Intel 7260 suddenly slowed down connection after 1+ year of fine operation on 16.04

[S. Cornelissen]

Regarding: checking the wireless card connections. I have checked, they look ok. I have not been able to completely reseat it, because one of the screws of my laptop casing did not come off properly. I will try that after removing that screw entirely. I am not sure whether that will work though: when I had a similar problem a few years back (see my earlier replies in this thread) it did not work. But I will try when I remove the screw.

I have been able to open the laptop, so I checked and re-seated my wireless card. It unfortunately gave no improvement. Connection is still very poor, while other devices can connect to the same routers without problems. While checking the card I saw no defects in the card, the antenna cables and connections. So there is no clear indication for hardware failure there.

This means I am out of options again. Any new suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[S. Cornelissen]

Update: repair shop opened up the laptop. Conclusion: an antenna wire in the screen bezel is broken. So nothing to do with Ubuntu, purely hardware failure. Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions!