Internal wireless on a T20

[Boinng]

Hello all,

I'm hoping somebody here can help - I've owned a T20 for a few years now, and I love it. Just recently I got a wireless router at home and started using wifi on the thinkpad using a cheap PC card, which works fine, but I really dislike the way it sticks out (I'm sure I'm going to snap it someday, or even worse - damage the thinkpad with it), and I don't like losing the slot either, as it prevents me from using my double-height bluetooth card at the same time.

Since my mini-pci bay was empty, and I'm not adverse to dismantling the T20 to add antenna, I decided to buy what was advertised as an IBM T2x series wifi card from Ebay. What I got was an "IBM High Rate Wireless LAN MiniPCI Combo Card" as recognised by XP, with an Actiontec chipset - I got the driver from the IBM/Lenovo site (where the T20 was ominously not listed as compatible) and everything seemed to install fine, including the aerial which I threaded up underneath the keyboard. The driver is version 2.0.9.0.

Of course it doesn't work. In the (Windows XP Pro) device manager the card is listed with a yellow exclamation mark, and its properties give the message "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". I can't seem to find any way to persuade it to start, or any more info on what the problem might be. Is the T20 simply unable to support a mini-pci wireless card at all, or is there some obvious tweak I need to make to get it working?

It occurs to me that although this is a combo card with a modem, the installed driver seems to be for wireless only, and it doesn't appear as a modem separately in the device list - is that significant?

There is another possibility - that my T20 has some fault relating to the mini-pci slot, which would explain why the combo ethernet/modem card it came with never worked - but since that card was never recognised at all by the system, I prefer to think that was just a dud card... wasn't it?

[rkawakami]

It occurs to me that although this is a combo card with a modem, the installed driver seems to be for wireless only, and it doesn't appear as a modem separately in the device list - is that significant?

Could be. It's always best to use the correct driver for any particular piece of hardware. How were you able to determine that that driver goes with your wireless card?

There is another possibility - that my T20 has some fault relating to the mini-pci slot, which would explain why the combo ethernet/modem card it came with never worked - but since that card was never recognised at all by the system, I prefer to think that was just a dud card... wasn't it?

Maybe yes, maybe no. Without having a known good device to plug into the MiniPCI slot it's hard to say where the problem is. You could try downloading the verision of PC Doctor for the T2x series from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4YZM3F

Three diskettes are required. If you don't have a floppy drive but do have a CD burner, the same program has been made available as an ISO image which you can get from here:

http://www.mypchelp.com/~dsmith/ibmutil ... pcdiag.iso

or from my backup site:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ibm_t23/ibm_t22_pcdiag.iso

That diagnostic program has checks for the ethernet interface as well as the Actiontec wireless card. I would assume that the T20 can handle a wireless card (but I could be wrong). I have thrown in a generic Broadcom 802.11g card into a T23 and with drivers I found at Gateway.com for that particular card, it works fine.

(edit: 1/2007 - Added backup site)

[Boinng]

Could be. It's always best to use the correct driver for any particular piece of hardware. How were you able to determine that that driver goes with your wireless card?

This is where it gets messy - since the card I have was never supplied with the T20, but was intended for the T22 and T23 that had the antenna built in, I got the driver from the T22/23 page on the IBM site - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-57669 (look for "High Rate Wireless LAN Mini PCI combo card"). In own simple way I decided that the T20 wasn't mentioned simply because it didn't have the antenna, and that it was in most other respects identical to the 22/23 - but of course I'm probably wrong, and this may either be the completely wrong driver for the T20, or there may just be no driver that works on the T20 for whatever reason..

Looking at it again now, the driver definitely is for a combo card, so I'm not sure why a similarly broken modem isn't appearing in my device list.

Maybe yes, maybe no. Without having a known good device to plug into the MiniPCI slot it's hard to say where the problem is. You could try downloading the verision of PC Doctor for the T2x series from here:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... IGR-4YZM3F

Thanks, I'll try that when I've got a bit more time. I'm lucky enough to have both floppy and dvd ultrabay drives, so the diskettes are no problem. Just out of interest, am I right in thinking there's a dvd burner available for these?

The crucial difference between the problem with the ethernet card and this one, is that the old card wasn't recognised at all - it just didn't exist as far as the thinkpad was concerned. With the wireless combo card it does at least recognise the new hardware and try its best to install an appropriate driver.

That diagnostic program has checks for the ethernet interface as well as the Actiontec wireless card. I would assume that the T20 can handle a wireless card (but I could be wrong). I have thrown in a generic Broadcom 802.11g card into a T23 and with drivers I found at Gateway.com for that particular card, it works fine.

I've perhaps been assuming a few things I shouldn't, so who knows... I thought the T20 was virtually identical to the T21 and T22 at least, aside from the processor, but maybe it's mobo has some other limitation in regard to wireless that I don't know about.

[rkawakami]

<snip>... I got the driver from the T22/23 page on the IBM site - http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-57669

There is also a firmware upgrade listed, however it's accompanied by a dire warning that it is meant only for the T23 (among others) and does not list the T20.

Just out of interest, am I right in thinking there's a dvd burner available for these?

As this is getting off topic, I'll answer that question via PM.

I've perhaps been assuming a few things I shouldn't, so who knows... I thought the T20 was virtually identical to the T21 and T22 at least, aside from the processor, but maybe it's mobo has some other limitation in regard to wireless that I don't know about.

I'm sorry I don't know more about the T20; only have the T21 and T23 to play around with. A quick glance through the tawbook specs says that the 802.11 option was not available for the T20, T21 and T22 systems. That does not mean it won't work; just that the factory may not have offered that option.

[Boinng]

There is also a firmware upgrade listed, however it's accompanied by a dire warning that it is meant only for the T23 (among others) and does not list the T20.

I just tried it anyway I don't think it worked properly tho. In amongst the "success" and "done!" messages were a couple of rather stark "DOWNLOAD FAILED"'s. So I guess there's either a problem with the card (perhaps a previous update that went wrong) or either it or the update just won't work on a T20.

I'm sorry I don't know more about the T20; only have the T21 and T23 to play around with. A quick glance through the tawbook specs says that the 802.11 option was not available for the T20, T21 and T22 systems. That does not mean it won't work; just that the factory may not have offered that option.

Yep - I was hoping for the latter, on account of the missing antenna, but it may well be more complicated than that - thanks for your help, but I think I'll give up on this particular card. If anyone knows of a minipci wlan card that definitely does work in a T20, please let me know!

[JohnnyM]

A great card for the T20 is the Atheros AR5002G for B/G. Stable and fast. The XP driver can be found here:

http://members.driverguide.com/driver/d ... rid=675853