YYYY-MM-ing", you want all that month's records to be combined into one group.  Formatted dates are too granular, where each day (1-30) gets its own grouping in pivot tables or other control-break reports. 

c)  Assembling the date twice: This formula also works, where the cell is formatted as either Date or Text. 

=Year(A3) & "-" & Month(A3)

My complaint is under the hood.  Two simultaneous dates are being tracked, and both go through a date-format and conversion.  There are now three dates:  One in cell A3, and two in the formula's cell.  This is not as efficient as it could be. Why have all this overhead when your goal is probably a text-version anyway?

Solution: YYYY (only) as Text:

Usually, when you want a "YYYY" -- you want the text representation of the date and you want it to break away from its "date-ness".   Build the concatenated strings using the "real" date cell (regardless of how that cell is formatted or displayed):

• Point =Text() to real date  (Cell A3), never to a sub-date
  
• Do not point to intermediate cells, such as =Year()
• Generally, format the YYYY cell as "General" or better as "Text" (no need to be *as date*) 
  
• (As an aside, the original "real" date (A3) can be formatted in any way that you'd like)

Repeated:
For YYYY-MM, as illustrated cell C7,  C8

=Text(A3, "YYYY" ) & "-" & Text(A3, "MM")



Other Discussions:

Assembling from intermediate sub-dates could work, but it requires two intermediate cells and a more complicated formula. 

The dates could also be "compressed" into a common-day using this formula, shifting each date to the first of the month.  With drawbacks, these dates would pivot and sort correctly:

=Date(B3, C3, 1)   (on each date)   or
=Date(Year(A3, Month(A3), 1)

where
B3 is an intermediate cell, "YYYY"
C3 is the intermediate month cell "MM"
"1" is a hard-coded first day of the month  -- forcing all to day-one.

You still end up with a "dated" date, where the "day" (1-30, now all as "1") is still hiding there.

This assembles a new "real" date, converting all days, 1-30, to "1" -- which would make the "group" correctly, all grouped by the first of the month.  But this is extra work, usually requiring a whole new column because each date needs to be converted.  And you still have the problem of displaying as YYYY-MM, which means another stinky custom format.  I am not fond of this either.

Click for larger view

Why 1905?

Consider a valid date in A3
and its sub-dates, Year and Month, in cells B3 and C3:

 

 where:

• A3 is a real date (e.g. =now() or any other date).  The date must be a real date and not a text-string date.  It can be formatted with different date-styles.
   
• In cells B and C, the real date is sub-dated into the Year and Month, where:
  
  B3 displays Year using =Year(A3)
  C3 displays the Month, using =Month(A3)
   These may be useful, but not for the formulas in this article.  
  

Now build a formula in any blank cell. 
Format this cell as "Date" (not General, not Text)

=B3  (see cell C12)

Notice the result 1905.

Excel stores all dates as a sequence or serial number, which represents the number of days since (Jan-1  1900) or (Jan-1, 1905 (Macintosh))  See this Microsoft article.

The 'real' date 10/22/2023 has a serial number of "45221.95"  (to see the serial number, format the cell as "Number").

where 45,000 = 124 years since 1900 (roughly 365 * 124 with leap year considerations, etc.), and .95 represents the fractional part of the day - e.g. the time, where 95 is approaching 23:00 hrs.

When the year (YYYY) is the only part of the date calculation, years like 2012, 2021, 2023, etc., will always be 1905 because the serial number ('2023') is well below the current date's 45,000 number:

In other words, converting a cell to =Year(), with a result of "2014", tells the computer it is two-thousand fourteen days since 01-01-1900 -- which happens to be sometime in 1905.  I suppose in the future the year could shift to 1906, depending on an obscure base-date options and leap years.

Likewise a simple, =B3 + C3 
(2023 + 10) equals 2033
and in a date-formatted cell, it is still 1905.  "2033" is a light-year away from 45,000.


Your comments:
I would like to know if you quickly found your answer.  This is a popular article.  I would like to fine-tune it.  Leave a comment.

Other Keyliner Excel Articles:

How to use Excel VLookup
Return First Word, Last Word, SuperTrim
Parsing City State Zip
Writing your own User Defined Functions in Excel

How to Generate a QR Code

How to generate a QR Code

QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) allow a phone to scan a code and take them directly to a website, without having to type the URL address.  The code can store other types of text data, including coupons, contact information, phone numbers, etc. These act as a convenience for your users.

http://www.keyliner.blogspot.com

QR Codes only store textual information and most commonly take you to a webaddress, youtube video, or an email.  These codes only store text and as such, they cannot run programs or scripts - in other words, it is not executable.  But be aware that the site you arrive at may do its own tracking or run scripts -- but this is no different than arriving at any webpage.

To the right is a QR code generated free by kaywa.com and it takes you to this blog, keyliner.blogspot.com.  

To read the code, aim a phone-camera at the image and note the displayed address.  This can be scanned from a computer's monitor. 

Steps to Generate a Code:

I have used kaywa.com and VistaPrint (Business Card printing) to generate QR codes.  This document shows kaywa.com.  Although Kaywa now charges for some QR codes, follow these instructions for a no-cost option.  The no-cost option does not require registration or logging-in.

See the bottom of this article for other vendors. 

1.  Open a browser session to   qrcode.kaywa.com

Choose "URL" 
Chose the "Static" slider  (the free version)
Click the now-grey "Generate" button

2.  At the prompt, chose the small link, "I want to continue to work with a static QR code"

3.  The QR Code is generated.

Note: With the free version, Kaywa disabled the download option for the free static codes, but there are easy workarounds.

Right-click the image, chose "Save Image As"
Or screen-snip

Illustrated Save-As for "keyliner.com"

4.  Add a cosmetic text-link

The downloaded image does not contain a text version of the link.  

Use a photo-editor to add the text to the image (steps not shown here).  See the QR illustration at the top of this article for an example (e.g.  www.keyliner.com).  Although meaningless to the scanner, the text gives humans some confidence on the link they are about to scan. 


TEST

Use Windows Explorer and find the downloaded/saved image.

On a computer, double-click the file to preview.
Scan the image with your smartphone or tablet to confirm the address.

Now, reprint all of your business cards and marketing literature to include this code.

*If your portable device does not read bar-codes and QR Codes (rare), use the app-store to download a bar-code reading app.  Research carefully as nefarious stuff can happen with this type of app.

Mobile vs Desktop Sites:

If you are using a QR code to arrive at a URL, choose a URL designed for a mobile app, because likely only mobile devices will be scanning the code.

For example, arriving at http://www.keyliner.blogspot.com  (this blogging tool), it automatically routes to a mobile site -- thank you Google.  The same address, scanned from a larger tablet, arrives at the desktop site.  Your website may work differently.

Commercial Use:

For a monthly fee, Kaywa.com can generate something they call a "Dynamic" code. With this, the vendor can track your code, how often clicked, etc. and can re-direct the visitor to a different address of your choosing -- all without reprinting the code or marketing literature.  In other words, you could, in August, direct everyone to your August Sales campaign and then in September, change to a different address, with its own tracking. 

With their other commercial products, you can have the same QR route iphone users to a different site than an Android user - for example, you could route them directly to the App Store, depending on their device.

QR Code Differences:

I used VistaPrint (a business card and marketing printing company - keyliner reviewed) to build new business cards and noticed their generated QR Code was different.  I do not know why; it may be different versions of the QR standard or different error corrections.  Both go directly to my address and do not pass-through either of these companies.  Here are the two codes:

Article updated on 2023.10 with new screenshots and instructions.

Related links:
qrcode.kaywa.com (as described this article)
delivr.com/qr-code-generator Untested by keyliner
qurify.com/en Untested by keyliner
VistaPrint Business Cards

Wikipedia article on QR Codes
Structure
Layout

Build your own https: webserver using these keyliner steps.  This is what I did.
https://keyliner.blogspot.com/2023/09/install-raspberry-pi-webserver-step-by.html

Android Device Manager can locate a lost phone

How to: Android Device Manager can locate a lost phone and optionally can erase all data.  Updated 2014.07.

What to do if you lose your Android device?  Google provides a free service that works reasonably well, with some restrictions.

If lost, use this process before the device's battery gives out.  You should experiment with this once, prior to losing your phone to make sure everything works as expected. 

If you know the phone or tablet was stolen, you can use this service to wipe the device, provided you prepared for this ahead of time.


 Find the Device

1.  On your Android device, open Settings, Locations.  Enable "Google Location Services"  (This service is required and must be enabled prior to losing your phone.)

2.  Launch Android Device Manager by opening

http:\\android.com/devicemanager

3.  Login with your normal google/gmail account.
(This account is a given; you had to have an account in order to setup your phone on the Android App Store.)

Note: If you use Google's two-stage authentication (see this keyliner article: hack-proof Gmail), a second authentication code will be sent to your lost phone, which will not help you.  Use the emergency access codes when two-factor authentication was setup. 

4.  Once logged in, the map shows the approximate location of your phone.  If you own multiple devices, select your device from the pull-down menu.  The device must be on in order to calculate a location.

The webpage may prompt "Remotely Access this device?"  This can be enabled from the web-page without physical control of the phone -- but you must have Location Services enabled (step 1) prior to this test.

5.  Presuming you have already called the phone to see if a good Samaritan answered, click "Ring" and the phone will ring at its loudest volume for 5 minutes, regardless of the current volume setting.

With the indicated location, drive there and wrestle the phone from the person who found it.


Accuracy:

The service actually sends a message to the device and that means it must be connected to either the cellular or on a wireless Internet.  If both are turned off, or the phone is powered off (dead battery), you will not be able to locate the device.  Prior locations are not cached.

Accuracy with a wireless network appears to be about 25 meters (roughly the range of a wireless antenna).  If the phone is only on cellular, accuracy falls off to within 2000 meters (at least in my testing).  It did not appear to triangulate off multiple cell towers (in my area, there is only one near-by tower). 

Naturally, for my Nexus 7 tablet, wireless is the only option -- and if it is turned off, you will not be able to locate the device.

Finally, at my office, location requests are apparently blocked by the internal routers and no location data was available for any of my devices while in that building.  I have not thoroughly tested this issue. 


Wipe the Device

To remotely wipe the device, you must enable the feature and you must have physical access to the device prior to losing it.  In other words, do this now; there is no harm.

A.  From the device, open the All Apps menu (showing all applications installed). 
Open the "Google Settings" program; on newer Androids, this icon is grey.

B.  Choose either "Android Device Manager" (on older devices) or "Security"

C. Select "Allow remote factory reset"

D.  After wiping the phone, contact your phone carrier and have them disable the device from their end.


Missing Features

While all of the features on Android's Device Manager are well-and-good, there are some things this program should be able to do, but does not.

• You should be able to set a keypad-lock on the login screen (you don't already have that set?), or change the current keypad lock number.  [Update: Starting 2013.09, Google now allows you to set or change a PIN, even if one was not set previously.  However, in order to use this feature, you must enable the "Allow Factory Reset", as described above. 
  
  This brings up an interesting idea.  You could disable the keypad/pin unlock on your phone, making the phone easier to use on a day-to-day basis and then, once the phone is lost, you can dial-in and setup a PIN as-needed.  But keep in mind, you can only do this if the phone is turned on and you are watching on these screens, making this a risky option.
   
• You should be able to take two photos, one with the front-facing and another with the rear-facing camera, and have them sent to your email address the next time the phone turns on.
   
• If the device is turned off, you can't issue a request to find its location the next time it turns on.  You have to be in the Device Manager website in real-time. 

Other things to do:

These suggestions are not part of the Android Device Manager, but should be done regardless.  Take steps to secure your phone and give honest people the ability to return the device, even if the battery is dead.  Here are my suggestions.

As big of a pain as this is, turn on the device's keypad lock screen and enter a key-code each time you turn on the phone.  Use at least a 5 digit pin.  Also, set the keypad timeout delay to 15 minutes, which makes this feature more tolerable. (Update:  I have recently turned on facial recognition and it has worked well.)

Without an unlock code, anyone with your phone has unfettered rights to your email, documents and the address book.  For example, on my phone, they could adjust the thermostat in my house, edit this blog, order movies on Netflix, change my newspaper subscription and buy movies and music.  In other words, pranksters would have a good time. 

If you have an older phone, open the battery compartment and leave a note telling them an alternate number they can call.  Obviously, do not use your own phone number.

On my smart phone, I used one of these slick label printers and printed an alternate number on the back of the phone.  I bought a black-text on clear background label so it looks professional.  This has actually helped to recover one of my lost phones. 

If your device allows, add a message to the lock screen, "Call if found".


Keywords: 
Find lost phone location services

Related:
hack-proof Gmail,

Solution - Website Security Certificate Problem

Problem - There is a problem with this website's security certificate.  The security certificate presented by this website has expired or is not yet valid.  Certificate Error: Navigation Blocked

Likely Solution:
If numerous, disparate sites are displaying this error, the Date Time on the computer is likely incorrect.  In Windows, click the System Tray's Time (lower-right corner) and confirm the date. 

If the date was way off, the hardware's BIOS date and time is wrong.  Correcting the time above will reset it, but if it continues to fail, the motherboard's BIOS battery may be dying and may need to be replaced.  This is likely an issue only on older computers.


Date Time is Correct - Problem only with one site:

If the Certificate Error only occurs on a single site, consider the following:

1.  In Internet Explorer (or other browsers), click "Continue to this website (not recommended)"
2.  Click the Certificate Error to open the information window.
3.  Click View the Certificate. 

Examine the cert to see if it is reasonable -- does it belong to the site you are attempting to view.  If yes, click "Verify", "Accept" or "Install" the certificate, depending on your browser.  It could be a legitimate site has let its SSL certificate expire.

If not, you should be suspicious.  If this is an untrustworthy site, or a site you are not familiar with, you should not proceed to the site because something nefarious is going on.

Windows 8.1 Fix for Slow Shutdown and Restart

After Windows 8.1 upgrade, PC is slow to shut down and slow to restart.  The PC is slow to wake from sleep.  PC will not wake from sleep.  The solution is sloppy, but works.  Updated 2015.06.

* Update:  2014.02.11 This article solves the slow-restart issue in Windows 8.1, but introduced a new problem where the machine does not wake from sleep.  Read below for details.

Symptoms:

• Even on a fast i7 machine, shut-down and restart times are long - taking approximately 3 to 4 minutes.  Some readers have reported as long as 6 and 7 minutes.
   
•  The PC may not wake from sleep.
 

• You have a Qualcomm Atheros 802.11 b/g/n 2.4Ghz WIFI and Bluetooth adapter or a Dell-branded 1703 Bluetooth and Wireless card.
   
• The machine can be a desktop or laptop

For this document, this problem was seen and resolved on a Dell XPS8700, but has been reported on other platforms and brands.  The issue is with the Bluetooth Wireless card.  On the Dell, it is the Dell-branded 1703 Bluetooth and Wireless card, but this is really a Qualcomm Atheros WIFI adapter and this appears to be the main problem. There is a secondary problem reported with the Intel Management Engine on Intel-branded motherboards. 

Solution 1: Update drivers
Solution 2: Update Intel Management Engine
Solution 3: Disable Bluetooth until a patched driver is released

Author's Note:  It is difficult to decide whether to blame Dell or not.  The XPS 8700 did not ship with Windows 8.1 and I can't blame Dell for not directly solving this problem.  On the other hand, as of this writing, 8.1 had been out for 6 months, and the machine should have shipped with the new OS by now.  Having a Dell-branded wireless card always gives me reason to pause; I'd bet a name-brand card would work without issue.

Solution 1:  Update Drivers:


Do Solution 1 and Solution2
If you still have troubles, consider Solution 3, which I initially used to solve this problems. 

Dell 1703 Wireless Drivers
Update: As of 2015.06
Version 10.0.0.301,A01  2014.12.29
http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER02746931M/1/XPS-8700_Network_Driver_K19V9_WN32_10.0.0.301_A01.EXE

Formerly:
Version 10.0.0.263,A00  2013.10.08
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails?driverID=YX1X0



This driver should work on both Dell and non-Dell machines, with this same Qualcomm Atheros card. 


When installing this driver, the status bar reaches 100%, and on my machine, the installation hung (especially if you chose the "repair" option).  Be patient for several minutes; there is no hourglass or other activity.  When you get bored, minimize all windows, looking for a reboot message.

If you can't find the message, do this:  On the Charm menu, select Settings, Power, Restart.  After a moment, the Restart will complain because a setup is still active.  Cancel the restart.  You should then see an installation message: "Setup was configured not to reboot..."; click Ok.  Then reboot manually.  This is sloppy work by Dell.  It gets even sloppier.


The first restart will be slow and will crash, offering to send diagnostics to Microsoft.  On restart, allow it to send the diagnostics, giving Dell and Qualcomm a reason to fix their horrible installation.  Once you restart, all should be well.

Confirm the driver version by opening Control Panel, Device Manager, Network, and checking the driver version.

Issue:
After applying this driver, I now see a problem where the PC will not wake from a deep sleep (say after 12 hours of no activity).  Oddly, it would wake from a sleep after (3 hours).  While in deep sleep, noted the powersupply-fan was active, CD Drive would open close, but no activity on the monitor -- indicating the PC is not really in a sleep or hibernation.  But you could not PING the machine's IP Address.  Ideally, it would be neat to remote-control the PC to see if it were really active, but without an active Network connection, I cannot do this.

All of this points to a weirdity with the network card.

To narrow the problem down, I did the following: In Device Manager, disabled the Dell 1703 Ethernet card, and Bluetooth features (disabling 4 separate devices).  Plugged the PC into a Wired connection.  After two days of testing, the PC wakes from sleep properly.  Something is wrong with the Dell/Qualcomm Wireless card. 

I could disable the power-save features on the network card, but this is non-standard and defeats the purpose of the power-saving modules and would probably mask the real problem.

Although this won't help any readers, the next test is to replace the wireless card with an Intel-branded wireless and test again.  I suspect this will work fine.




Solution 2: Slow Shutdown Times  (Intel Motherboards only)

In my testing, slower shutdown times have been partially traced to the Intel's "ME Management Engine driver for Intel NUC".  The Qualcomm wireless card driver made the most difference, but I also saw improvement here.  This step alone will not fix the slow reboot times. 

This is a good step to perform, regardless of the slowness issue.

Diagnostics:
Open the Control Panel, "Programs and Features".
Locate and highlight Intel Management Engine.
Note the version number.  You need to be at version 9.5.15.1730 (date 2013/10/24) or newer.  My version was 9.0.13.1402.  Intel often changes this software so expect newer version numbers than what is published here.

Upgrading Intel Management Engine:

Intel makes finding their software challenging unless you happen to know the exact name you are looking for.  As of 2014.02, follow these steps:

1.  Browse to www.intel.com.  From top menu, choose Support, choose "Download Center"


2.  In the Search Downloads box, middle of the screen, type "Intel Management Engine"

3.  Narrow the search by Operating System only (Windows 8.1 64-bit); do not filter by Desktop or Software Products or you will get lost.  The screen used to look like this, but has now changed

4.  In the results, look for

"Intel ME 10: Managemetn Engine Driver for Intel NUC

As of 2015.06:
Version 10.0.38.1036
Date: 1/21/2015

"Intel (R) ME 9: Management Engine Driver for Intel(R) NUC" 
version 9.5.15.1730 or newer.

You will likely find two possible hits.  Without knowing the model of your mother board, guess at which one to download.  (If the downloaded version will not install - it won't install on the wrong hardware - then try the other).  As of this date, the download is a Zip file. 

5.  In Windows Explorer, create a temporary folder/directory (any location), name it any name, such as "IntelDriver".

6.  Locate the downloaded ZIP file.  Double-click to open.  Highlight all files, all folders, copy.  Paste the copy in the newly built Temp folder  (here is where you wished Intel would distribute installable .exe)'s.   Do not run the install from within the .ZIP.

7.  In the Temp folder, double-click "Setup.exe" and allow the program to install.  The install will take about a minute and a reboot is likely.  In Control Panel, Programs and Features, confirm the version number.  Delete the Temp folder.


Partially Related - Intel ME FW Recovery Agent:

Intel also installs the Intel Management Engine Firmware Recovery Agent (see Programs and Features).  This is a background process that checks Intel for updates and automatically updates regardless of what your OEM does (Dell, HP, etc.). 

In general, I distrust auto-updates for hardware.  After a short while, vendors get tired of updating hardware drivers and then, years later, you still have this process running and occupying resources when there will probably never be another change.  In the system tray, launch the oddly-named "Firmware Recovery Agent" and let it check one time.  Then, in the Settings link within the program, you can disable automatic checks, if desired.  Manually checking for updates with the search-steps above may be adequate for many.

Results:
The machine should boot, shutdown and wake from sleep at lightning speeds. 


Solution 3:  / Workaround:

Note:  This solution, while solving the immediate problem of slow shutdowns and restarts (before I found a newer driver), I have since discovered a new problem:  The PC is not waking from sleep.  This workaround originally solved the problem, with much faster shutdown and restart times, but later discovered the machine would not wake from sleep.

Steps, now in some doubt, but might be worth exploring:

1.  Disable the Bluetooth feature on the wireless card until Qualcomm releases a fixed driver (as of 2014.02.02 - version 6.3.9600.16384 this has not been fixed).  The Wireless card handles both Ethernet and Bluetooth traffic.  With this workaround, the WIFI remains enabled, while disabling Bluetooth fixes this problem with obvious consequences.

Steps to Disable the Bluetooth:

a.  Login to Windows 8.1 with an administrative account (likely, you are already logged in as a local admin).

b.  Open Control Panel, choose "Device Manager"

c.  In Network Adapters, locate:

Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI)

Highlight each choice, other-mouse-click and choose "Disable";  do not uninstall.

d.  Scroll to, and expand, "System Devices". Disable Bluetooth in a third location:

Locate "Qualcomm Atheros Bluetooth Bus"
Other-mouse-click and choose "Disable"; do not uninstall

e.  Close Device Manager.  Gracefully reboot the workstation.
Once back online, reboot a second time for the final test.  Restart times should be *much* faster.


Related links:
 
Qualcomm Drivers - This page will not be useful, but is documented here, anyway.  Drivers are .Rar and I cannot tell which driver I should be downloading and cannot tell by product description.