AAARRGGHH _ System Update crazyness. Help please

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I ran System Update yesterday (updated Flash Player Plugin, Flash Player Active X, Ultranav Utility, Ultranav Driver and Access Connections 4.52)

I didn't reboot until today...

When I shut the system down bttray.exe didn't close properly (I had to manually "end task").

It took longer than usual to shut down and then also longer to boot back up.

When it booted the first thing I realised was that there was no Access Connections icon in the taskbar. I then realised my wireless card (Intel 2200BG) had also disappeared.

So I went into device manager, and indeed my wireless adaptor had a yellow exclamation mark next to it. So I disabled it, re-enabled it and updated the drivers.
I could then connect to the internet.

So I rebooted to see what would happen. Again bttray.exe didn't close properly, again it took much longer than usual.

When it booted back up, my wireless adaptor was gone again and still no Access Connections icon in the taskbar.

So I uninstalled Acc Conn, reboted, installed it again manually, rebooted.

Now, when I boot, I have the new style Access Connections icon in the taskbar, but still no wirelss adaptor.
So I go into Device Manager again, disable and re-enable the adaptor, update the drivers again, and the old Access Connections taskbar icon appears. So it's working but I now have two Access Connections icons in the taskbar.

Until I reboot again and the same thing happens - no wireless adaptor recognised and only the new Acc Conn icon.

This is driving me crazy. Any ideas what could be going on?

I don't have any restore points to go back to before anyone suggests that :\

Could it be because I waited 24 hours before rebooting after the updates and used the computer during those 24 hours?

HELP!

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nobody?

now when i reboot, i get the new acc conn icon in the taskbar but the wireless card is still not recognised and the old icon still appears when i re-install the wireless card drivers.

[USSS]

You might want to let Windows manage your wireless adapter(s).

Access Connections can be a fickle application for many users, and I have disabled it on my system. At the moment, I don't use a wireless connection. But in the past when I have allowed Windows to do so, it does a decent job.

System Update. Oh please, don't get me started on this one.

SU3 is the tyrannical, orphaned, mentally-disturbed stepchild (how's that for a description?) of Lenovo, which inherited it from IBM. Sometimes it works, a lot of times it does not. It will install updates on my T43, then report that the same updates are available the next time I run SU3. I no longer allow this to infuriate me. I just accept it, with the hope that Lenovo will someday fix SU3. Veteran TP users long for the days of Software Installer, which actually worked most of the time, but was discontinued.

Finally, it is best to reboot immediately after installing any updates. Delaying a reboot might cause problems, though it is unclear if that actually occurred in your case.

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OK thanks, I may well get rid of Access Connections.
Any idea what I can do about my disappearing wireless adapter though? That's the most annoying right now.
And my shutdown/reboot times that have doubled?

Is it worth getting in touch with IBM support directly?

[USSS]

My thinking is that Access Connection may be the culprit causing your wireless adapter to disappear. Uninstall AC, then configure Windows to control your wireless connection.

If that fails to resolve the issue, then yes, submit a trouble ticket to Lenovo. In the meantime, search the forums for other possible resolutions to your problem. There are plenty of threads on AC and issues associated with it.

[ektx]

I can't say I have a good solution; however I also had major adapter problems starting right after I allowed System Update to install Access Connections 4.52 earlier this week. Since that was the only update I made that day, I strongly suspect it was the culprit.

In my case, results were inconsistent. Occasionally I'd get a good boot and both ethernet and wireless adapters were functional; however more often than not, neither adapter worked. In that case, retrying the connect with AConn didn't help, and attempting to disable or uninstall the adapters in Device Manager just caused Device Manager to hang.

Same problem after I uninstalled 4.52 and installed the prior (4.42) release of AC, which is the one that had been working fine before.

I then uninstalled 4.42 (running without Access Connections at all) and still couldn't get the network adapters to work. I finally booted in Safe Mode, which allowed me to uninstall both the Ethernet and Wireless adapters via Device Manager. The devices seem to have automatically been reinstalled on the subsequent boot and are working -- at least for the moment.

So, while I'm pretty sure that it was the update of Access Connections to 4.52 that triggered the problem (that was the only thing I updated that day), I still can't pinpoint why the problem occurred or what the fix might be to enable AConn to work properly.

Eric
TP 43p 2687-DUU, WinXP

[USSS]

@ektx:
You make a pretty strong argument for pointing the finger at AC 4.52. When you are dealing with either Ethernet or wireless card drivers, things just naturally get messy.

@interval:
Unless you are traveling frequently or use only one or two locations for wired/wireless access, I would uninstall/disable AC and let Windows configure your connections. Submit a complaint/trouble ticket to Lenovo, and wait for the next release of AC. Hopefully, it will contain a bug fix that will resolve your issue.

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thanks you were correct. i've uninstalled access connections and my network adaptor is found again after a reboot.