T42 wireless will not stay connected

[billp117]

My T42 wifi is acting weired. It many times will just turn on and off continuously. I installed a new wireless card and drivers...it worked fine for about 8 hours. Then it started up again. Currently I have an Intel card (original) and then replaced it with a Intel card from a T43. The T43 was working just fine. But, the T42 contiues to work intermitant.

Would an Atheros card work better? Is there another solution? I have Windows XP Pro installed. I tried Windows 7 and had the same problem. Reinstalled Windows XP and still had the same problem.

Any help is appreciated...regards, Bill

[Jricks]

I can't offer you an exact solution, but here are my suggestions and these are in general:
- Check for devices that operate in the same frequency as your Wireless Router ex. baby monitors, microwaves, cordless telephones all in the 2.4 ghz range
- Turn your card to aggressive mode : Device Manager --->your card in Network Adapters ---> Advance Tab ---> Then you will see options for Power Management, Data Rate, and others. I choose to keep everything in the highest value instead of checking the default. On Extended Channel Mode: i choose 'Enable' as this will allow me to connect to router channels 1 - 14.
-Using netstumbler, scan for what APs are in your range and see what channels they operate in. Then change, in your wireless router, to a channel that isn't used. This helps maybe a bit.

This way above has helped me especially the cordless phone bit. I also now am using a channel in my router that isn't used by any other AP in my range. These suggestions will somehow, if worked, eliminate if it's a driver issue.

But, you are saying that other cards are working fine? If the above didn't help then i would say the card itself rather than a software one. You can try using it on another machine. I hope you find a solution as connectivity is a real pain when it goes wrong.

good luck

PS> you are using an IBM-specific Intel card or a regular Intel card? like are you using the hack to enable non-Thinkpad devices?

[billp117]

I swapped cards with a known good working T43. The cards are IBM Intel cards...no mods. All my laptops work fine except for this T42.

I did have this problem one time in the past...turned out to be a bad wireless router. The new router works fine. I will try your suggestions.

Thanks, Bill

[billp117]

Problem solved...I removed Access Connection and allowed Windows XP to configure the wifi.

Thanks for all the input.

Regards, Bill