Thinkpads Forum

I am having major wireless connectivity issues on my home network (DSL via Linksys WRT54G). I have uninstalled and re-installed both network adapters (wireless and ethernet) and Access Connections. Usually the system comes back alive after that. Today, I've got nothing and am typing this via a wired connection into the rear of the router.

I can test the wireless connection on our T43 and everything appears normal, no connectivity issues whatsoever.

On my T30, when I tell it to find all wireless networks in range, it comes back and says nothing found. It should be finding my network and 2 - 3 other systems in the neighborhood. The wireless radio control finds nothing this evening...completely dead. Is there some way to uninstall the Cisco wireless radio control or is it part of the Cisco PCI Wireless Lan adapter?

I am beginning to wonder if I am having a hardware issue as this machine is 5 yrs. old or so.

Thanks for any suggestions.

What OS are you running? Did you check device manager to see if any yellow for the wireless, check event viewer for errors, maybe reseat the card and make sure the antennea has not come disconnected from the card. Are you using windows to configure or AC.

thanks for the reply, I run WIN XP.

My wireless is integrated in the machine, I have no separate card.

I use AC to establish all connections. I've never used the Windows connectivity program.

Everything is kosher in Device Mangler - - no yellow warning signals.

There is a wireless pci card in the machine, if you turn it over and remove the little cover you'll see the card with the two tiny wires attached to it, i'd reseat the card and make sure the antenna connections have not come loose.

OK, I'll have a look. I've since had it working again for 2 or 3 minutes, but it's dead again now.

Thanks.

I've taken the card out and re-seated it. It didn't seem to be loose...who knows. The two antenna leads, marked MAIN and AUX, appeared to be fine.

Is it possible to replace that wireless AIRONET card? I wonder if parts are still available...

I am typing this from wireless. I can see there's still an issue as the wireless signal strenght is still flucatuating between 50 and 95%.

Yes, I had the intel 2200bg in mine and it worked great for me for a while till I passed the t30 on to my girlfriend a couple of weeks ago.
Easy replacement too.

Time will tell; perhaps it was the card.

I am now doing a search for all available networks and it's picking up one I've never seen before. Still have connectivity 10 minutes later...it's a good sign.

the wireless section died shortly after my previous post last night. Completely dead this morning.

Is there any way to test the card to see if that's the issue? I ran a test on the "PCI" last night thru PC- Dr. That didn't show any issues.

I am a bit reluctant to declare the wireless card at fault. Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

If you have another hard drive stick it in and restore your machine to factory, this would eliminate any software issues.

You could try removing the card, removing the drivers, reinstall the card and reinstall the drivers. Also check the obvious stuff again, device management, event viewer, run PC Doc for DOS if you have it.

My feeling is the card has been slowly going out on you causing these problems, it is just a little circuit board and they do go bad intermittantly.

Kyocera wrote:If you have another hard drive stick it in and restore your machine to factory, this would eliminate any software issues.

You could try removing the card, removing the drivers, reinstall the card and reinstall the drivers. Also check the obvious stuff again, device management, event viewer, run PC Doc for DOS if you have it.

My feeling is the card has been slowly going out on you causing these problems, it is just a little circuit board and they do go bad intermittantly.

No extra hard drives available.

Yeah, I suspect the card has been on its way out over the past week or so. I've been having some really odd issues with disconnects.

I did run PC Dr. (DOS) last night...it doesn't show any problems.

I've got a couple of Linksys wireless cards (PCMCIA) that I guess I can attempt to get running as an interim solution.

Well, good luck uberT, and please report back what you find out

I've re-installed Aironet Client Utility. It says:

Thursday December 07 2006 10:48:17
Start test

`The radio's registry keys are OK.
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\PCX504.SYS File Size: 119296
The radio driver has been installed.

TEST 2:
The second step is to check the radio insertion.
The radio has been inserted.

TEST 3:
The third step is to check if the radio is turned on.
Your radio is turned on.

Current Active Profile Name: IBMACCESSCONNECTION

Auto Profile Selection is not enabled.

TEST 4:
The fourth step is to check your client adapter's association to an access point.
---------->Association Status: No receive packets

Checking driver/firmware capabilities
---------->The driver/firmware capabilities are OK

Checking the received radio signal
PROBLEM: Unable to receive messages from your access point.


---------->Network Type is Infrastructure
POSSIBLE REPAIR: Try moving closer to the access point.

Can you still not see any access points anywhere?

I should be able to six 6 access points here at work. It doesn't find anything.

I wonder if the lead wires to the antenna in the LCD panel could be broken?

Yeah, that is definately a possibility, the Hardware Manual may help you find a way to check that out. I never really had to mess with mine at all other than just installing the card.

I still suspect the card. I now see quite a few posts about it being a "problematic" area.

Would an antenna failure be consider commonplace?

I assume I can't purchase a Cisco PCI (MPI350) off eBay, for example, because of incompatibilities.

I suspect I'll have to buy the exact IBM P/N 26P8435, right?

Thx.

I really couldn't say if the antenna would be considered a problematic area. From being a member of this forum for a couple of years now i've not seen a lot of post's on antenna issues, and from owning my own thinkpads with built in wireless antennas I have not had problems, but that is the thing though it is still a possibility however non-problematic it may be in general. So I wouldn't rule it out. I've seen where PC doc will report different results also so I can't say that would be a real definitive way of troubleshooting, only another troubleshooting possibility.

I had a t30 and purchased the intel card for around $20 US so sometimes it is easier just to throw parts at something rather than pull out hairs in our heads to figure the exact cause. Putting in another card would rule out that possibility then you could move on to the antenna issue pci card slot issue, etc.

I've got someone offering me a MPI350 card from a DELL. It appears physically identical. I am wondering how much trouble I will have getting it to work (firmware, etc??) on my T30? Should I throw $25 at it?

Thanks again. I appreciate the help.

That I don't know..... probably have to get the part number and maybe check the lenovo site for a cross reference on that one.

Just googled "mp1350 wireless card for thinkpad" and it looks like that will work.

Part number is the same...I was concerned about firmware, etc.

I've got this Linksys PCMCIA card installed. While the Windows networking setup is crude, the card works as well if not better than the built-in wireless on this machine

uberT,

The T30 I write to you on was built without internal WAN.

Bought used Cisco airnet 350 mini PCI card pulled from dell and used antenna system for this unit. Total cost with shipping: of 31.50 USD and all purchased from E-Bay.

I doubt its the antenna system. Pretty well designed through sides of screen frame.

Seen many mini pci cards go bad. I aggree from a previous responce that it is time to start throughing parts at your unit.

thanks for your comments. Sounds like you got a great deal!

My replacement card arrives tomorrow. I'll report back one way or the other.

uber.

What flavor card did you purchase?

I had a better version of Access Connections loaded before upgrading the Hard Drive and now I can't find it ever since Lenovo took over. What version of AC are you running?

here's the offerender, I hope:

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/2413/img0180hr5.jpg

I got an identical Cisco MPI350 card from a Dell. I hope it's nothing more than PnP - - I've got a ton of time invested in this little escapade...troubleshooting and re-installing things that were working fine.

Beech200 wrote: What version of AC are you running?

I have been successfully running v4.21 for a few weeks. It's the 1st version of AC since 3.82 that I've been able to run on my T30. I was having all sorts of conflicts with Photoshop and ended up re-installing 3.82.

Software Installer sez I have versions 3.71, 3.81, 3.82 and 4.21.

Running access connections version 4.12 here. I have had a strange ongoing issue in that when unit comes out of Hibernation or Stand by Access connections seems to negotiate with access point and then drops the IP causing loss of internet connection and VPN.

Hard to explain but I remember the previous version I had of AC worked flawlessly.

One point of interest for you that I read on the net concerning our units is the bios problems some experience when installing non authentic IBM Mini PCI devices.

No trouble on mine what so ever but it seems to be a huge problem. I read that some T30's receive an unauthorized error messages immediately at power up. I also read of a hack program to overcome IBMs built in Proprietary code that prevents what I have had success with this unit and an R40.

I simply point out the possibilities for which I hope you don't experience.

One thing I was going to ask you is if you tried disabling AC and let windows built in WAN detect access points?