E6500, Windows 8 64-bit and 5300 Wifi Card

I re-installed my Latitude E6500 a few weeks ago with Windows 8 64-bit, and all had been running fine up until last Tuesday.

When I booted it up to start work, it couldn't find the Wifi card - not connection, the card itself didn't appear in device manager. After connecting via Ethernet, and then trying lots of things, the 5th or 6th reboot found the card, and I could get a connection.

I tried updating the drivers from the Dell site, but when I tried to run R277776, I got a message stating that "Intel PROSet/Wireless" has compatability issues.

I moved on, but today the WiFi card (Intel WiFi Link 5300 AGN) was once again missing from the device manager screen. Strangely, 5 or 6 reboots once again found it and I am using it successfully - at the moment..

So, questions are:

1) Is the WiFi Link 5300 AGN card incompatible with Windows 8 64-bit?
2) Any ideas on the PROSet/Wireless program being incompatible - maybe the same issue?
3) Has anyone fitted the 6300 half-height WiFi card from Intel to an E6500 as a replacement, or what other option would be good to replace it, assuming that the 5300 is, indeed, having problems with Win 8 64-bit?

Thanks

 

I have a 5300 on a Thinkpad X200 that worked perfectly on a clean install of Windows 8 Pro x64. I did not have to install any drivers or the Intel ProSet package either.
I just used the native Windows WiFi settings and connects to networks on either band. (2.4 and 5 GHz)

Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk 2