x230t WiFi not recognized

[Dani Costi]

Hello everyone!

I bought a ThinkPad X230 Tablet a while back, untested. The only problem I’ve encountered so far is with the wireless card. Even after opening it up to replace the thermal paste, the Wi-Fi card still wouldn’t function.

I don’t believe it’s a compatibility or driver issue, as I’ve tried multiple operating systems, including Windows 7 and Ubuntu, but the PCIe card wasn’t recognized by the system, not even in Device Manager.

Interestingly, this laptop was originally configured with the optional WWAN 3G card, and, you guessed it that’s not recognized either. What’s strange is that the green network light does come on in the BIOS when I flip the wireless switch (it has no effect when I flip it in Windows).

As a last resort, I swapped in the same model Wi-Fi card from a similarly aged ThinkPad, but got the same result. So it seems like this may be a motherboard issue.

In the meantime, I’ve been using a USB Wi-Fi adapter and keeping it around as a secondary laptop. It’s a bit clunky, but still fun to use. I think it would make a great candidate for a dedicated Linux machine, even though the i5 processor holds up decently with some tweaks in Windows 11.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with a similar ThinkPad model? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

[axur-delmeria]

Check the BIOS settings. IIRC there are menus that allow you to enable/disable the WiFi, WWAN, and other devices.

[Dani Costi]

Thank you for the response!
I checked the BIOS again, but unfortunately, I didn’t find any settings related to the wireless cards—only options for Wake on LAN and UEFI IPv4. It's the latest BIOS version from 2019, I thought updating it might help.

[axur-delmeria]

Thank you for the response!
I checked the BIOS again, but unfortunately, I didn’t find any settings related to the wireless cards—only options for Wake on LAN and UEFI IPv4. It's the latest BIOS version from 2019, I thought updating it might help.

It may be under the "Security" section. I don't have free time at the moment to dig up a spare X220 to check.

[babblefish]

I had a similar problem with my X230T. My Wi-Fi card is an Intel 62205ANHMW (FRU p/n 60Y3253). The green Wi-Fi LED lights up, but the card is not recognized. I made sure the Wi-Fi switch on left side of the laptop was switched on. I have Windows 7 64 bit installed. I downloaded and installed driver nz1w303w_64.exe from the Lenovo website and that took care of the problem.