X22 "high rate" wireless PCI adapter weirdness

[MrFlashport]

I picked up a very clean X22 from Craigslist.

The machine works flawlessly and is in cherry shape. The original owner had re-installed XP SP3, and said it did not have a built-in wireless card.

So upon using it last night with my Linksys WPC54G PCMCIA card, I was farting around and opened device manager. Lo and behold there was a "PCI network adapter" with no driver loaded. I looked up the PCI vendor and ID, and it was the OEM IBM Wireless LAN!

Went to Lenovo, downloaded the driver- loaded just fine. The WinXP Wireless Zero config detected it. All looks well...

but the card acts like the radio is turned off...it can't see any access points. Even sitting in front of my router- nothing. I double checked the drivers, no conflict, it's responding to the driver just fine- but it acts like the radio is off.

Am I missing something here? or a dud card. When used with the Linksys PCMCIA card, it works fine- so I know it isn't a networking issue.

I cannot see where the mini PCI card goes, under the keyboard? I have not opened the machine, looks like it has never been opened (or someone was good enough not to chew up the screws) so I am operating under the "if it works don't fix it" mentality.

It's not a big deal, would like to use this hardware if it actually works to free up the one PCMCIA slot on this really neat tiny Thinkpad.

[rkawakami]

It's possible you have a bad card. It's also possible that the antenna leads are not connected, although you should see something if you're sitting on top of your router. To confirm some details about your system, a wireless X22 should have these:

http://www.rkawakami.net/ibm_t2x/t23_wireless/lid1.jpg

(Photo is of two T23 systems but the ones on the X22 looks the same). The antennas are located behind those diagonal stripes. If your lid does not have these, then somebody must have installed the MiniPCI wireless card (under the keyboard, near the F2 key) and either used internal antennas or did not bother hooking any up (or the card is toast).

[MrFlashport]

after downloading the maintenance manual, I removed the keyboard.

the wireless card is in there but NO antennas are present- explains it (and being under a metal shield from the keyboard explains why it is "deaf")

I guess this machine never had antennas, the display is not like you described with the ridges on the side- but confirmation of the card being in there and no antenna leads explained why it wasn't working.

I guess I could put some antennas in under the keyboard but probably would not be effective. Will just use it with the PCMCIA 54G card.

I wonder if this was an OEM installation or someone stuck this in there? the card looks like the same vintage of the computer, and no signs of tampering or "goodwrench" to the machine.

[rkawakami]

Using the TYPE number from the bottom of the system, plug it into this site in the "Product Number" field:

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... OME-LENOVO

The X22 should start with 2662- and have three more characters after it. That will tell you the configuration of the system as it shipped from the factory. If the system description comes back with the inclusion of "802.11b wireless", then somebody swapped out the lid assembly. If wireless was not a factory provided option, then somebody added the wireless card and then probably realized the problem you now face; installing some antennas.

[MrFlashport]

well, mine is a 2662-8BU which breaks down to:

"Original description: PIII 733MHz (512KB), 128MB RAM, 10.0GB HDD, 12.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, Modem, Li-Ion battery, WinXP PRO"

so apparently it did NOT come with an 802.11 card, guess someone added it thinking it would work without an antenna?

I can't complain, mine came with 640MB of RAM and a genuine IBM Travelstar 40GB (as opposed to 10) hard drive, so these were upgraded at some point. I can't complain it's in mint condition.

Going to invest in a new battery. It;s definately worth it. Amazed at how peppy it is for a P3-M at 733.