X61s wireless master switch has a life of its own

[binand]

The master wireless switch is driving me nuts.

I don't use it at all, but every so often, it pops up "Wireless Radio is Off" followed by "Wireless Radio is On". The wifi connection (irrespective of where I am - home, work or elsewhere) actually goes off and then back on again. This flip-flop continues once every few seconds, sometimes for several minutes. Sometimes it stops in the "Off" position and then I have fiddle with the switch or even reboot (hibernate/resume also works).

The times I reboot, I get a "Program not responding" for the Wifi driver or something related. I think this is the effect, and not the cause.

I am pretty sick of this. I found some links that disables the switch permanently via a hardware hack (soldering involved) but I don't want to attempt that unless as a last resort.

Please let me know what I can do about this. The laptop is a Lenovo X61s bought in January 2009. It originally came with Vista, but I dual boot with Fedora and XP Pro (come to think of it, I have not faced this problem in Fedora - then again, due to work compulsions I spend a most of my time in XP). As far as I can tell, I am up-to-date with Microsoft and Lenovo/others software updates.

[BillMorrow]

the wifi switch is an actual switch..
it MIGHT be bad in that the connection when "on" is imperfect..
not sure why this would happen but if it were me i would first try removing the plastic part that moves the switch on the chance that it does not let the switch fully close..
next i would look for some contact cleaner of the type once used on (now antique) TV sets.. or is available for marine electronic applications..

i'm no engineer and i don't have access to the schematics of thinkpads but your problem ALSO might be that the solid state device that actually removes power from the thinkpad radios is flaky..

the hardware maintenance manual is available on the lenovo website.. use the machine model/type number to find it.. google comes to mind for ease of locating it..

welcome to the forum.. i hope this and any subsequent replies help..