Thinkpads Forum

Does anyone have a problem with the wireless antenna turning off when on battery power on an X60? Please help troubleshoot this. Thanks.

Betsy Kuzio wrote:Does anyone have a problem with the wireless antenna turning off when on battery power on an X60? Please help troubleshoot this. Thanks.

Haven't noticed it, but you might go into the device manager and look at the wireless card's settings. I know with the Intel card you can change the power management settings but I don't recall seeing a "Turn this device off to conserve power" option.

Which type of wireless card do you have...Intel or Thinkpad's Atheros?

I don't know - whatever it came standard with - sorry, not a techie. My user is in another state, so don't have the laptop in front of me. Is there a way to query with model # to check?

Betsy Kuzio wrote:I don't know - whatever it came standard with - sorry, not a techie. My user is in another state, so don't have the laptop in front of me. Is there a way to query with model # to check?

You could check tabook.pdf...just google it

Had similar issue last night, although my X60s was on AC power.

I have the ThinkPad 11a/b/g wireless option.

I established my wireless connection by clicking on Access Connections icon in the notification area, finding my router by SSID and then attempting to connect to it. The software brought up configuration screens which I filled in with things like security info. The connection was successful. However, after a few minutes the wireless radio turned off. This happened repeatedly.

After searching to see if there was a power management setting for the wireless radio and finding none, I then launched the full Access Connections application (not from the notification area icon) and proceeded to create a profile. After entering a name for the profile and proceeding to the next screen, I noticed that the screen looked just like the configuration screen I had filled out before - so I figured the software must have already created a profile for me. However, no existing profiles were listed.

So, I went ahead and created this profile, re-entering the configuration information I had already entered (security info, etc.). I set it up to use best available connection (i.e., ethernet when plugged in, wireless when not).

After I did this, it seems the wireless radio no longer mysteriously turns off on its own. The system correctly switches between wired and wireless connection, depending on whether my Ethernet cable is plugged in or not.

So, somehow the initial wireless connection not being associated with a profile seems to have been related to the mysterious radio auto-power-off.

If someone knows where this "feature" is documented, please share...