T43, WinXP, 2915ABG - WiFi disconnects under heavy CPU load.

[Xenomorph]

I mentioned it a little in another post.
I've gone back and forth with different versions of Windows on my "new" T43. Win7 to Vista Ultimate to XP and back to Win7.

Windows XP runs really quick, and all hardware and software seemed to work fine. XP as the primary OS on this system was a no-go for one big reason: It wouldn't stay connected.

As soon as CPU load hit 100%, WiFi would drop.

I tried disabling all power-saving features.
I tried the latest driver from Intel's site and from Lenovo's site.

WiFi would connect fine, but as soon as CPU load hit 100% (like from a game playing), WiFi would drop, and then only re-connect when the load decreased.

It doesn't do this in Vista or Windows 7, just XP.

I have an HP nx6110 that even did the same thing. It had an Intel 2200BG, and I replaced it with an Intel 2915ABG (OEM, with the EEPROM modified to make it identify itself as HP). Things seem to get better after swapping the card. Vista/Win7 isn't a good choice for that system, as it has an Intel 915 video chipset and doesn't do Aero.

While Windows 7 runs great on the T43, if I do get a newer laptop I would like to maybe put XP back on the T43 for "maximum speed". However, I won't let XP near this thing again if WiFi doesn't work (my primary method of connection).

I tried searching for mentions of WiFi dropping under heavy load, but couldn't find any posts on it.

Anyone have any idea why WiFi would drop when CPU usage hits 100%?

[ajkula66]

What's the 7-character model number of your T43?

[Xenomorph]

What's the 7-character model number of your T43?

2668-71U

Pentium M 760 / 2.0 GHz
2 Gigs DDR2 533 MHz
120 Gig Fujitsu HDD
Radeon Mobilty X300 w/ 64 Megs RAM
Intel 2915ABG MiniPCI

All hardware works fine under Windows Vista / Windows 7.
Just under Windows XP does WiFi keep disconnecting.
(I tried latest drivers from Lenovo's site and Intel's site.)

[Xenomorph]

So no one has any info on this?

I haven't had any luck with Google.

I saw one thing that said both the 2200BG and 2915ABG are crap cards (I've actually only had disconnects with those specific cards), and then they recommended an Atheros-based card.

I saw another thing that suggested using older 8.x drivers under XP. I'm not sure how well that would work.

Again, as far as I know, these cards work fine under Vista and Windows 7. I've only got disconnects under XP.

[ajkula66]

I've got T43/p machines with all the aforementioned cards...2200BG, 2915ABG and IBM (Atheros) ABG II

My favourite one is ABG II, but I haven't noticed any disconnects on other ones regardless of type of load involved.

You may try loading an earlier driver and see whether that makes a difference...

[closersource]

It's a driver related issue. You may want to try configuring some of the network hardware settings of your wireless card. Our company uses wireless access points from Linksys/Cisco which T4x units with Atheros cards have multiple disconnects for no reason (even right next to the AP). Dell machines with similar Atheros cards don't seem to have this problem.

[Xenomorph]

I just put Windows XP back on my T43 to test some things.

I grabbed the latest Intel 2915ABG drivers I saw on Lenovo's site (Version 9.0.4.39, 12/19/2007).
I have Power Management set to Highest Performance, and enabled Throughput Enhancement.
I do not have Access Connections installed. I didn't even bother because Fn+F5 seems to work fine in XP without jumping through all the hoops I have to with Vista and Windows 7.

I started copying a lot of data from another computer via WiFi (Team Fortress 2), and then ran Prime95 to tax the CPU.

Well, at 100% load, WiFi is doing just fine. :/

So I have no clue what the issue was before. Maybe a different driver version, maybe something with Access Connections, etc.