Thinkpads Forum

I plugged in LAN and then when I went to go back to wifi, that's when the problems started. Appears Access Connections has permanently shut off the wifi. Access Connections just keeps telling me the BIOS or hardware switch is off. There is no hardware switch on the T410. I googled and it appears to be a common issue on all new T410 and T510 but the only workaround works in Windows 7 and I'm on Windows XP.

Here's what I tried.

going into Bios and turning wireless radio from ON to OFF (power off) then go back into BIOS and turn radio from OFF to ON (power off) --> no effect
uninstall wireless intel drivers (reboot) --> no effect
toggling intel wireless driver from wireless on to wireless off (reboot) and then wireless off to wireless on (reboot) --> no effect
uninstall access connections --> no effect
uncheck turn off wireless radio when idle --> no effect
check lenovo website for latest drivers (latest drivers from july when machine was made; nothing new to download) --> no effect

any suggestions?

FN-F5 on the keyboard. Turn on the wireless radio.

The wireless switch on the T410 is on the right side now as a lot smaller switch.

Harryc wrote:FN-F5 on the keyboard. Turn on the wireless radio.

Function F5 just shows a picture of a finger swiping a wifi switch or turn the wifi on in the bios.

I'm very well aware of Function F5. But on these new thinkpads, that function is useless.

Colonel O'Neill wrote:The wireless switch on the T410 is on the right side now as a lot smaller switch.

Thx, that did the trick!

dmdsoftware wrote:
Function F5 just shows a picture of a finger swiping a wifi switch or turn the wifi on in the bios.

I'm very well aware of Function F5. But on these new thinkpads, that function is useless.

Not true, it works as long as the owner is aware enough to turn on the wireless switch first. In fact FN-F5 (picture of a finger swiping a wifi switch) was trying to tell you that exact thing. ...LOL.