Thinkpads Forum

hello,
I bought a atheros ABGN card FRU 42T0825, swapped the old intel abg card out of my T60. removed intel wifi driver, removed access connection. then installed thinkpad abgn card driver from lenovo and reinstalled latest access connection.

I used windows XP wireless connection control to check the hardware radio button. radio on, I see the APs. radio off, AP list is gone.

but access connection still can't control my new card, it say radio is off, but when I click radio-on on screen, nothing happen.

of course I turned off windows internal wifi AP control before testing with access connection.

any suggestion? the seller claim this card is orginal thinkpad card

if anyone is using the same card in your T60, please tell me the version number of your card and access connection. thanks.

picture here
left is the old intel card, right is the new abgn. mac address cleared out in picture
http://www.kachun.com/wifi1.jpg
http://www.kachun.com/wifi2.jpg

Off topic, but would one of those atheros chips work in a dell laptop?

well a quick search for 42T0825 and dell in google give me this.


http://cgi.ebay.ph/Lenovo-ThinkPad-R61- ... p1723.m122

kccheng wrote:if anyone is using the same card in your T60, please tell me the version number of your card and access connection. thanks.

I bought a card from "dragon_on_the_edge" on ebay and it installed and basically worked under Vista Ultimate x86 on a T60, with Access Connections 4.42

I found that the card interferred with Bluetooth operation (which appears to be a systemic problem with the Atheros 5008 based cards) and did not perform as well on 802.11g as the original Intel 3945 AGB card that came in the T60..... so I pulled it out and replaced the Intel card.

Cheers,

Bill B.

I'm running the Atheros a/b/g/n card in my 2nd T60p, and it works just fine. However, I don't have an N router yet, so it's only running at "g" speeds when I run it. I got mine from a source at Lenovo. Did you buy yours on ebay? The FRU number in your picture looks right, but did you photoshop the images, or did it come looking the way it is pictured?

interference with bluetooth, well I will see if i can live with it.

to Crunch, well my G router died and I bought a fancy looking N router. It's the reason why I bought this N card. I bought this card from a chinese auction site. yes the photo is photoshopped to remove my MAC address, I scanned this image myself.
so could you please tell me your driver and access connection versions?

i'm getting the Intel 4965AGN card soon so i hope to test that soon. I will have to use my bluetooth antenna or something temporarily till i get my 3rd antenna. I saw some posts about it but am i right in thinking it just goes under the keyboard and that's that?

i already have a Linksys WRT350N so no worries there...

bill bolton wrote:

kccheng wrote:if anyone is using the same card in your T60, please tell me the version number of your card and access connection. thanks.

I bought a card from "dragon_on_the_edge" on ebay and it installed and basically worked under Vista Ultimate x86 on a T60, with Access Connections 4.42

I found that the card interferred with Bluetooth operation (which appears to be a systemic problem with the Atheros 5008 based cards) and did not perform as well on 802.11g as the original Intel 3945 AGB card that came in the T60..... so I pulled it out and replaced the Intel card.

Cheers,

Bill B.

Did you installed the 3rd antenna? Without a proper termination, the 3rd antenna port may just radiate a bunch of garbage.

SHoTTa35 wrote:i'm getting the Intel 4965AGN card soon so i hope to test that soon. I will have to use my bluetooth antenna or something temporarily till i get my 3rd antenna. I saw some posts about it but am i right in thinking it just goes under the keyboard and that's that?

i already have a Linksys WRT350N so no worries there...

Not quite use whether the intel card is 2T3R or 3T3R. Without a good placement of the 3rd antenna you may very well only get 2T2R. In that case you only get 180MB out of the possible 270MB downlink. But an antenna with a long lead and place it somewhere in the LCD cage.

sjthinkpader wrote:Did you installed the 3rd antenna?

Yes,

sjthinkpader wrote: Without a proper termination, the 3rd antenna port may just radiate a bunch of garbage.

There are numerous reports of BT interference problems with Atheros 5008 chip sets (as I discovered after trying it myself) so it not related to unterminated antennas!

Cheers,

Bill

So, was that was the reason it was pulled from the T61 (others?) series configurators? By the time mine was ordered, it was no longer an option, and my heart was set on it compared to Intel due to the Atheros' better performance. (Didn't know about BT interference)

Is there a new Atheros N card for the T6x series coming?

sjthinkpader wrote:
Did you installed the 3rd antenna? Without a proper termination, the 3rd antenna port may just radiate a bunch of garbage.

I doubt that is an issue as Lenovo currently ships vast numbers of Thinkpads with the Draft N cards installed minus any connection for the third antenna.

I have the Atheros N card and saw no negative effects without the third antenna lead connected. I also have a WWAN card installed and since I am not using it, I connected one of those leads to the N connector. I have not seen any positive or negative effects from that decision so far.

Does anyone have any information about positive or negative effects from doing this?

3rd antenna from Lenovo costs $9.95 + shipping, which is not too bad for having a much better reception.

Bing0 You'll be fine w/o 3rd antenna, you just won't get all the benefits of having ABGN card and connecting to "n" networks.

-- Andrey

Bing0 wrote:

sjthinkpader wrote:
Did you installed the 3rd antenna? Without a proper termination, the 3rd antenna port may just radiate a bunch of garbage.

I doubt that is an issue as Lenovo currently ships vast numbers of Thinkpads with the Draft N cards installed minus any connection for the third antenna.
....

I have the T60 bought a year ago so I don't have the 3rd antenna yet. One is one the way to complete my N installation.

If you look at the T61 LCD parts list item 3, they do depict a 3 leads antennae set.

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-68233

Bing0 wrote:I doubt that is an issue as Lenovo currently ships vast numbers of Thinkpads with the Draft N cards installed minus any connection for the third antenna.

Those are Intel 4965AGB cards with the 802.11n support permanently disabled, so there is no DraftN support and the third antenna is not active.

Thinkpads shipped with 4965AGN cards all have three WiFi antennas.

Cheers,

Bill B.