T400 Wifi connection and system update issue....

[umern]

Just bought a T400 and I have a couple of weird issues - did a search here but no obvious matches.
I am using the Windows to configure the connection rather than Access Connections (note this problem occurred before and after I un-installed Access Connections).

The problem is after a reboot the Wireless wont connect. It shows my router at the top in the list of Wireless Networks as Automatic - but it is not connected and the button at the bottom is weirdly labelled 'Disconnect' rather than Connect and the tooltray icon shows not connected.
If I select the wifi card in Network Connections and select Repair then it connects fine and stays connected. But if I reboot I have to repair again before it will connect. Uninstalling AC made no difference. I have 3 other Thinkpads and they all connect to the router fine after a reboot - albeit none of them have the Intel 5100 wifi chip of the T400. My router is a Belkin N Vision model.

I upgraded to the latest Wifi driver from the Lenovo website and even tried a slightly newer version on the Intel website but the problem continues.

Also, when I ran System Update - it updated itself but when it does a scan for new updates it downloads the package list but then reports no valid updates found - nothing, not even optional ones etc. Yet I can see that a few things are clearly out of date compared to what is on the Lenovo website. This is my 7th Thinkpad (yeah!) and don't remember ever coming across this before.

[Marin85]

For some unknown reason Vista tends to make some problems. But my impression is that this happens to often in your case. Try following: delete the network from the saved networks, reinstall Lenovo driver, connect to that network again and provide the wifi key (and save it). I hope this can help.

Also, there currently seems to be some major driver issue with the Intel cards randomly disconnecting. I´m not sure though in how far your problem is related to this.

Marin

[umern]

Oops - I should have mentioned - it is actually running XP Pro SP2.
Used the XP Lenovo recovery disk so it is a Lenovo install and not a vanilla XP install.

Thanks for the reply though

Any ideas anyone on the Software update issues - or is this because I am using XP and it only looks for Vista related updates??

[Marin85]

Since you have XP installed, SU looks only for XP-related updates, so no worry about that. What you should actually worry about, is SU itself. It´s not a good idea to update your system using Lenovo SU, because this application tends to make problems of various nature. Best thing is to manually install updates and only of needed. BTW, the basic idea from above applies to XP as well (only the path is for Vista): delete the save network, reinstall the wifi driver, connect to the network/type in the key.

[umern]

Cheers will try that.
Just assumed it was something specific to the T400 - I currently have a T43, T42 and T61 all connecting to the same router fine and never ever since this issue before. But I guess the T400 is the only N card and my router is a N router.

I usually just use SU to identify what is available and then selectively install what I think is worth updating - saves wading through many items listed on the website. But just found it weird that it did not find a single update.

[Marin85]

It could be also something related to the N-card. There is no way to tell for sure what is the problem and what is the solution. So you may have to try out a few things.

Yes, it´s strange that SU doesn´t show any updates...unless you have all recent updates applied. You can check the versions on Lenovo website, under Support, Driver matrices. Maybe, there is some issue with SU as well.

[Likvid]

For some unknown reason Vista tends to make some problems. But my impression is that this happens to often in your case. Try following: delete the network from the saved networks, reinstall Lenovo driver, connect to that network again and provide the wifi key (and save it). I hope this can help.

Also, there currently seems to be some major driver issue with the Intel cards randomly disconnecting. I´m not sure though in how far your problem is related to this.

Marin

The disconnection problem is solved with WLAN, i haven't had problems for days now since i changed the things below for my T400 at work.

1. You need to change in Power Managment fron "Portable/Laptop" profile to "Always On".

2. Also you need to uncheck Access Connections-> Configure -> Global Settings -> Enable automatic wireless LAN control (Uncheck the box to disable it)

The seconde note means if you have it enabled the AC will disconnect your WLAN after 3 minutes of inactivity, a stupid feature, don't know why they enabled that in the first place.