T40p problem - Wireless /acquiring network address forever

[markgca]

I have a t40p that i bought new years ago, and it has worked well.

it has had the southbridge/usb 1.1 problem for a few years, and until recently i didnt know what it was, thinking it a software issue. not a big problem at this point.

but it recently developed a new issue. whenever connecting to a wireless access point (that is NOT open; ie requires a password) it says 'acquiring network address' forever.

i have done a few things to troubleshoot this, but im not sure what is going on.

first, i did a total reinstall on a spare drive. it still does it, so this leads me to believe it might be hardware. but...

second, IF i have ethernet connected when i try to connect to a wireless ap (to the same network) it actually gets the ip address! not sure why, but it does most every time. This always works on boot up, but doesnt always work when changing from one wan ssid to another (i have several in the house, and several on just one access point for testing purposes).

is this a known problem with this computer? i did a search and generally found a lot of people with the same issue, but no resolution (other than some were fixed by the microsoft fixit/winsock reinstall, which i tried as well and didnt work for me).

any ideas how to fix this? the computer works great with this exception.

thanks,

mark

note; i tried this with wpa2/psk and wpa/psk, same result.

[ajkula66]

What's the 7-character model number of your T40p, 237?-???

Secondly, if you have a Southbridge going south, it can affect both the wired and wireless LAN, as well as audio and keyboard...

[markgca]

What's the 7-character model number of your T40p, 237?-???

2373-G3U

one question on the sourthbridge; i thought the wireless part was a separate board in this model. So i figured if it was southbridge, the Lan might go bad (not yet thankfully) but not the Wan...

[ajkula66]

Oh the wireless card is swappable alright, but still partially controlled by SouthBridge...

Do you have the latest firmware for the card? That's a pretty old Atheros-chipped IBM one in there...

Can you boot the machine from a "live" Linux disk and attempt to connect? Should that fail, there's a hardware problem in there somewhere...

[markgca]

Oh the wireless card is swappable alright, but still partially controlled by SouthBridge...

Do you have the latest firmware for the card? That's a pretty old Atheros-chipped IBM one in there...

Can you boot the machine from a "live" Linux disk and attempt to connect? Should that fail, there's a hardware problem in there somewhere...

ok, i booted from the most recent ubuntu, and it works (great idea..)
so it would seem a software issue.

firmware for the card; i updated the embedded controller, but nothing for that card; didnt even know there was an update.

perhaps that would help? anywhere you can point on how to do it and update firmware?

its just bizarre that it gets the ip address from dhcp when its (also) connected via enet, but not on its own. but this is the only computer that has that issue, so....

[Johan]

Mark:

Although the problem you describe can be caused by the Southbridge chip failing, a similar problem recently seemed to be (temporarily?) cured through issuing a winsock reset as described in the thread T42P Wireless Stopped Working - can't aquire network address.

Maybe a good idea to make a System Restore Point before you start playing with winsock? See e.g. this post and/or Google for more information on the winsock command.

Johan

[markgca]

Mark:

Although the problem you describe can be caused by the Southbridge chip failing, a similar problem recently seemed to be (temporarily?) cured through issuing a winsock reset as described in the thread T42P Wireless Stopped Working - can't aquire network address.

thanks for the suggestion, but i had done that before posting.....as well as another 'fix' for broken internet (in general) just in case. neither had any effect.

and i redid the test using ubuntu; it failed this time.
unbuntu shows several possible ssid's to connect to, but when i select any of them nothing happens.

not sure what i did different, but perhaps its intermittant?

probably just old age.....

question; where do i find info about updating the firmware of the wireless module? couldnt hurt.

[edit] playing with it some more, it isnt so much that it is 'failing', but what happens is IF i have the enet connected WHEN i launch a wifi connection (before i log in) it opens the login/password window. if i dont have enet open, it doesnt launch.
in windows, that window opens anyway, but never connects. but once connected, it works fine. so it seems like the same problem realized in two different ways. but its still broke.

[ajkula66]

Is this the driver you currently have installed?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67214

[markgca]

Is this the driver you currently have installed?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67214

Yes, but i also tried the generic atheros