New HDD installation can't find wireless card

[kidziti]

I have installed a new hard drive but it does not see my wireless a/b/g card (an IBM upgrade card I got a few years ago). I did not clone the old drive but rather rebuilt the new one from from scratch (reinstalled the programs, then the data).

When I put the old drive back in, the card is seen and works fine. But the new drive doesn't see it, and the device manager shows only one network card (my Intel PRO/1000). It does show, however, a yellow question mark over Ethernet Adaptors, but for some reason cannot find the driver or even identify the card.

With the old drive in, I get the following information:

Network Card: 11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II
Device Type: Network Adapters
Manufacturer: Atheros Communcations Inc
Location: PCI Slot 1 (PCI bus 2, device 2, function 0)
Driver: Atheros Comunications Inc 4.1.102.147, c:\windows\system32\drivers\ar5211.sys

I'm inclined to go here to download the driver:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-70504

But that site doesn't list my adapter (at least not explicitly). Is this the driver I need to download?

Any help greatly appreciated!

[poshgeordie]

The drivers you should be installing are from this page

So not only do you need the wireless drivers but all the others as well to make sure your TP runs at its best.

In particular make sure you grab the ACPI drivers - this is the unknown one listed under Control Panel > System > Hardware Devices.

What I do is to have all the drivers on a CD and install each .exe file one at a time. Each one installs into a C:\Drivers\xyz directory; you then go into Hardware Devs as above, uninstall each driver and then reinstall the correct one by pointing to the list in c:\drivers etc.

May be a bit over the top but makes sure everything works afterwards.

[kidziti]

That is incredibly helpful. Thanks!

I think I'll actually start with the ThinkVantage system update and let that do most of the work for me.

Thanks again!

[sjthinkpader]

Before you run ThinkVantage System Update, install WinXP SP3 first.

[sktn77a]

Before you run ThinkVantage System Update, install WinXP SP3 first.

Why???

[sjthinkpader]

Because System Update 3 would look for .NET Frameworks 2.0 which is included in SP3. When you go to install .NET Frameworks, it might ask you to install Windows Installer first. So it is easier just do the SP3. More secure against malware too.

[kidziti]

The offered solution worked beautifully - thanks!