Question

iMac 12,1 (mid 2011) – Wi-Fi module becomes slow and unstable after sleep on Windows 10 – fix

Through trial and error, I discovered that official drivers offered by Apple (as part of all-in-one driver packages), Microsoft (through Windows Update), and old vendor drivers by Acer, Asus and MSI do demonstrate this issue.

However, there are several known drivers produced by Honeywell, produced as late as 2019. At the time of writing, these driver packages are only available on the third-party resources.

• Package v10.1.7.4 for Windows 7 (web.archive.org) (the package is also compatible with Windows 10 through compatibility settings)
• Package v10.1.10.5 for Windows 10 (web.archive.org)

Personally, I found Package v10.1.7.4 for Windows 7 to be very stable on Windows 10, while Package v10.1.10.5 for Windows 10 is newer and seems to offer better Honeywell WCU debugging capabilities.

Installation steps

1. Unzip the .zip file (for example, using 7-zip)

2. [Only if package is not intended for your OS] In the extracted folder, right-click on Setup.exe and apply compatibility settings: access “Compatibility” → Run this program in compatibility mode for: “Windows 7” (e.g., for Package v10.1.7.4). You may refer to the screenshot

3. In the extracted folder, run Setup.exe, and follow the installation steps. This will install Honeywell Wireless Configuration Utilities (WCU) alongside Honeywell wireless drivers compatible iMac 12,1

   Note: it should be possible to install these drivers using raw .inf files, too. Honeywell WCU utilities seem to enable wireless debugging, which may come in handy.

4. (Optional) Run devmgmt.msc. Access “Network adapters” → “Qualcomm Atheros AR938x Wireless Network Adapter”. Select “Driver” tab and observe updated drivers. You should see driver information similar to that in the screenshots below,

   ackage v10.1.7.4 for Windows 7 |	Package v10.1.10.5 for Windows 10

At this point, the the Wi-Fi issues are rectified.