How can I install an old wifi driver in Win 8?

[Mallomar]

I bought a Win 8 Lenovo G580 laptop recently, and it keeps dropping the wireless connection. Apparently this is a common problem -- the Lenovo forum has a 24-page thread about it -- and there's no one-size-fits-all solution.

One suggestion I read was to install a Win 7 driver for the Lenovo's Broadcom wireless card, but when I try, Win 8 keeps insisting that I have the latest driver and it's the correct one, and it won't install the older driver.

How can I beat Win 8 into submission and install the Win 7 driver? It may not do any good, but I've spent days trying various fixes for the connection problem and nothing else has worked. I'm not a technical person, so I'll need explicit instructions.

I need to resolve this within five days, or it'll be too late to return the laptop to the store where I bought it. I do like the laptop, but the connection problem (it drops the connection several times a day) is pretty much a deal-breaker for me.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions,

mallomar

 

[ViRGE]

"Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer" doesn't do the trick? If not, it may be due to a lack of a Windows 8 entry in the INF file, in which case I'm not sure there's a good workaround (since editing the INF file breaks the vendor signature).

 

[Mallomar]

Thanks for your response.

My bad -- I was doing it wrong. I finally navigated to the correct folder and got the driver installed. And I am cautiously optimistic. I've been running wirelessly for over 24 hours with no disconnects at all. I'll give it another couple days to make sure it's really fixed.