T61, T60 - BSOD for Intel WiFi cards, Middleton BIOS, & Win 8.1 & 10

[wsalomon]

This is an "all-in-one" post.

Recently, my trusty T61p started getting Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) with the following message:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQAL in sysnetwlv64.sys

This has been frequently reported as a complication of Windows 8.1 (only) when installing the Intel drivers for the 3945 and 4965 WiFi cards. Both Intel and Microsoft state that these cards, plus the 5200 are no longer supported, but the 6200, 6300, etc. are.

Suggested remedies are:
1. For the T61's, reflash with the Middleton BIOS (2.29 plus mods - no white list, SATA 2 works). Then install a more recent WiFi card that has supported drivers for Win 8.1.
2. Change cards in both the T60 and T61s to the IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad 11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Express Adapter 42T0825 (this is an Atheros AR5008 5418 AR5BXB72).

In recent posts I have seen about Win 10, the old Intel drivers that used to work for Win 8.0 (but didn't in 8.1) appear to work in Win 10. (However, since it is still before July 29, I can only assume this is in preview versions, not RTM). If anyone has actually in installed the Win 10 RTM and had no problems, this whole thing may be a "non-issue". Is there any experience with this?

If I follow the remedies suggested above:
1. Using the replace the card approach with the Middleton BIOS, what is a good card to get? The other benefit of the Middleton BIOS is to allow the harddrives in the T-61's as SATA 2 instead of the dumbed-down SATA 1 as in the stock 2.29, 2.30 BIOS
2. If I follow the replace with the Atheros cards, I assume the best approach is to see if there are 3 antennas in the T60 (the T61's already have them). If not, I understand that I can add the 3rd antenna with FRU 42R9909.

For specific machine configurations, see the specs at the bottom (they're all "FrankenPads").

Many thanks for looking and your comments...

---------
T-61p -- 15.4" WXSGA+, Win 8.1 64-bit, BIOS 2.30, CPU-T9500 2.6 GHz (Penryn), RAM 8GB DDR2-667 (2x4GB), HD 500GB (7200RPM, SATA 2, WD5000BPKT-00PK4T0), NVIDIA Quadro F570FM (1680x1050 - 9.18.13.2702), DVD-RAM, WiFi Intel 4965 (13.3.0.137), Ethernet Intel 82566MM (9.13.41.3), Ricoh Media Cardbus (6.3.9600.16384), Biometric CPU (1.6.1.341), Conexant Modem (7.62.0.0), Broadcom Bluetooth (12.0.0.8047)

T-61 -- 14.1" WXGA+, Win 8.1 64-bit, BIOS 2.30, CPU-T7800 2.6 GHz (Merom), RAM 8GB DDR2-667 (2x4GB), HD 320GB (7200RPM, SATA 3, WD3200BEKX-22B7W4T0), NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (1440x900 - 9.18.13.2702), DVD-RAM, WiFi Intel 4965 (13.3.0.137), Ethernet Intel 82566MM (9.13.41.3), Biometric CPU (1.6.1.341), Conexant Modem (7.62.0.0), Broadcom Bluetooth (12.0.0.8047)

T-60 -- 14.1" XGA, Win 8.1 32-bit, BIOS 2.27, TPM 1.2, CPU-T7600 2.3 GHz (Merom), RAM 3GB usable DDR2-667 (2x2GB), HD 320GB (7200RPM, SATA 2, WD3200BEKT-00PVM4T0), Intel Graphics 945 Express (1024x768 - 8.15.10.2697), DVD-RAM, WiFi Intel 3945ABG (13.3.0.137), Ethernet Intel PRO/1000PL (9.15.11.0), Biometric CPU (1.6.1.341), Conexant Modem (7.62.0.0), Broadcom Bluetooth (12.0.0.8047)


MOD edit: No double-posting allowed on this Forum.
Duplicate in W8 section deleted.

[Hans Gruber]

I just installed a 4695AGN today as well as a SATA III SSD. I have the Middleton bios on my T61 and both run without problems. The SSD is running at SATA II bus speeds.

[ajkula66]

All of my ThinkPads that utilize a mini-PCI-e wireless card format as found in T6x and later models run Atheros 9380 cards and I absolutely, positively love them.

With that said, all of these machines run some flavour of W7 so I'm clueless on how the card in question would behave under W8.x or W10.

[josh5k]

My T61 is still on the way, but I have the same 4965AGN on my Dell Precision and on Windows 10 240 build it caused the bluescreen same as it did intermittently when on Windows 8.1

I read elsewhere that removing the power saving option from the driver window might help and since then I've not seen the BSOD yet, but it's only been a couple of days.

[shahidt]

I have a T60 which originally had an Intel wifi card, is the 42T0825 card whitelisted? In addition, will swapping to this card make my laptop run cooler as well?