Thinkpads Forum

This forum has been a great help for me in the past (it allowed me to get past the internal whitelist on a T60 and upgrade its wireless modem; yah!) so I wanted to look for help on a T400 setup issue. I tried Lenovo's "customer service" number, but have to leave messages that are never returned. I also looked in the forums here and didn't see anything, so here goes....

Computer: New T400s purchased through Lenovo Direct (my employer's preferred vender)
OS: XP SP3. The vendor had a license for a downgrade from Vista, so I took it, and it came with XP out of the box.
RAM, HD, etc.: As much as I could put on it.

Everything is dandy except for the absense of wireless / wifi. Here's what I see:

* There is no wireless card that I can see is shown in the Device Manager, only an Intell 82567LM Gigabit Network Connection card.
* There is no "Wireless Link" control panel, nor Bluetooth or anything else wireless.
* In the Network Connections dialog, I only see "local area connection."

Know that the wireless switch is in the "on" position, by the way. I also checked the BIOS setup utility (config/network) and made sure that everything that I can see is enabled. Note that the only thing that seems to be applicable is Wireless LAN and WiMAX radios; I have a T60 and it has an "internal wireless device" that I can enable, but this setup option isn't present for the T400.

Any assistance that could be offered would be appreciated.

latron

FN-F5 - enable the wireless radio.

Thanks much for your reply. I tried that and got "No supported wireless adapters [802.11, WAN or Bluetooth] are installed in this system," alas.

Next step is prying off the cover of the computer, perhaps? Odd, because this is a new, out of the box system....

What's the machine type/model from the sticker on the bottom of the machine? It will be a (7) digit alpha-numeric like 2667-3CU. Also, are there any unknown devices in device manager?

Thanks for your note. The sticker reads:
"Type 2815 - CTO S/N XX - XXXXX 09/10. Product ID: 28115CTO."

Correction: "Type 2815 - CTO S/N XX - XXXXX 09/10. Product ID: 2815CTO."

I don't see any mention of wireless or bluetooth in the shipped parts list.
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... -WARNTY#sw

Thanks for the note. That would be bizarre -- sell a laptop with a wireless switch/key/etc., but no wireless? This is what we supposedly purchased:

Highlights
* 2.40 GHz Core 2 Duo SP9400
* XP Pro(preinstalled via downgrade rights Vista Business)
* 14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ LED Backlight
* Intel WiFi Link 5300
* Integrated Gigabit Ethernet
* 2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
* 120 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm - Low Halogen
* Multi-Drive ( CDRW-DVDRW )
* GMA 4500MHD
* Security Chip

I requested an upgrade to 4 gigs of ram and a 250gb hard drive, but that's it. Interesting, though, that the vendor's listing said it was a 2815W13, but we ended up with 2815CTO. Grrrr.....

Thanks for your help. I'll let you know how it turns out.
L.

Good luck. I am going to remove references to your serial number...not a good idea to post online.

Thanks! Hope to know more by early next week.

The "CTO" in your machine type is there because you made changes to the spec (memory and hard drive). Your base configuration was a 2815-W13, but it became a 2815-CTO when you changed the spec. This is so that lenovo can easily identify preconfigured models vs. customized ones for the purposes of service, tech support, and downloads.

Great -- useful information. I've contacted the vendor, all is in process. Somehow the wi-fi card was dropped from the build request; the next one will have the correct card. Thanks for your help.