Thinkpads Forum

Model number is 6366L6U.

I'm getting much poorer reception than I did with my X40. Why? I can sit in the same room no more than 10 feet away from a Hawking wireless antenna booster and get no more than a 60% signal. My X40 gets 100%.

Someone told me the other day that the newer X series laptops do not have an antenna across the top of the display. Is this why the reception is somuch worse?

Bill Armstrong
longtime ThinkPad user

Are you using XP or Vista?

If your OS is Vista, and I suspect it is, then your actual signal strength is probably ok and is just being reported erroneously. I believe it's a Vista/Intel driver issue. You might try updating to the latest version of AC and the latest Intel wireless lan driver downloaded from the Intel website.

Steve,

Yes, Vista. I think I have the latest drivers, but will double check. I should add that not only is the reception reported as weak, it is weak. I get no reception in parts of our house where I have OK reception with my X40.

Bill

steveg47 wrote:If your OS is Vista, and I suspect it is, then your actual signal strength is probably ok and is just being reported erroneously. I believe it's a Vista/Intel driver issue. You might try updating to the latest version of AC and the latest Intel wireless lan driver.

There are a lot of issues with wireless, Vista, Access Connections, Intel mini pci express and the intel wifi drivers. They all seem to combine to make for a less then satisfactory experience when compared to XP. I have switched to the Lenovo wifi card which uses an Atheros chipset and things are somewhat improved in Vista on my T60. The 60% signal strength is now 100% and I see many more access points however the connection reliability is still not up to par with XP. Some of your issues might be resolved by following some of the power setting recommendation from Intel.
Do the exact opposite and of intel's recommendation and set to "Maximum Performance". If you are using Access Connections change this setting in your AC profiles. I think it's in Advanced Settings. Dont have my T60 with me so I'm not sure.
See this intel link:
http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/w ... 024509.htm

Also make sure you are using AC version 4.31B or you will not be able to set and keep the "Maximum Performance" setting in you AC profiles.

Thanks Steve,

My Access Connections version is 4.31, not 4.31B. I checked for an update and was told I have the most recent version. I remember when I purchased my X40 that the IBM wifi card, as opposed to the Intel card, was the one to have. Perhas this is the case here as well.

Bill

steveg47 wrote:There are a lot of issues with wireless, Vista, Access Connections, Intel mini pci express and the intel wifi drivers. They all seem to combine to make for a less then satisfactory experience when compared to XP. I have switched to the Lenovo wifi card which uses an Atheros chipset and things are somewhat improved in Vista on my T60. The 60% signal strength is now 100% and I see many more access points however the connection reliability is still not up to par with XP. Some of your issues might be resolved by following some of the power setting recommendation from Intel.
See this link:
http://www.intel.com/support/wireless/w ... 024509.htm

Also make sure you are using AC version 4.31B or you will not be able to set and keep the "Maximum Performance" setting in you AC profiles.

Access Connections 4.31b
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-67283

If it's the same card that my T60 uses it's 40Y7026 and can be obtained quickly at buy.com, no tax, free shipping, in stock.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?s ... &#cReviews

I had exactly the same issue, with my X60, until yesterday. No matter how close i got to my access point (Belkin F5D8230 pre-N) all I got was 60%. The original XP install had the problem and so did my Vista Ultimate install. I'd pretty much decided it was my router and the automated response I got from Lenovo was less than useless. My (French) parents-in-law have just got adsl/wireless and when i was still showing 60% via their access point (Orange LiveBox) I could at least rule out the Belkin as the source of the problems.

Yesterday, I installed the new AC4.31b (slower to respond than 4.31) in the hope it would help; it didn't and I already had the latest Lenovo driver for the pci-e 3945abg Intel card so was about to give up when I spied a much newer driver on the Intel website (11.1.00) so I gave it a whirl. For the 1st time ever my x60 now shows the correct signal strength, up to 99% if I'm close enough!!

I would strongly urge you to try the new driver first, before purchasing a new card.

Thanks so much! That Intel driver absolutely did the trick. Between the new driver and repositioning my Hawking WiFi signal booster I can now get good reception from the living to the kitchen table. It seems like the kitchen appliances were also posing a bit of a problem. I have all green bars where I previously had no signal at all.

orrelljet wrote:I had exactly the same issue, with my X60, until yesterday. No matter how close i got to my access point (Belkin F5D8230 pre-N) all I got was 60%. The original XP install had the problem and so did my Vista Ultimate install. I'd pretty much decided it was my router and the automated response I got from Lenovo was less than useless. My (French) parents-in-law have just got adsl/wireless and when i was still showing 60% via their access point (Orange LiveBox) I could at least rule out the Belkin as the source of the problems.

Yesterday, I installed the new AC4.31b (slower to respond than 4.31) in the hope it would help; it didn't and I already had the latest Lenovo driver for the pci-e 3945abg Intel card so was about to give up when I spied a much newer driver on the Intel website (11.1.00) so I gave it a whirl. For the 1st time ever my x60 now shows the correct signal strength, up to 99% if I'm close enough!!

I would strongly urge you to try the new driver first, before purchasing a new card.

OK so the big question is do I buy the Intel card or the IBM card for $5 less?

proaudioguy wrote:OK so the big question is do I buy the Intel card or the IBM card for $5 less?

Some say the Intel one runs cooler/longer?

In any case, if you get the Intel card, you do get a nice little "Centrino Duo" sticker