T30 network problem

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toothandnail · #1 Post by **toothandnail** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:26 pm

I've been lurking here for a bit, but now I could do with a bit of help...

I've just bought a T30 (2366-BU4) at what seemed to me to be a very reasonable price. Its in good condition and most things work. However, I do have a couple of problems and searching the forums hasn't turned up any leads.

First problem is that the Intel Pro 100 doesn't seem to do much. If I plug a patch lead into my router, I get the link led at both ends of the link, and XP is reporting the card correctly. But I'm not getting an IP, and I'm unable to communicate with anything. Don't have any way to test the wireless networking at the moment, and the machine is fairly useless to me if the wired network doesn't work.

I also tried a couple of Linux live CDs - Ubuntu 5.10 and Zenwalk, both of which work fine with the network when used in my old T23, but neither of which will get an IP in the T30 using the internal NIC. Even entering static IP details doesn't help.

I've got an IBM Etherjet cardbus card which I plugged in to check. It works fine, so it seems that there is something out of action with the inbuilt NIC. While I have a manual, it doesn't give me any clear indication where the NIC is - is it part of the mini-pci card, or is it built onto the motherboard?

If it is part of the mini-pci, is it expensive to replace? I don't minde paying a bit more, but I would like to get the machine running with minimal extra expense.

I can return the machine for credit. I don't really want to (its a nice unit), but if that is the best answer, I guess I'll have to do that and start looking for another one.

paul.

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:43 pm

Paul, pull up a command prompt and ping 127.0.0.1, also run PC dr. and report back.

The wireless is a mini pci, replaceable and inexpensive. Some machines (like mine) came wireless upgradeable so i had to get a card.

toothandnail · #3 Post by **toothandnail** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 1:54 pm

Hi Kyocera

Kyocera wrote:Paul, pull up a command prompt and ping 127.0.0.1, also run PC dr. and report back.

Done. Ping reports no packet loss and a return time of <1ms (which I guess would be normal for local loopback.

I downloaded the PC Doctor iso a couple of days ago and ran it when I first unpacked the machine. No problems reported, though I don't have any way of running it from machine to machine (not without getting a crossover cable and hooking up my T23 to the other end...)

Kyocera wrote:The wireless is a mini pci, replaceable and inexpensive. Some machines (like mine) came wireless upgradeable so i had to get a card.

Well, at the moment I'm not too worried about the wireless. I live in a place with 2.5' thick walls - last time I tried a wireless connnection, it didn't go far. For the moment, I would be more concerned with replacing the wired NIC, but my skimming of the manual hasn't helped me identify it - not sure if its part of the min pci or part of the motherboard.

Also just tired the onboard NIC again. Looking at the connection status from the system tray, it shows data going out at a steady rate, but nothing being recieved.

paul.

#4 Post by **Kyocera** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:07 pm

Are you using the proper subnet for the router your are connecting to "and" can you ping the routers IP with your wired nic.

I've never torn into my t30 but by looking at this picture it would appear the rj45 and rj11 are part of the motherboard. The picture on the upper right shows the back of the board pretty well.

I hope you get yours going, I love my t30 with a 7200rpm HD, gig of ram, intel wireless, this thing has been like the energizer bunny for a while now.

toothandnail · #5 Post by **toothandnail** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 2:31 pm

Kyocera wrote:Are you using the proper subnet for the router your are connecting to "and" can you ping the routers IP with your wired nic.

Well, should be. With the PCMCIA card in place, it just goes straight out. IPCONFIG shows an IP, whereare with the onboard NIC, no IP is shown and I can't ping anything (router or any of the other machines on the net) without total packet loss.

Just looked after booting with the Etherjet - IP assigned is 192.168.1.37 (odd, since that line normally gets .34, but still valid for the router/switch), subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and default gateway as 192.168.1.1, which is the routers ip. I can also fire up IE (don't have anything else installed yet) and access the router's setup page without problems. Just not with the onboard NIC.

Kyocera wrote:I've never torn into my t30 but by looking at this picture it would appear the rj45 and rj11 are part of the motherboard. The picture on the upper right shows the back of the board pretty well.

I'm not sure that means a great deal. I have pulled a couple of T23s to bits, and they have both RJ11 and RJ45 on the motherboard, but there are plugs connecting from the mini pci. I'll have to go take a closer look at the T30 manual and see if I can work out where the wired NIC lives. If it is on the mini pci I'll take the risk and look for a replacement, but if its on the motherboard, the machine goes back...

Kyocera wrote:I hope you get yours going, I love my t30 with a 7200rpm HD, gig of ram, intel wireless, this thing has been like the energizer bunny for a while now.

I've always liked Thinkpads. This is my forth - started with a 600E, then got a T20, then a T23. I'm quite impressed with the T30 even without a 7200 rpm drive - the specs say the 40 is a 5400. If I keep it, I'll certainly swap the 60 GB 7200 out of my T23 before I sell it on. Certainly made a big difference to both the T20 and the T23.

I was also happy that the T30 plugs into my docking station and works fine with it. Hopefully I'll be able to move the DVD burner in the T23s ultrabay 2000 slot into the T30 as well.

Now if I can just get this to work...

Thanks for the help.

paul.

toothandnail · #6 Post by **toothandnail** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:52 am

Further to the problem I asked about, it seems that theT30 has LOM (I do love IBM-speak - LAN on Motherboard), so the problem would not be easy to repair. As a result of that and also the fact that the machine shipped with a US keyboard (and wasn't listed as doing so), it is now on its way back for a refund.

I've also (completely unexpectedly) come into a bit of money, so I can afford to put out a bit more than I originally thought.

Not sure if this is the right place, but can anyone give me a run down on the advantages of a T40 series machine over the T30? If my extra cash can stretch to it, I'm thinking about a T4xp machine (since I moved my desktop machines to 1280x1024, the T23s 1024x768 is looking very oversized...).

Thanks for any suggestions. If this should be elsewhere, please let me know.

paul

#7 Post by **Kyocera** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 11:12 am

tooth, soory to hear about the debockle. T4X series would be an improvement, especially in the video dept if you get a p. Gig ethernet, usb 2.0, slightly more solid feel, my t42 (not p) is a great machine, but I still carry my t30 for work, so far it has been the best suited to getting slammed around and surviving unscathed.

Good luck on whatever model you choose, you might put a post in the t4x forum as it will get more hits there.

skitty4gzus · #8 Post by **skitty4gzus** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:33 pm

T4x anything would be a nice upgrade. To my belief it has better battery life as well as having a higher res screen. Almost every model within the last few years have better built in vid cards than my t30. Not always an issue except i cant run a few games of mine on here. The usb 2.0 is big step up. Look at the marketplace as there are a few t4x going right now. A couple have multiple batteries and more than 1gig ram as well as dvd/rw. For what I would have to spend to make my t30 what i really want i could have saved money by getting a hold of a t4x. Just my opinion on this, hope it helps.

xenos · #9 Post by **xenos** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:28 am

Tooth,

I've had a similar problem with T30. Are you sure you have the latest and greatest NIC drivers? Simple and stupid question I realize, but I'm not sure if it was covered above.

I had to build a T30 from scratch (in stead of imaging) and had to find new drivers from IBM/Lenovo. Windows Xp SP2 was reporting the NIC and installed and functioning, but I could not pickup an IP. I poped in a 3com MegaHertz PCMICA card, just to get myself on-line and make sure I wasn't having network problems of another kind, downloaded the drivers and all was fine.

What's interesting is that since then I installed the Vista Beta and Ubuntu 6.06 Linux and had the same problem with that NIC. I think it's all dirver related.

toothandnail · #10 Post by **toothandnail** » Fri Jul 28, 2006 2:50 pm

Sorry to be slow answering - been busy

xenos wrote: I've had a similar problem with T30. Are you sure you have the latest and greatest NIC drivers? Simple and stupid question I realize, but I'm not sure if it was covered above.

Not at all sure that Windows had the latest and greatest. The vendor suggested that I upgrade the drivers, but when I tried, the oh-so wonderful MS 'guenuine advantage' thing decided that the copy of XP on the machine was not legitimate and wouldn't let me download anything.

Oh the other hand, I ran the machine using a Linux live CD which detected the card and loaded the drivers, but couldn't get an IP from the router's DHCP server and didn't seem to be able to communicate with the outside world either.

I also installed an IBM EtherJet PCMCIA card (bought for my older T20) and that worked fine under both Windows and Linux (it was how I managed to get MS to tell me that the copy of Windows on the machine wasn't valid).

xenos wrote:I had to build a T30 from scratch (in stead of imaging) and had to find new drivers from IBM/Lenovo. Windows Xp SP2 was reporting the NIC and installed and functioning, but I could not pickup an IP. I poped in a 3com MegaHertz PCMICA card, just to get myself on-line and make sure I wasn't having network problems of another kind, downloaded the drivers and all was fine.

Interesting. I must admit I didn't test to that degree. The machine already had a couple of other problems - a US keyboard that wasn't mentioned in the ad (its taken me quite a while to get used to the UK layout, don't want to have to unlearn it all now...) plus the problem with MS deciding that I couldn't download any updates (which might have been resolved with a reinstall, but not having got any media with the machine, not to mention finding that the recovery partition had been wiped didn't help). As a result, I talked to the vendor who gave me a refund. A pity in a way, since it seemed a very good machine in most respects.

xenos wrote:What's interesting is that since then I installed the Vista Beta and Ubuntu 6.06 Linux and had the same problem with that NIC. I think it's all dirver related.

Hmm. I've never had any problems with Ubuntu, but I see from (I was going to say reading, but I really mean skimming) the Ubuntu mailing list that several people are complaining about network drivers not working in 6.06. The live CD I used was the new Zenwalk Live, which I've also tried in the machine I picked up as a replacement to the T30 (see below) and it has had no problems finding and using NICs in any other machine I've tried it in.

As it happens, I was lucky enough to win a competition just after I bought the T30, so I ended up with a bit of unexpected money. After sending the T30 back, I managed to pick up a T40 in very good condition. Upgraded as well - new CPU, extra memory and an 80 GB drive. Getting USB 2 is useful in itself, and the upgrades make it a very nice machine. I had hoped to get a T4xp version, but couldn't find one at a price I was prepared to pay. Maybe next time.

Anyhow, thanks for the suggestion.

Paul.

T30 network problem

T30 network problem

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