Function F5 to turn on Wireless card not working anymore

[jean]

I have a T43 2668WMZ running XP pro and as result of an upgrade of all drivers using Lenovo Software Installer the Function F5 doesn't display anymore the Wireless & Bluetooth control panel which will allow me to turn Wireless On or OFF.

This used to work before the upgrade.

All other function are working fine FN F7, F3,F4

Any idea on how to fix it; is there a registry key to check, service to be running ?

Thank you,
Jean

[lithium726]

try to rollback the wireless drivers with windows, that seems to fix that problem for me.

[Kyocera]

Hi Jean, have you tried doing a search on that, seems like i have read several posts in the past on that subject.

[jean]

Yes, I made a search but I must admit the answer I saw were not to clear to me.

I run an Intel Driver 9.0.4.8 and my wireless board is an Intel Pro/Wireless 2915ABG Network connection.

I cannot rollback as backup was made.

If I use the driver control panel I can switch off/on the wireless without any problem

[Kyocera]

well since i don't have a t43, I would say try system restore if you have a point prior to the software update, wish I could help more.

[dr_st]

Did it work with the original drivers that came with your Thinkpad? If so, then you can try to uninstall the current driver and reinstall the original (you should have it somewhere in \IBMTOOLS).

[jean]

I don't have the original driver as the PC was delivered pre configurated by my IT departement.

I downloaded & installed Intell Proset/Wireless which offers a right click option to turn on/off the radio.

the function F5 still doesn't work but I have an acceptable workaround .

[dr_st]

I don't have the original driver as the PC was delivered pre configurated by my IT departement.

You mean they configured it and deleted the original installation archives (DRIVERS, IBMTOOLS, IBMWORK)? What a bunch of arseholes...

[christopher_wolf]

I don't have the original driver as the PC was delivered pre configurated by my IT departement.

You mean they configured it and deleted the original installation archives (DRIVERS, IBMTOOLS, IBMWORK)? What a bunch of arseholes...

This is actually a common thing to do in most IT departments; just replicate an image across a bunch of machines. This, however, wipes out any IBM preloads that those machines came with.

[Roy_W]

I have gone through the pain of reinstalling my complete system due to this problem. I have tried resetting Winsock, TCPIP, uninstalling my adapters, deleting drivers, reinstalling older drivers, cleaning the registry, the whole shebang, nothing worked and I don't use Access Connections so I know that that is not the problem.

It appears that after updating the drivers, the system treats the "Wifi Adapter" as a NEW network card, thereby creating the effect that my machine has several adapters, even though it does not. Of course all of this information is hidden in the Registry and is extremely difficult to determine the exact location(s).thank you M Gates. This in turn, I believe, fools the Access Connections and FN+F5 software, as they are still trying to use the initial Wifi Adapter Installation.

In my case this could be seen in "Network Connections" where before the update I had "Wireless Network Connection", then after I had "Wireless Network Connection 3", I dont know where N° 2 went.

What I don't understand is that in the past it has worked, but I wonder if some of my problems are due to using VMWare, which creates its own "Virtual Network Adapters - Wifi and Ethernet" and therefby creates confusion when installing/updating the drivers for the real Wifi Card.

I have a copy of the older drivers if necassary but I do not believe they will solve your problem. Once the registry is messed up, it is extremely difficult to return to a working system.

The other thread is full of good ideas and suggestions but none of them worked for me. The only solution, in my case, was to restore a Backup of XP and stop using Software Installer altogether.

I know I do not offer a solution, but I have spent hours and hours trying to resolve this problem compared to only 45 minutes to restore my backup.