Disappearing Wireless Adapter

[UNCrules2187]

Hey all,

I've been having this problem for about 3 months now and have yet to find a concrete solution. I have a Thinkpad z61t (type 9442-UN6) that came with XP Professional. I upgraded a few months to Windows Vista Home Premium, ran System Update and installed all the updated drivers. The only driver that has been giving me trouble is the "Wireless LAN ThinkPad 11abgn for Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit- ThinkPad " driver. It works for an unspecified amount of time (sometimes 2 days sometimes 5 weeks) but then it just disappears. I diagnose the problem with Vista and it says "This computer does not have a wireless network adapter installed and configured" and prompts me to install wireless networking hardware and make sure the correct drivers are loaded. Then I have to keep uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers and it's a crapshoot to when it will work. Sometimes it will be fine after one reinstall, sometimes it takes me multiple (as in 8-10 reinstalls) for it to come back.

Anyone know any solutions to this problem? It's very annoying, as I've also reinstalled a clean copy of Vista 3 times already and had to re-download all the drivers and my programs and reupload all my documents which takes FOREVER. I would greatly appreciate an answer.

Thanks in advance.

[ryengineer]

I am not sure if it applies to your machine but it sounds like a Deep Smart Power Down issue.

If not then please look into instructions from GomJabbar in this thread or search for similar issue in this forum.

You can also look at a wireless troubleshooting guide from lenovo.

[UNCrules2187]

I've tried using Device Manager to fix the problem with the card, but the problem is, the card doesn't even show up under Network Adapters; I've only got Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network), Bluetooth Device (RFCOMM Protocol TDI), and Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet.

When the adapter is working, it's usually called "Atheros Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter II" or something of that sort. I have no idea where it goes...when I have the wireless drivers installed and try to "update previous installation" I do get an error message saying "Can not find the card!"...maybe that has something to do with it?

edit: My wireless network adapter just came back. I did nothing. I put the computer to sleep by accident, resumed, and lo and behold, there it was. Of course, I know this will only be temporary :/

edit2: Knew it. Gone again :/

edit3: And back again. Seems whenever I hit F12 to put the laptop into hibernation/deep sleep and then resume, the adapter comes back.

[GomJabbar]

I searched the Microsoft Knowledge Base articles, and the following is the only one I saw that might apply to your problem.

You intermittently lose access to network resources if more than one Network Device Interface Specification (NDIS) filter driver is installed on a computer that is running Windows Vista

[UNCrules2187]

Well, I've searched and searched and I just don't know what to do. The only thing that is a quick "solution" is whenever the adapter "disappears," I just Hibernate to Disk and then turn the laptop back on and the wireless adapter reappears. I may have to just buy an external wireless adapter, which is really annoying. I'm still under warranty...is this a problem Lenovo would fix and/or replace my laptop?

[steveg47]

Well, I've searched and searched and I just don't know what to do. The only thing that is a quick "solution" is whenever the adapter "disappears," I just Hibernate to Disk and then turn the laptop back on and the wireless adapter reappears. I may have to just buy an external wireless adapter, which is really annoying. I'm still under warranty...is this a problem Lenovo would fix and/or replace my laptop?

If you haven't already contacted lenovo then you should. They will probably overnight you a new wireless adapter. Installing the new adapter is a piece of cake.

[ryengineer]

If the wireless card worked flawlessly in Windows XP which I believe it did, then this seems more like a software than hardware issue.

However, you're free to avail your warranty as steveg47 mentioned.