WiFi flaps frequently with Intel 2915ABG NIC in T43

[dandreye]

Hi All,

At some point a few days after installing W7 and drivers onto my newly SATA modded T43 upgraded to an SSD my WiFi started flapping every ~20s. It definitely wasn't there before that moment as after the SATA mod and fresh W7 installation I successfully uploaded 200-250MB zip files at a decent speed onto NAS several times during that timeframe w/o noticing anything like that. Pretty sure it was never there before the SATA mod when the laptop was still on Windows XP as remote access to it was flawless at all times for several years it was far away from me. One thing I recall doing around the time this issue was first noticed was final assembly of the laptop, i.e. putting metal CD/DVD + HDD cage and palmrest back in, which involved bending SATA power circuit wires towards the NIC a bit, although can't rule it out that the issue could've started even before that and not necessarily strictly after.

The router log shows lots of these, repeating a few timers per minute:

Dec 27 17:16:06wmondWifiMaster0/AccessPoint0: (MT76x2) STA(00:13:ce:fd:15:76) had associated successfully.
Dec 27 17:16:12wmondWifiMaster0/AccessPoint0: (MT76x2) STA(00:13:ce:fd:15:76) pairwise key handshaking timeout.
Dec 27 17:16:12wmondWifiMaster0/AccessPoint0: (MT76x2) STA(00:13:ce:fd:15:76) had deauthenticated.
Dec 27 17:16:15wmondWifiMaster0/AccessPoint0: (MT76x2) STA(00:13:ce:fd:15:76) had associated successfully.
Dec 27 17:16:15wmondWifiMaster0/AccessPoint0: (MT76x2) STA(00:13:ce:fd:15:76) set key done in WPA2/WPA2PSK.

At such moments the white bars in the lower right corner of the laptop get a yellow ball, which disappears seconds later when WiFi reconnects; the white bars were also seen all getting grayed out at about the same times.

Once I booted off a Linux USB stick (Parted Magic to be exact), the "pairwise key handshaking timeout"/"had deauthenticated" entries weren't seen being logged anymore and only the entries reporting it has re-associated and/or has re-exchanged the keys kept on being logged exactly every 2min.

The NIC in my T43 is P/N 27K9935 / FRU 27K9936 / Intel WM3B2915ABG. I tried a non-Lenovo WM3B2915ABG card that I happened to have at hand and the issue remained.

Surprisingly turning off 802.11a mode (i.e. leaving only 802.11bg enabled) has fixed the issue. This helps at least with driver versions 9.0.4.39 dated Dec 19 2007 and 9.1.2.10 dated Dec 12 2007 that I tried so far (not sure which one is more recent). Now I'm at a loss why: it's the first time ever I tried disabling a particular 802.11 mode, at least on this platform: there was just no need in it as everything was working perfectly well with the very same router for the first couple of days following the SATA mod.

Could the routing of my SATA signalling and/or power circuit wires be causing some RF interference maybe? If such possibility exists, what kind of screen do I put and where to rule that out? I suppose foil is a no-go to avoid the risk of shorting something somewhere:

https://s29.postimg.org/3kt7g43if/IMG_2847.jpg

Now that the laptop is fully assembled back and happy (w/o 802.11a, which my router doesn't support anyway) I'm somewhat reluctant to take it apart again right now - but one day I'll still have to (the SATA connector needs reliable fixing to the mobo to allow easy SSD swapping if required), so any thoughts are very welcome: will give them a try.


Many thanks in advance!

P.S. Looking for a pair of Atheros AR5BMB-44 NICs (P/N 39T0356 / FRU 39t0357) at £3 apiece incl delivery just in case anyone's looking to getting rid of theirs here in the UK.

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[RealBlackStuff]

I have done anywhere between 60 and 100 (lost count) SATA-mods.
None EVER had any wifi problems after or because of that mod.
Intel's 2915 is notorious for being one of their worst-ever wifi cards, so just dump it.
Then find a nice TP-LINK TL-WN861N wifi-N card.

[dandreye]

RBS:

Great hint wrt TL-WN861N: much appreciated (not sure what made me think no suitable mPCI card supports 802.11n). Is it T4x's WiFi LED and Fn+F5 friendly though?

[RealBlackStuff]

LED: no (but who cares?), Fn/F5: yes.

[dandreye]

Good to hear it can be managed by Fn+F5: I wasn't expecting that from a non-whitelisted NIC. WiFi LED is a bit of a nuisance but for the sake of benefits 802.1n should deliver I can close my eyes on that )

[RealBlackStuff]

Look for TTAV134 modded BIOSes for T43/R52/X41, which remove Error 1802 (wifi whitelist), Error 2010 (HDs) and adds Slic2.1.
Downloads here: https://thinkpad-forum.de/threads/12478 ... S-Sammlung

[dandreye]

I flashed that very BIOS earlier this year in preparation for SATA mod... thanks anyway. Just found it somewhat surprising that a generic mPCI card that's never been designed specifically for the T4x series can be managed using Fn+F5, while even Lenovo variant of Intel 2915ABG apparently can't (at least with W7), let alone generic Intel 2915ABG )

[ajkula66]

TP link card is Atheros-chipped and works wonders on these older ThinkPads. The LED actually works OOTB in *nix environment, but not in Windows.

[dandreye]

Thanks George: watching one on Ebay at £9 already.

[Kasm279]

Hi All,
Surprisingly turning off 802.11a mode (i.e. leaving only 802.11bg enabled) has fixed the issue. This helps at least with driver versions 9.0.4.39 dated Dec 19 2007 and 9.1.2.10 dated Dec 12 2007 that I tried so far (not sure which one is more recent).

Is your wireless access point dual band? (2.5GHz and 5GHz?) If so, are both bands set to use the same SSID?

[dandreye]

Kasm279:

Nope, it's a single-band 2.4GHz 802.11(bg)n w/o 802.11a support.