Talk To Me About Wireless Cards (T42)

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ArtShapiro · #1 Post by **ArtShapiro** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 12:56 pm

I've been quite irked by Vista on my T42 for reasons I've described previously. After being unable to connect to the wireless network at my local coffee house on Sunday, I stormed home and decided to go back to XP Pro. Then I found that the only XP image backup I'd retained was faulty. Rather than suffer through the reinstallation from scratch, I'll make another go at Vista.

One thing that really yanks my proverbial chain is the failure of the FN-F5 functionality to toggle wireless on my machine under Vista. Other folks report no problems, and indeed I had no problems under XP.

I have one of the Intel 2200 wireless adaptors in this machine, and the general scuttlebutt seems to be that this card isn't particularly a good product. (Even with XP, I found the wireless behavior to be marginally stable, sometimes requiring deletion and reinstallation of the drivers to get things functional.)

Reading this forum, the Atheros cards seem to receive consistent praise. As I look around on eBay, I see a bunch of 'em for sale, but some are labelled "not for IBM". I'm not aware that the T42 has the same irritating "protect the user from himself" behavior as the T43, so I guess my questions are:

a). is this a reasonable upgrade/stability path for me?
b). what makes a particular Atheros card IBM compatible/incompatible?

Thanks for any input. BTW, I haven't yet opened the HMM; is replacing a T42 mini-PCI card as easy as it is on the T20 and T30?

Art

h1dz1r · #2 Post by **h1dz1r** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:29 pm

art,

i've posted more or less a similar tread ealier. u could refer here for any referals.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=43389

cheers.

#3 Post by **underclocker** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 1:59 pm

All of your questions can be answered by a search on this board.

Briefly, nearly every soul loves the Atheros cards for ThinkPads. Some people are OK with the Intel cards. Atheros is a great choice.

The cards that work in ThinkPads have a unique ID in the firmware that permit them to boot up with out issues or errors or need for a firmware hack. These are best to get. Easiest way to know you have the right card is that there will be an IBM part number on it a.k.a. an FRU number.

I am aware of three different models (with "g" support) with IBM firmware, any will work just fine;

1) IBM a/b/g
2) IBM b/g
3) IBM a/b/g/ II

Sometimes they are referred to as Atheros and some of them say Philips on them.

I believe the b/g and a/b/g II are both more recent generations of the Atheros chipset, with the a/b/g card being the oldest.

People that run Linux prefer the a/b/g because it's been out the longest and has a lot of driver support. All work well.

I would imagine the more recent models are more battery efficient and if you don't need "a", the b/g would be the most efficient.

If you look hard, you'll fine one on eBay for under $35 (any model you choose), if you don't look hard, you'll pay between $35 and $45.

You'll have to remove the keyboard and the palmrest, not too hard at all, but, if you overtighten the palmrest screws you may crack it - so go easy on it!

Personnaly, I've had the same experience as most others. Some Intel cards work just fine and some seem flakey, but the Atheros cards always work well and reception is always as good or better.

My preference is the fuel efficient IBM b/g card.

Good luck.

agarza · #4 Post by **agarza** » Tue Jun 12, 2007 2:55 pm

I've the 2200bg on my XP install. Haven't had any dropped connection in my home with a 2Wire Router. I only install the driver, without the Intel application and don't use Access Connections.

ArtShapiro · #5 Post by **ArtShapiro** » Sun Jun 17, 2007 11:12 pm

I'll report on my upgrade experiences.

I purchased the IBM B/G card as per recommendations in this thread. As an aside, I was pleased to have recently purchased a set of small (4-10) torx drivers after reading that they would be needed to disassemble parts of the T42. Wrong - everything happened to be Phillips. Anyway, out went the Intel and in went that Atheros.

It immediately worked without incident, but happens not to be picking up any more neighborhood signals than the old. We'll see in more foreign environments whether I'm able to glom onto rogue signals better than before, but here at home I obviously only need my own network.

And to my pleasant surprise, after deleting and reinstalling various Thinkpad drivers - the power management stuff, hotkey stuff, system interface, etc., and letting hte Software Installer reinstall them, I finally have the FN-F5 functionality working for the first time under Vista. That was the major incentive to try this hardware swap. (Does anyone her have FN-F5 working under Vista with an Intel 2200BG card???)

Art

#6 Post by **GomJabbar** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:15 am

I am pretty sure I had Fn + F5 working on my T42 (2200BG) with Vista RC1. It did not work in the beginning, but once I installed the ACPI Power Management driver, Lenovo System Interface Driver, Hotkey Features driver 2.x, and Access Connections 4.2x, it was working IIRC. Now that RC1 has expired, I do not have a Vista installation. I do plan on buying a copy when I get a little extra $.

Paul Unger · #7 Post by **Paul Unger** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 9:37 am

Figured I'd piggyback on this thread rather than create a new one . . .

I'm interested in either of these wireless cards:

Phillips ABG, FRU 39T0071 and Atheros ABG, FRU 39T0081.

I did a bit of poking around re. the FRU and found that 39T0081 is a replacement for 93P4262 (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-53115). The 93P4262 is compatible with the R50/51 and a few T4x models (http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-46474). The other card, FRU 39T0071, is listed here (http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/IBM_11a/b ... CI_Adapter) and looks like a standard Atheros card. I have a 2373-3UU and a 2373-4TU; any idea if these cards will work in either of them? The 3UU has an IBM a/b/g I (Atheros 5001x+) while the 4TU has an Intel 2200bg (which is the one I want to replace . . . ) Any info you could provide would be great!

SHoTTa35 · #8 Post by **SHoTTa35** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 12:38 pm

any IBM branded mini-pci card will work just fine. Mini-pci is a standard format that fits all machines with the slots

You have 2 T42s, one is "wireless upgradeable" (2373-4TU) and therefore should have all the stuff needed there like antennas and all that. The other you can just swap the card into the same spot and connect the antenna's and you'll be good to go.

FYI - I'd get the Atheros but if you're a "Intel Centrino" zombie then you might want to get the IBM Intel 2200BG/2915ABG which are good cards too.

Paul Unger · #9 Post by **Paul Unger** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:52 pm

Thanks, SHoTTa35. I'm looking for an Atheros card to replace the Intel 2200BG I have in the -4TU . . . So your advice was right on the mark!

Paul Comeaux · #10 Post by **Paul Comeaux** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:01 pm

I hope this is not a dumb question but--

What about n (or pre-n or draft-n)? Is there an n card that will work with a T42?

kimo · #11 Post by **kimo** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 2:35 pm

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=019

this particular auction ended but i'm sure he has re-listed. according to this auction, this card will work with the t42 after the 1802 hack.

i'm still dissecting all the information here regarding draft-n and so, i'm not sure if this card is capable of operating in 5ghz as it does not have 802.11a.

hope this helps and if you decide to pull the trigger on this card, please post about your experience.

Talk To Me About Wireless Cards (T42)

Talk To Me About Wireless Cards (T42)

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What about n?

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