R1 Wireless Problem

[R51Jerry]

R51 Wireless Problem.
I'm a newbe to this forum but hope someone can help. I have an IBM R1 thats 6 years old running XP Pro. Model 1836Q4u. The wireless card in this unit is the INTEL PRO/Wireless 2200bg.

I took this on a trip and could not connect to any WiFi spot since the system told me there were none available even though I was sitting only 5 ft away from one. Brought it home and set it within 2 ft. of my own router. Had wireless at that point. Next day, no wireless since it told me it could not find any wireless networks to connect to. (ususlly it sees at least 3 or 4 from this location). Other laptops in the house are OK and have wireless connectivity.

I wired the other network card in the R51 directly into the router so I have internet capability.

I tried the repair funtion and that didn't help. The Hardware setup tells me that the card is working properly. I then disabled the 2200bg card, uninstalled the drivers, downloaded a more recent driver (2009), installed the new driver and enabled the card. Still nothing.

I then opened up the unit to get to the 2200bg card. I took the card out but then all I did was check the antenna connections to make sure they were seated properly then reseated the card and reinstalled all the covers (14 screws! - not an easy job).

I have an old PCMCIA wireless card on a very old Toshiba so I removed it and installed it in th R51. Disabled the 2200bg. Automatically found the drivers for the PCMCIA adapter and it was installed and "working properly" but once more, it would not pick up any wireless networks in range even sitting 2 ft. away from one.

Does anyone have any ideas in this problem? Someone told me to do a complete reinstall of Windows XP but that seems a bit extreme.

Sorry for the long message.

R51Jerry