Good post Daffy
This may be the root of the problem...BUT... I have two WiFi routers at home and I can say CTS is set to auto on both (there is no on/disable just auto/disable. The new drivers drop out unless I drop my laptop down to G only. So the new drivers are not fully fixing the issue. Secondly the WiFi router in work is probably set as you say to disable but that's not my router so I can't change that and so the wifi fails completely there. Good point here is this seems not be a hardware issue. It is a software issue as most of us here all suspect. I am not sure there is a setting on Windows 8 to force it to disable on the client side... I suspect not.
Problem is Intel really don't have a clue... otherwise we'd have a working driver by now. I've said this before - how hard can a well known technology like wifi be to make work. Argument is it's harder to make it not work than work given the widespread nature of wifi. This should be child's play! Chances are the coders are in Belgrade or Grosny (cause their the cheapest coders on the planet) and we're all here in englishville and so they don't appreciate the issue and we don't get a fix. It's a perfect storm! Or maybe its a party at a brewery where everyone should be getting drunk given intel organised the party, but nobody seems to be getting drunk.
Joe@intel...maybe your drivers are hitting the problem above and forcing the syslog error so far reported on windows??? Also Joe... Since these latest drivers still fail to hit the spot... has Intel given up on this issue once and for all?
What I'm surprised of is my local IT retailer still sells these cards. Some poor sap is going to spend weeks finding out the drivers are lame, as we have.
Anyhow thanks Daffy... The issue you've uncovered moves Intel a step closer to understanding and that has to be a good thing, right? Just need to translate these 52 pages of notes to Serbian or Chechen for the intel-code-munchkins to cut some code and throw it back over the fence.
C-
P.S. must say I feel for you, Joe... the back office is really letting you down, man.