Alienware M17-R1 wireless upgrade problem

I am trying to upgrade my wireless card in my Alienware Area 51 M17-R1 laptop (NOT the M17x, this is from before Dell took over Alienware). It has an Intel 5300 wireless card in it, model 533AN_MMW. This card works fine. With this card in, I can see one of my wireless networks that the SSID is showing (2.4ghz 802.11g), and can connect to the other three that are hidden (1x 2.4ghx 802.11g, and 2x 5ghz 802.11n). I can also see several of my neighbor's networks that are secured, but SSID showing.

I am trying to put an Intel 7260-ac card in it, model 7260HMW. I downloaded the latest drivers and then installed the hardware and then installed the drivers and associated Intel software. After booting, I got repeated errors with unable to connect or manually create wireless connections. After doing some research, I found that some antivirus programs cause issues. I am running ZoneAlarm and that is one of the antivirus programs specifically mentioned. I uninstalled ZoneAlarm, rebooted, uninstalled the Intel drivers and card, rebooted, re-installed the Intel drivers, and rebooted again. The device manager is now properly showing the card, and I can manually create connections without a problem. The problem is that the card cannot find any wireless connections. I have verified that all wires are plugged in correctly.

The Intel software says the hardware radio switch is off. On my laptop, function F2 toggles the wireless. I have tried this and it will not turn on the wireless LED. There is not a physical wireless switch on this laptop. The BIOS has the WLAN set to on (choices are on, off, or resume). I can put the 5300 card back in and the function F2 will toggle the wireless LED.

Is this a wireless card problem? or an Alienware problem? Is there something I am forgetting? is there a way to get this card to work?

 

To help troubleshot I would grab a distro of lunix, MINT being preferred, and boot that off the live CD. From there see how the card behaves. This way you will know if it's hardware or software. MINT should have your drivers but if not you may need to plug in with ethernet, download the correct linux driver for your card by using the built-in update if it has it or from the web, and then try the card again.