Thinkpads Forum

It happens incredibly often when my wifi switch is even slightly bumped.
What is the easiest way to get it set to "on" always?
I also use an Atheros card which does not respond to the wifi light anyway, so it's not too much lost.

Welcome to thinkpads.com! My take on it would be to open up the system, remove the switch from the printed circuit board and force pin 3 (of 5) to system ground. From looking at the schematic diagram, the switch is tied to a signal named GLOBAL_WL_DISABLE. Typically if a signal name does not have a minus sign in front of it, then it is "active high". Grounding it should permanently enable the card.

An alternative would be to remove the plastic sliding thing from the bottom casing.

But if the actual switch contact is dirty or intermittent, that would not permanently solve the problem.

rkawakami wrote:But if the actual switch contact is dirty or intermittent, that would not permanently solve the problem.

Would switching it on-off-on-off-on-off a few times be a laymen's solution?

It could possibly help but the problem may return. The way I read the first post, OP is/was looking for a stable solution.

I followed rkawakami's initial suggestion to force it to "always on". It worked well.