T40 Wireless Network Issues

[Neil]

I've been working to get this T40 ready to donate to a friend that recently lost his ThinkPad is a house fire, and thought I had it working, but am having wifi issues. It contains an Intel B2100 card. Problem is that it finds my home network, connects when WPA2 key is entered, then continuously tries to acquire a network address. I thought maybe it was the B2100 so swapped in a IBM Atheros a/b/g card...same issue. So thought, maybe it's a failing Southbridge BGA, and was getting ready to swap in a new motherboard, then decided to boot up a Linux liveCD. Works fine with Linux! I'm writing this post on the T40 in question using the B2100 wireless adapter.

So, what do you guys think? Shall I go ahead a replace the motherboard, or do I have other options?

Edit: Well, after running Linux for a little while, I re-booted into Windows, and the wifi is working! Still don't know what was happening, but at least it's working now. I think I'll hold off on the motherboard swap and see how this one works out. If I get complaints, I'll swap it out later.

[DRobinson]

Something is amiss here. That card should not work with WPA2 no matter what operating system you are using. The hardware does not support WPA2.

http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/w ... 016876.htm

The Atheros card should support it though. I have had to get rid of some of my older hardware because 802.11b only supports WPA tkip at most.