Ready to smash mine - wifi problems

[JonathanGennick]

I am incredibly frustrated with my Thinkpad. For whatever reason, the 802.11b only works intermittently, and I can't for the life of me divine the problem.

A few months ago, the laptop suddenly refused to make any sort of wireless connection at all. I pretty much threw it aside until last week, when I reinstalled Windows. I also updated Windows, and I updated the BIOS and all the Thinkpad utilities. The software is as up-to-date as I know how to make it.

Until today, I had thought that my reinstall had solved the problem. But not! I was browsing the web during breakfast, when, for no reason at all, pages just stopped loading. I can't tell you how infuriating that is. Sleeping and rewaking did nothing to help. Though now that I'm writing this note things are working again.

My access point hasn't moved in the three years since I've installed it. My wife's Thinkpad and my daughter's iBook work just fine all over the house. My own Thinkpad used to work in all the places that it doesn't today. I have no evidence for any sort of problem with signal propagation.

The model I have is an X30. I'm pretty sure it's out of warrenty. (bummer, that)

Oh, hey, just as I was writing this note, the Thinkpad lost the wireless signal.

Is it possible that there is a loose connection in the antenna system? I know the antenna wire runs through the hinge. As many times as I've opened and closed the lid, perhaps the wire has fatigued and broken. But how to verify that?

As you can tell, I'm mightily frustrated. Has anyone else experienec the same sort of problem? Any ideas on how to chase down the root cause? Should I just go smash it and buy a new one?

[andyP]

I used to have the same problem with a T23, (similar components). What worked for me was to set the power management of the card to maximum. I hope I have the terms correct for an us english system as I'm working with a german system, here goes:
one left click on the wlan card icon, left click power save mode and select best network connection. You can also do this through device manager.
Good Luck!!

[440roadrunner]

I don't have any specific recommendations, other than

Things DO break, "go bad", fail.

Seems to me the hinge on the way to the antenna is an excellant suspect

WIFI cards "pulls" are all over ebay, cheap, and so are antennas. Seems to me you should be able fo find a replacement.

You basically have a radio transmitter/ receiver in there, so don't forget you have TWO sytems that can fail---something could be wrong with the transmitter (low) power output, or the receiver could have suffered some sort of static surge and lost sensitivitly


Many of these machines have the antenna connectors easily available behind the acess door, you might just buy a replacement, and try TEMPORARILY stringing it out underneath on the desk.

[JonathanGennick]

I used to have the same problem with a T23, (similar components). What worked for me was to set the power management of the card to maximum. I hope I have the terms correct for an us english system as I'm working with a german system, here goes:
one left click on the wlan card icon, left click power save mode and select best network connection. You can also do this through device manager.
Good Luck!!

Thanks. I've currently got "Low (best network performance)" selected. The "high" setting reads "High (best power savings)". I probably do not want anymore power savings. The setting I have is probably the one that I want.

Oddly, my connection is much better now (66% now as opposed to only 33% earlier). Nothing has changed. The laptop hasn't moved. All I've done is open and close the lid a few times. I realize wireless signals can change for no reason whatsoever, but for 2 1/2 years I've had no problems ever with wireless on this laptop. To suddenly have trouble now is frustrating.

[andyP]

Yeh, that's the setting I meant "best network performance".
Maybe something else to try; my router broadcasted on channel 11 as default, I changed it to 6 and the connection was very stable
Maybe worth a try

[JonathanGennick]

Many of these machines have the antenna connectors easily available behind the acess door, you might just buy a replacement, and try TEMPORARILY stringing it out underneath on the desk.

That's a good idea. At least I could rule out (or in) the antenna as the problem. Assuming the antenna is the problem though, it's unlikely I could get inside the lid to replace it. But it would at least be interesting to find out.

I think what's most frustrating with something like this is the lack of diagnostic capabilities at my disposal. With a desktop, I can swap parts in and out. That is not always so easy to do w/a laptop.

[JonathanGennick]

It occurs to me that my mother has an IBM-branded, 802.11b PC card. I think I'll borrow that, plug it in, and see whether the problems dissappear. That would at least give a strong indication as to whether my own machine's problems were due to some software configuration issue or due to the built-in wireless hardware.

[GomJabbar]

You may have to repair your Winsock. See following article from Bill Machrone at PC Magazine: Corruption at the Jersey Shore

How to recover from Winsock2 Corruption

Troubleshoot TCP/IP Connectivity

[LtTPfan]

As you already rightly suspect your antenna wires as a possible cause, have you tried moving the lid back and forth without moving the machine, especially when it is not receiving signals? For about $12 you can buy new antennas and just install them under your keyboard. Swapping cards with your mother's certainly is a good idea; at least you'll see if the problem follows the card. Can you borrow a PCMCIA card to try?

[BruisedQuasar]

I think you would be happy with any major brand wi-fi PCMCIA (PC) card. I had absolutely no problems running any of my cards on my T23 or any of my PCs. My old Compaq running Windows 98 runs my cards just fine and my Netgear USB adapter wif-fi as well.

My favorite is a Sandisk combo (PC Card Wif-fi card and 128MB CF) which has excellent power management. You can get these formerly pricely cards new for under $38 as a lot of handheld PC users found despite Sandisk claims the card will not work in a handheld.

See if tigerdirect or saveateagle still has cards for under $50. They often do.
ebay is a good place to get wifi cards for under $40

[SwedeBill]

Are you using ThinkVantage Access Connections to manage your Wi-Fi connection? I had similar connection problems when I was using Access Connections on my new T43p. I uninstalled Access Connections and now just manually enable and disable my Wi-Fi connections in Win Network Connections, and I no longer have connection problems.

[JonathanGennick]

Just to close the loop on this issue, here's what happened: I discovered that I had a few weeks left on the warrenty (yay!). So I called tech support, and after having me run a number of tests the technician also came to the conclusion that there must be some hardware problem, so he had me send the laptop in for them to work on. That was on Wednesday. Lenovo has it now. I expect it back sometime later on this week.

So here is hoping that they nail the problem.

BTW, in response to SwedeBill, I did try enabling and disabling Thinkvantage Access Connections. However, I did not try completely uninstalling Access Connections. But whether enabled or disabled, my results were the same, so I tend to think that Access Connections was not the problem in my particular case. (but an "uninstall" is not necessarily the same as a "disable", so I'll keep an open mind on that point...)

Anyway, there is nothing to do now but wait for the laptop's return and hope that it works when I get it back.