The latest Intel Wi-Fi drivers caused big problems on Windows 11 by leading to blue screens of death (BSOD). The company has identified the bug and released a new version which should fix it.
A particularly annoying bug had been affecting computers running Windows 11 for some time, and for once, Microsoft was not to blame, the problem coming from a driver from the manufacturer Intel. This bug could lead to the total interruption of the system, with the appearance of the famous “blue screen of death”, or BSOD For Blue Screen Of Death in English, so dreaded by Windows users. The source of the malfunction was in the driver of the Wi-Fi adapter, the hardware component responsible for managing the computer’s wireless communications. Intel, well known for its processors, is also a very large manufacturer of chips dedicated to network functions, and its Wi-Fi adapters equip a large majority of computers, laptops in particular. Like any hardware component, the Wi-Fi adapter is controlled by special software, called a driver, which can misfire leading to bugs and computer malfunctions. In this case, it was recent versions of the driver for Intel Wi-Fi adapters that seemed to be problematic and caused the computer to shut down with a blue screen of death.
Intel Wi-Fi Driver: Version 23.30.0 Fixes BSOD Issue on Windows 11
Spotted by the English-speaking Windows Latest site, a new version of the driver has fortunately been published by Intel, and should resolve this problem which has already been going on for some time. In addition to fixing this bug, version 23.30.0 of the Intel Wi-Fi adapter drivers, which you can view full release note here, brings some improvements in terms of performance and stability, for example concerning energy management and network latency. New driver versions are normally distributed and installed automatically through Windows Update Manager, if your system detects that they are necessary for your hardware, and therefore you do not need to intervene manually. However, you can proceed with the manual installation of this driver using Intel’s dedicated utility, the Driver and Support Assistant tool, which you can download on this page.
Even if your PC is equipped with an AMD processor, chances are your “network card” is an Intel model. To check it and know the driver version currently installed on your computer, open it device Manager from Windows, through the Control Panel or by right-clicking on the menu icon Startedrthen expand the category Network cards by clicking on it. If you find a line with the name “Intel”, double-click on it, go to the tab Drivers and look at the number displayed on the line Driver version.
If the driver version number is lower than 23.30.0, as is the case in the screenshot above, you may benefit from the improvements provided by Intel driver version 23.30.0. However, note again that driver updates are normally handled automatically by Windows when they are needed and unless you have been experiencing the blue screen of death problem for months, it is probably no longer wise to wait for the update to be applied via Windows Update rather than doing it manually with Intel’s Driver and Support Assistant tool.