Thinkpads Forum

I recently reloaded Windows 7 and all software/drivers on my computer recently. The reason was mainly just because I wanted a fresh start, but also that there was some kind of problem with my Bluetooth driver and anytime I tried to uninstall it files started deleting from my hard drive.

It seemed everything was working great, but I've noticed some trouble with my wireless radio.

Often, when I click the physical switch on/off just the bluetooth light appears when I turn it back on. My laptop does not believe that the wireless radio is on. Everything is fine in BIOS. I don't have anything set in the Power Manager that should affect it.

I was thinking it had to be something with drivers or something. Once I have it working, it stays on until I try to come back from a hibernate/sleep/shut down/restart. Sometimes it comes back fine, sometimes it doesn't. I couldn't figure out a pattern.

Finally last night I just flipped the physical switch back and forth about a million times (bluetooth on/off/on/off) until finally wireless came on.

Is that typical for the switch problems where only the wireless radio has problems? Thank you!

Have you tried pressing Fn + F5 together?

Do you have everything from Lenovo System Update installed?

When the issue is occurring and I push the Fn+F5 802.11 Wireless Radio is not even an option on the list (Bluetooth is). I haven't figured out any way that consistently gets the wireless working again. Everything is fine in BIOS. The physical switch works (Bluetooth goes on and off). And when the Wireless IS working, it turns off/on with the physical switch and is controlled by the Fn+F5 (it's working at the time of me typing this post). Sometimes when I bring my computer back from sleep wireless is there, sometimes not. So, like I said, no rhyme or reason and I don't think it's a sleep/hibernate issue. I may restart the computer or do a full shutdown and it doesn't always come back. I'm starting to imagine maybe there's some kind of hardware connection issue?

I have the latest Lenovo Wireless System update installed (just a few days ago - one with the Airplane Mode on the options bar of the Fn+F5 menu).