ThinkPad T41 reinstallation from scratch

[Roger Breton]

My first post here

I purchased a ThinkPad T41 on eBay for $70, no OS, which also meant "no drivers" of any kind too.

I have been using a T30 for many satisfying years. It was the last ThinkPad with a real RS-232 port which I need to interface some of my instruments. Having reinstalled the WinXP lately from scracth on that machine and having managed, with the help from this forum, btw, to reinstall pretty much all I needed to install on top of Windows base installation, I was confident things would be manageable on the T41.

But it wasn't. My first surprise was "no ethernet"? I tried my luck with the 7ira09ww.exe and 1urc13ww.exe drivers packages but, somehow, the Drivers Update Wizard acted as though the installation files were not in the directories I kept pointing? BTW, many of the links to the IBM side are no longer useful as they take one to the main Lenovo site...

So I searched and search online and tried different things. In the end, I bite the bullet and paid the $19 dollars to these guys http://store.payloadz.com/details/87193 ... d-iso.html.

After giving them my PayPal money, I got this ISO file, "IBM Thinkpad T41 XP drivers restore disk recovery cd driver download iso
#UG-UK896", about 250 MB worth of stuff.

I burned the ISO to DVD and popped it in the T41. The Autorun file fired an INTEL chipset installer which, when finished, restarted my machine. Upon restart, the INTEL chipset installer came up again, so I canceled it.

I waited soe some further magic to happen. Sure enough, a friendly interface came up with some kind of menus with buttons for the Audio drivers, the Access Connection, the ATI video driver, and there was some kind of scrolling help file which suggested I tried the Manage > Device Management route first before manually trying to install all the drivers myself from the CD.

So I selected the Audio yellow question mark first and followed the Update Driver wizard.
Lo and behold, the driver installed!

And then, the Network (Ethernet), again no problem, as long as I let the wizard search my CD.

The ATI drivers could not be found directly? I had to manually launch the Installer which went fine.

The only thing is, the WiFi? Seems outdated? No WPA support? I have to get a crazy hexadecimal key, from where, my Router?

I navigated my router screens but I didn't find a place where I could have both that "antique technology" active and WPA?
So I gave up. As long as I can get a wired connection to my network, I'm happy.

Thought I would share my experience and, hopefully, be able to pick your brain in the future.

[RealBlackStuff]

Welcome to the forum.
You may have a very iffy wifi-card in there (intel 2915?).
Try to get an IBM-approved Intel 2200BG to begin with.

[Roger Breton]

Thank's. I stumbled upon some site that gave step by step instructions on how to access the card, inside the machine, while researching my driver installation issue, earlier in the day, and it impressed me as something I may not want to attempt.

To tell you the truth, if exchanging the car would allow using WPA for WiFi then it might be worth it.

I'll have to dig in more ...

[ajkula66]

What's the 7-character model number of that T41, located on the same sticker that hold the serial number and the production date on the bottom of the machine?

237?-???

[RealBlackStuff]

Click on the HMM button at the top of this page, to get your Hardware Maintenance Manual (ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p)
With a small Phillips PH0 or PH00 screwdriver, you need to take out about 13 or 14 screws from the bottom. (see HMM)
Then lift the keyboard, followed by the keyboard bezel, and there's your wifi-card.
Takes you all of 2-3 minutes.

[Roger Breton]

The sticker reads Type 2373-311 S/N 99-G4YCR 04-07

I'll look into the Hardware Maintenance Manual

Thank's for all the help

[RealBlackStuff]

Make a drawing of the bottom with all the screwholes.
Then tape each screw on the corresponding hole.
Much easier to reassemble afterwards.

[ajkula66]

Your T41 as it left the factory:

Based 2373-4GU: P M 1.6GHz, 512MB RAM, 80GB 5400rpm HDD, 14.1 XGA(1024x768) TFT LCD, 32MB ATI Radeon 7500, 16x10x24x/8x CD-RW/DVD, IBM 802.11a/b/g wireless, Bluetooth/Modem, 1Gb Ether, UltraNav, Sec Chip, 6c Li-Ion, WinXP Pro

Your wireless card is an Atheros-chipped card that identifies itself as "ethernet controller" instead of "network controller" which is what one gets to see for most other wireless cards. It's also perfectly capable of WPA 2 presuming XP SP2 or newer.