T42 WIRELESS UPGRADEABLE ???

[kenf]

Hello All,
I'm new to this forum and relatively new to the Thinkpad. I recently bought my wife a refurbished Thinkpad T42 as she had to have surgery and a laptop would be more accessible than the desktop in another room. She just uses it for Email and Web surfing but the wireless card only connects at 11 mbs. Just wondering if anyone knows of an inexpensive option to boost the wireless performance with say a faster card. Thanks very much.

Ken F.

[Harryc]

You want an Intel Pro Wireless 2200bg card for the T42. The FRU# s are 93P3483, 93P3485. An EBay search reveals the following;
http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_from=R40&_ ... Categories

[kenf]

Hi Harryc,

Thanks for the quick reply. Just an FYI that my T42's model info is 2373-4WU. I am forwarding this info as I have read in various other postings that if you don't have a compatible replacement unit you end up either having to do a BIOS upgrade or worse yet some kind of hack to prevent a system generated error message complaining of the 'lack of compatibility'. Are the two units you suggested in your previous post compatible with my 2373-4WU? Thanks very much.

Cheers,
Kenf

[Harryc]

Yes they are compatible with all t42's.

[kenf]

Great! Actually since I last posted I found and downloaded the Hardware Maintenance Manual (looks like the shop manuals I buy for my GM vehicles to do work on my cars) and I see the Intel PRO Wireless 2200BG specifically listed. Going to hunt one down on Ebay per your first post. Thanks a million.

Cheers,
Kenf

[kenf]

Hey Harryc,

I just received a new (used) Pro Wireless 2200bg card from an Ebay seller, installed it in the laptop and when I boot it up (Win XP SP3) it says Found New Hardware - Network Controller, and tries to go through an install. I downloaded Drivers for the new card, but when I point the Install Wizard to the downloaded location it does not find what it's looking for. Would you know what it wants and where I can get it? The card came without any accompanying software. Thx.

Cheers,
Ken

[Neil]

Not harry, but here's the driver your looking for:

http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/researc ... MIGR-55386

[Harryc]

Thanks Neil - for XP - http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... wc05ww.zip

[kenf]

Thanks Neil/Harryc, but that's exactly the driver I grabbed and unzipped and is the one that the Install Wizard ignores and asks if it can go online to look for a driver. The executable puts the driver in C:\DRIVERS\WIN\WLANINT which is where I point the Wizard to, but it's like leading a horse to water except he won't drink. Any ideas? Thx.

Ken

[Harryc]

Well, there's only (2) drivers that I am aware of for that card, one of which you say does not work. The other is here -
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/SearchR ... Connection

[Neil]

If you have the same problem with the second driver, when Windows asks if you want to install automatically, choose not to. When it asks to look on-line, choose not to. Manually direct Windows to the driver file and don't take "no" for an answer from the OS. If it says this driver is not compatible...tell it you want to install anyway.

Also, take my advice for what it is...from someone who has never run into this problem installing drivers for the Intel 2200BG. Always just worked for me, unless I had a flaky card, that is.

[Harryc]

Agreed with Neil..the 2200bg is THE wifi card for a T42. It usually just works ...

[rkawakami]

Just to be clear... after you unzip the 6hwc05ww.zip file, then execute the 6hwc05ww.exe within, do you then go to the C:\DRIVERS\WIN\WLANINT folder and execute the autorun.exe file? This should launch the Intel PROSet/Wireless WiFi Software installation program. I'm assuming that the drivers will be installed at this point; I can't do this on my T23 since I'm already running the 2200BG card from the drivers I got directly from Intel.

In any event, the driver files appear to be stored in C:\DRIVERS\WIN\WLANINT\XP\x32\Drivers

[kenf]

Would I need to go into the BIOS at bootup and make it aware of the new 2200 card first?

[rkawakami]

Would be a good idea to make sure it's enabled...

[kenf]

Hi Ray,
No I did not run the autorun.exe from within ...\WLANINT. Am doing that now as I type - with fingers crossed. Quite a trick actually. Thx.

Ken

[kenf]

Hi Ray,

Thanks for the "Eureka" moment!! That was what I had been missing and now the laptop is connecting to my home network wirelessly as before except it is noticeably faster with the new card. Yahoo!!

Cheers,
Ken

[rkawakami]

. I don't know why IBM/Lenovo makes it so hard to install software / drivers sometimes. You download a file, launch or unzip it, execute another program and then hunt for another file and launch that one! To their credit, it's all explained in the README file but you really have to dig down deep sometimes to really know what to do.

[Thinkpad Lover]

That's why I always like to go straight to the source and download wireless card drivers from the Intel website itself. I notice that Lenovo has made wireless driver installation easier/more user-friendly starting with the T60 (just check your machine type since there are a couple of possibilities, download the appropriate zip file and the program will do the rest). But with the T42 and the Intel 2200BG card I think it's much better to use the Intel PRO/SET wireless "ICSx32" program directly from the Intel website here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... plications

The Lenovo website requires running the program, then having to go hunting in C:\DRIVERS\WIN\WLANINT (or whatever the appropriate folder might be)... for AUTORUN.EXE which is the convoluted process for installing wireless and quite a few other drivers on most T42 and older generation laptops.

I think it's much easier for less-experienced users wishing to upgrade to 2200BG to follow these simple steps:
(1) After installing the wireless card, download and run ICSx32 which is the Intel PRO/SET wireless utility program from the Intel website here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... plications

(2) Double CLick the Intel WIFI icon that pops up, choose "Advanced", "Use Windows to Manage WIFI" (to allow the Windows Zero Configuaration Utility) to take over

(3) If you wish, CLick <START>, right click and choose "Properties", "Taskbar", "Customize", choose the Intel WIFI icon, and select "Always Hide" to get rid of the Intel WIFI Icon.

We had a useful discussion on the same issue here: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=97696

Daniel.

[kenf]

Hey Daniel,

Interesting thought to go to the Intel site for drivers, which never crossed my mind.

I was doing everything from the Lenovo site, as I needed to dismantle the laptop to change the wireless card, and found the Hardware Maintenance Manual there that described the entire FRU process. Originally, Moderator Harryc from this forum put me onto several vendors of the 2200 card on Ebay and I, in fact, bought from one of them about a month ago. Problem was that the vendor lives in Oregon and he ships via USPS and I live in Canada, where we were suffering from a postal strike at the time, so the 2200 card arrived only 2 days ago in my mail. I followed the HMM and the hardware replacement went like a dream, so when I started having driver problems, I came back to this forum for help.

I don't take apart my laptops to swap components in and out as a general rule, but I must say this forum has been great for advice and support!! I'll file away your advice to try the actual hardware manufacturer's site for another time. I suspect it's good advice too!

Thanks all!

Cheers,
Ken