Access Connections and Wireless Connectivity is Screwed Up!

[jskjolda]

First time on site and think it is great place. I have 3 ThinkPads bween myet wife, personal and work. This issue relates to my personal T60.

I took a systems update yesterday from Lenovo for my wireless adapter (Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 abg). After the upgrade, I could not connect to my wireless network via Access Connections and my profiles I had created. In fact, under Tools, the Find Wireless is disabled (greyed out).

I did see that I had a wireless connection through a Wireless Network Connection via XP.

I spent the better part of a day uninstalling and reinstalling Access Connections, rolling back wireless drivers, getting latest from Intel and still no luck. Access Connections still does not have the ability to find wireless networks; my wireless adapter says it is not connected and all attempts to do so fail.

My adapter driver is 11.5.0.36
Access Connections is v4.42
OS is XP (SP2)

Any help woud be greatly appreciated.

[fredstev]

I feel your pain. Until some one with more knowledge than I (about everyone) helps out, have you tried a restore point previous to the problem? Also, I had this happen on a T23 I used to own. The tip some one gave me was to restart in safe mode, then go into "System", then "device manager" and delete all the wireless devices.
Mine had several "ghost" devices that I deleted. After a reboot and "found new device" installation, everything worked again.

Good luck.

[alacrityathome]

fred has a solid recommendation....roll back to alternate settings....or re image hard drive.

other forum threads also recommend against using Lenovo updates unless there is a specific problem or need your have....if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

access connections is a sensitive bugger sometimes. using another wireless pcmcia or usb dongle with its own software will throw the access connections for a loop....if that had occured for you.

I have had to recover from access connections a few times.

Other threads recommend deleting access communications and using the windows wireless capability......which I haven't tried.

Good luck

[tyrone888]

I've run into this problem a few times with three different laptops. The best solution is to completely uninstall your wireless driver from device manager and also uninstall Access connections, then reboot the machine.

Then install Access Connections first, and install the wireless drivers 2nd (or was it the other way around? I forget ). Make sure that you manually point to the latest wireless drivers from the directory where you extracted it.

I think the first time it happened to me, it took me forever to figure it out. Then I was able to fix it quicker the next few times. Sometimes it seems like a guessing game with AC and the wireless drivers. Good luck!

*Edit* - Make sure you are using the wireless drivers from the Lenovo site. I never had success with the Intel drivers and AC.

[hellosailor]

js-
I found an odd glitch. I'm using Vista, where IPv6 support is provided with something called a "teredo tunneling" protocol. My WiFi router worked perfectly--until I enabled MAC filtering on it, and then the Tpad said there was a connection/access problem and couldn't link up.
It turns out the "teredo tunneling" stuff was too new for the router, disabling it costs me nothing and makes things work.

I mention this because apparently teredo tunneling was a (default disabled) option in XP, is enabled now by default in Vista. Maybe the firmware update also enabled some security stting or some similar provision that is clobbering you.

I'd go through and manually check all the settings, especially anything about IP6, firewalling, or access restrictions.

[uberT]

I had issues last week after doing that "update".

I took a systems update yesterday from Lenovo for my wireless adapter (Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 abg). After the upgrade, I could not connect to my wireless network via Access Connections and my profiles I had created. In fact, under Tools, the Find Wireless is disabled (greyed out).

For some reason I lost my ethernet connectivity. In Device Mangler there was the yellow exclamation pt next to the Ethernet driver. I tried a bunch of stuff. Nothing worked and I couldn't connect to anything. Not sure what ultimately happened, but I started un-installing things including AC and let them re-install. Things finally came back to life after 4 hours of fooling around.

I attempted the "driver rollback" fix...it did nothing.

Lenovo is cranking out some real junk. Leaves me very apprehensive about doing any more "updates".

[jdhurst]

Unfortunately, Lenovo dumped the good tool (Software Installer) with a promise that they would fix System Update, but haven't.

For wireless, find the newest drivers (except for Access Connections stick with 4.41), download them, uninstall AC and wireless, reboot, install new wireless, check connectivity, install AC if you wish (V4.41 is working and stable for me). ... JDH

[uberT]

jd, is it fairly simple to set up wireless connectivity via Windows (XP)? It's easy enough to remove AC. How difficult is setting up the default system?

Thanks.

[jskjolda]

To all that have left advice, I thank you. I am still out of the water. When I try to go back to an old restore point, it looks like it is setting up my laptop then I get a message that it was unsuccessful, try another point.

I have uninstalled AC, drivers and reinstalled with no success. I can't find AC 1.41 to roll back to.

I have had it today and feel pretty defeated. Tomorrow is another day. I can only connect with an ethernet cable.

[uberT]

John, have you tried removing Access Connections entirely and setting up your wireless connection thru WINXP?

Does the wireless driver still appear in Devince Manager?

[Paul Unger]

I have uninstalled AC, drivers and reinstalled with no success. I can't find AC 1.41 to roll back to.

You'll find AC 4.41 near the bottom of the page here, under the heading "Previous version downloads". Take a look at the README while you're at it. Good luck!

[jskjolda]

Thanks to all who have responded. I seem to be half way home. I uninstalled the Intel drivers and AC then reinstalled drivers, rebooted then installed AC and rebooted.

When I start AC I now have the Find Wireless Network button and functionality.

Now when I click the button, I get the message "The Wireless Radio is powered off. Do you want to power it on?" When I click yes, nothing happens.

Any further ideas?

[ryengineer]

Thanks to all who have responded. I seem to be half way home. I uninstalled the Intel drivers and AC then reinstalled drivers, rebooted then installed AC and rebooted.....snip

All drivers must be installed in right order, follow antera309 instructions:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 458#215458

[jskjolda]

I have read the instructions and before I embark on the journey I have some concerns that I don't understand. For example

4) Search the C:\WINDOWS\INF folder for any files containing "2200BG". Delete any OEMxx.INF files containing this string -
>>Since I have a 3945ABG card I assume where ever he comments on 2200BG I should use 3945ABG
>> Am i lookinf for files in the INF floder that have 3945ABG in the file name and/or am I looking for 3945ABG in each OEMxx.INF file and deleting only those that do?

10) Reboot

11) Using Device Manager, force a re-install of the latest version of the Intel PRO/1000 Cabled network adapter (choose "I will choose the driver to install" then "Have disk" and provide the location on the hard disk with the PRO/100 driver files for XP). Reboot if prompted
>>When I come out of a reboot, my pc is already reinstalling the drivers. Do I need to disable something to do it manually?

Thanks for your help.

[jskjolda]

On January 31st I replied that I had the "Find" function back but when I tried to power the wireless radio on nothing happened.

I was going to try antera309's procedures but I try and stay out of the registery if at all possible.

In several other threads I pciked up on a possible power management issue which might explain why I was getting the message and the radio would not power on. So.....

I uninstalled the power management driver and utility and lo and behold on reboot my wireless connected. I have yet to reinstall the power management utility. I will post again after I do.

For all who offered help. thanks much.

[khaverblad]

Un-installing the power management utility did the trick for me as well since just downgrading to AC 4.41 itself wasn't enough and to be mentioned I haven't gone through the entire list of un-installing and re-installing guide that's mentioned. Just a plain un-install of the AC 4.42 and PMU and then installing AC 4.41 did the trick for me on the T60 (2007-FRG).

[Truthfinder]

I have found that the best way to go is forget about access connections and just use the Windows wireless that is already installed with Windows XP.

I've come to see that there are far less issues this way and you don't wind up losing your wireless when you put your ThinkPad to sleep and come back on again.

Just my 2 cents............. Hope this helps

[khaverblad]

Well, I actually never really had any problem with the AC on T60 and on a X40 it has never ever made any trouble. But, with the last upgrade from AC 4.41 to 4.42 it gave me some real headache.

After that I un-installing the power management utility everything worked again fine; just for the fun of it I gave it a try and ran the System Update and re-installed the power management utility again; well everything still works fine.

One that I suspect might have something to do with the error is the old AC profiles; might be worth trying to completely remove the old profiles when un-installing AC and re-create the profiles from scratch and don't import old profiles or from another system.

[sjthinkpader]

Is the wireless disable sliding switch in the ON position?

[khaverblad]

Sure was; but I think that for some of the users that have problem I'm quite convinced that the power management utility are part of the problems in combination with Intel wifi drivers. I have a Dell Inspiron 8600 that have had major issues with the some of the newer drivers from Intel and the solution there was to fall back on some of the older version. But about power management utility I still have problem with that if I close the thinkpad lid when the system runs on battery; well then I'm not able to get the wifi to work anymore and if I'm trying the start AC I only get the splash screen. Only solution so far is to re-boot the system...

Oh and about IBM/Lenovo when it comes to report bugs; it really nice to get back that they want money to register a support case to file the bug report.....

[Ansible]

I'm unable to shake the problem with the intel wireless. I can see local wireless networks, but I can't connect. Or if I can connect, I can't actually send/receive anything. If I boot into ubuntu, it works fine.

I removed Access Connections using Add/Remove Programs. I removed Power Manager(ment?) the same way. I repaired and reinstalled the 11.05.036 drivers, downloaded the 11.05.032 from the intel website and installed, uninstalled both the intel pro application and the driver. Rebooted about 100 times.

Each time I uninstall the driver and reboot, it automatically installs the driver again. Is there some way to prevent this automatic reinstall?

Man this is the last time I use that lenovo system updater.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Truthfinder]

I too have had numerous negative issues using the installed Lenovo update software. Thankfully I have a recent Ghost backup to rstore from which resolved my problems.

The old saying "DON'T FIX IT IF IT ISN'T *^*^*". Well, you know the rest.

The only thing I update is the bios software and I go directly to the Lenovo update site for this.

Hope this helps.

My 2 cents

[jskjolda]

Ansible, it was doing the same to me until I went into Add/Remove Programs and uninstalled both Imntel Pro Network Connection Drivers and Intel ProSet/Wireless Software. These were the programs I uninstalled.

[Ansible]

jskoda, did you still have access connections installed? After rebooting, did windows automatically reinstall the intel driver?

I've also uninstalled the two intel apps, but when I rebooted the driver was still there. Maybe I'll take another run at it.

[Ansible]

Ok success at last. I want those 6 hours of my life back! Thanks for the help.

For future generations, I'll list the steps I took to resurrect my wireless connection:

- previously, I had uninstalled Access Connections, Power Manager, network drivers, rebooted and etc. See earlier in the thread.

- from add/remove programs, uninstalled first "Intel Pro Network Connections Drivers", then "Intel ProSet/wireless Software".

- rebooted. On bootup, canceled out at windows' attempt to install wireless driver.

- rebooted again, for good measure. canceled again.

- went to C:\drivers\WIN\WLANINT2\XP\Apps\x32 and ran program
"iProInst.exe". This is where the "7kwc50ww.exe" program from the lenovo website had deposited the files. Elected to install both the application and the driver.

- list of networks came up, in no particular order. hopefully means all my old settings were forgotten.

- got a prompt from the intel install for reboot. although tempted to try to connect, hit reboot.

- after reboot, was able to connect to my neighbors unencrypted network. After that, tried my own wep network and was able to connect.

- concluded that I will never use that access connections stuff again, at least not on my own computer. And I'm not sure about power manager, although it seemed like an ok program.

[Truthfinder]

Glad you were able to get things going again.

I learned a while back that the INTEL wireless works way better then Access Connections.