TPLINK WN861N mini pci card

[JBUK]

I installed one of the above 802.11n cards in a T23 a while back.
It works fine but there is a problem when waking up from standbye. Basically it wont come back to life fully it just hangs with a blank screen after spinning up the hdd.
I have to force a power off and reboot. It is the same when I use hibernate.
I have tried two cards now in two T23s using the latest drivers and have come to the conclusion that these cards do not like the T23.
I have several other different (Atheros, Intel, Broadcom) 802.11g cards that do not behave like this in T23s or a 390x.

I have logged a query with TP-LINK and await a reply.
But in the meantime has anyone else tried this card or have any thoughts on this issue ?

[RealBlackStuff]

Somewhere in Device Manager/wifi-card is a setting to let the card be switched off to save power.
UNtick that option if set and see if that helps.

[JBUK]

Thanks for the suggestion, a good idea really, try to keep the card powered on during standbye. I found several options to disable power saving mode and applied them all one by one. It made a difference, the desktop displayed this time, but Windows just froze as before.

I wonder if anyone has tried this card in other Thinkpads ?

[JBUK]

Got this fixed now.
TP-Link replied to my support question and sent updated drivers to try. These cured the standbye freezing problem and did not introduce any other nasties.
So I now have 802.11n wifi working on two of my T23s.

[Mace1]

Great to know it's just a driver issue! I bought the same card last week for my T23 and discovered the same problem that you had. Before I read your 3rd post, I contacted their support@ hoping they have worked out a solution. I wonder if they will send a link to the new drivers or make that link available on their web page or Atheros has has the drivers.
The card works really good with my N router, much better than my old Intel 2200 does. Looking forward to this fix.

[Mace1]

Amber Chen at TP-Link support responded to my e-mail this morning with more questions, I should have expected a language issue. In the meantime I tried the newest driver for winxp32 that Atheros has for their 9223 chipset but the resume from standby issue is not fixed and the connect@ speed dropped from 300mbps to 150mbps. Went back to the 77.0.329 driver that was shipped with the card.

[Mace1]

Ok, TP-Link sent me a driver, 7.7.0.509 but it does not fix the standby freezing issue.... at least not on my machine. Maybe the card settings I'm using are wrong or the PM on my T23 is goofed up.

[JBUK]

It will still freeze if you have the TP-Link UI utility running. I had to uninstall mine and reinstal just the .509 driver.

[Mace1]

Reopening this thread. My Belkin Wireless G card just died on my T23, installed the TPLink mini pci card and tried several generic 9223 drivers, although the card works well it still produces the return from standby issues. Currently using the generic 7.7.0.509 driver with power save mode turned off. Cannot find a 509 version that is dedicated for the TPLink WN861N vers 2.

Has anyone found a solution? Amber Chen at TPLink has not come up with a viable fix for my machine.

[Harryc]

I'd like to get one for my T23. A link to any known 100% working driver would be appreciated.

[JBUK]

All I can say is that on my T23s using XP I had the problem until TP-LINK support sent me a rar file which was 3 files, .sys .cat .inf for my v2 card.
I uninstalled the card and then deleted the previous software and drivers. Then after installing the provided replacement driver v7.7.0.509 and using Windows wireless management I have had no further trouble.
My contact at TP-LINK was matt.li in tp-link technical support.

Hope this helps.

[Harryc]

Can you send me the driver files please? harryc56ATgmailDOTcom

[Mace1]

Just wanted to add a couple observations: New Egg has a couple reviews for this card indicating this issue exists on certain non-ibm machines and Microsoft's S4 hotfix does not work with SP3. I am using Windows Wireless Management and the card connects @150mbps, with the TP utility running it connects @300 mbps.
I requested the driver update/fix from both the TPLINK Chinese and TPLINK California support teams to avoid language problems.
Aside from the return from standby issue this card performs quite well with my N router.

[JBUK]

I now have three of these cards and they all work and hibernate normally and connect at 300mbps.
Harry I will send you the drivers I use.

[Harryc]

Thanks

[Mace1]

Two days later and still no reply from either TPLINK support teams. Can some one send me the .rar files?
Thanks in advance.
betabilly1@gmail.com

[Harryc]

Sent ...

[Mace1]

Thanks Harry. Only the .sys needed replaced to fix the return from standby/hibernate issue.

[JBUK]

I have been having a few intermittent connection problems with one of these tplink cards. It sees the router ap and has excellent signal strength but never wants to complete the connection. Then the next day it links up immediately !
So I bought a Broadcom chipped BCM4321LKFBG card to try.
This is a 300mbps dual band card 2.4 and 5ghz. I do not have a 5ghz router but it will only ever run at 130mb and will never connect at 300 as the tplink cards do.
Has anyone else tried this mini pci card and got better results ?