Thinkpads Forum

I just got this yesterday. I reloaded XP from scratch...following the tips here and all is well...but I have a few questions...

1. there is a bag of 2 screws...1 long and 1 stubby..what are these for and where can they go?

2. Which battery are people complaining about not fitting perfect. I ended up with the 6cell SONY battery. It fits almost 100%, but has some movement..perhaps 2-3mm at best. I have not found this annoying (yet) but is this what people are talking about - or something much more?

3. This machine came with the 345ABG card. I used IBM Access connections to setup WPA2-PSK/AES and it works. But then I wanted to try the INTEL generic drivers/setup out...the driver is a newer revision too...I have that setup (instead of the IBM control) and it too works...

I have noticed the following in respect to these different programs:

A. The IBM version takes awhile to setup my wifi - much longer than the Intel one...although not terribly longer, but noticible.

B. When I use the INTEL version, (not an issue with the IBM version) I am left with that stupid blue icon in the tray as if XP is constantly looking for a connection:

http://www.western-electric.net/ibm.bmp

...anyone have any tips on these questions?

Thanks

-JD

The icon that you are seeing normally means that the connection has been established, at that the card is waiting for an ip.

Well I have hard coded the IP...and it does work, but that stupid icon remains....I think that started after SP2...I dont recall though.

-JD

Yeah I have a similar gripe. My computer has 4 permanent systray icons related to the internet and I really wish I could turn a few off permanently because they are redundant. Two are labelled "ThinkVantage Access Connection" one having to do with my saved Locations, one having to do with powering on/off the Wireless Radio. Then Windows has its own Wireless Network Connection icon, and its own Local Area Connection icon for my Ethernet cable.

The only one I figured out how to turn off is the "Local Area Connection" cable, by disabling the Network feature in Control Panel.. but doing so stops Windows from auto-detecting new connections. I'd ideally like to turn off Window's Wireless Netowrk Connection feature since I think the ThinkVantage one looks nicer.

I did find out that if I enable DHCP service eventhough I dont need it - that stupid icon DOES go away in about 30 secs.

I did fine the Intel utility much faster and cleaner than the IBM after playing with both. Both do work exceptionally well though.

-JD

I have a home network but I'm also going to be taking my Thinkpad on vacation using free WiFi in public areas of my hotels. How should I set up my Thinkpad to facilitate connections in hotels? I know some hotels such as the Hampton Inns have a known SSID.

Any advice would be appreciated.

BTW, I've got a Linksys router so I'm hoping I have no problems connecting.

The short screw is for screwing the ultrabase device to the case. The long one, I have no idea.

alex3005b wrote:Yeah I have a similar gripe. My computer has 4 permanent systray icons related to the internet and I really wish I could turn a few off permanently because they are redundant. Two are labelled "ThinkVantage Access Connection" one having to do with my saved Locations, one having to do with powering on/off the Wireless Radio. Then Windows has its own Wireless Network Connection icon, and its own Local Area Connection icon for my Ethernet cable.

Here's one way. Go into the taskbar properties and check "Hide inactive icons." That will expose a button labeled "Customize." Click that. On the next screen you can choose exactly which icons you want on and off.

-darren

darrenf wrote:

alex3005b wrote:Yeah I have a similar gripe. My computer has 4 permanent systray icons related to the internet and I really wish I could turn a few off permanently because they are redundant. Two are labelled "ThinkVantage Access Connection" one having to do with my saved Locations, one having to do with powering on/off the Wireless Radio. Then Windows has its own Wireless Network Connection icon, and its own Local Area Connection icon for my Ethernet cable.

Here's one way. Go into the taskbar properties and check "Hide inactive icons." That will expose a button labeled "Customize." Click that. On the next screen you can choose exactly which icons you want on and off.

-darren

I was meaning to ask whether the original query was to turn off the applications, or the icons corresponding to these applications that are redundant.

Turning off the redundant applications is best because it would save memory.. but just hiding the icons helps for now..until I figure out something better to do.

Most users can uninstall Access Connections with no adverse consequences. That will get rid of two icons and associated applications. The exception would be users that want to automagically run scripts, change default printer assignments or fire up VPN connections based on location.

-darren