[gruurly]

Hello,

I've receoved extensive assistance already in the malware/adware forum, and was advised to post my issue here. In a nutshell, my IBM R40 Thinkpad (purchased used and reburbished from a local computer company) has had issues with the wireless adapter since day one. I determined it was a driver issue (known to IBM), downloaded the new one... and the adapter hasn't been recognized since.

I've had a computer technician briefly look at the system, and he says the BIOS isn't even recognizing that the wireless card is inserted. I then went and purchased a cheapo PMCIA Wireless card, but it isn't recognized either.

For a detailed explanation, please review my previous posts.

Thanks!

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Hello,

Do you know if your machine has the preinstalled hidden Recovery partition?

Do you have any of the IBM Software utilities on your machine?

[makai]

Hello,

Do you know if your machine has the preinstalled hidden Recovery partition?

Do you have any of the IBM Software utilities on your machine?

[gruurly]

Hello and thank you for your incredibly quick reply!

I don't know if the hidden recovery partition is installed, but System Restore hasn't worked (if that helps).

Yes, all of the IBM software utilities have been installed (Software Upgrade I think is the name of the program), so all of the drivers are updated, except for the wireless one.

[makai]

Ok, having the hidden partition is not really important to fix your problem. It is good to have if you want to redo your machine and bring it back to "the day it left the factory"! Which is sometimes a nice thing to implement when things go awry really badly! Unfortunately, you will lose all data, and user installed programs, so back up before ever using it, and also consider that you will have to reinstall all 3rd party user programs... ie MS Office, and such. In other words, you will need to have the program CDs for reinstallation.

In any case, one way to check for the hidden partition is to open MyComputer, right-click on your C: drive and choose Properties. Can you do that and post the info here? We need to know what Windows "thinks" the Capacity of the hard drive is.

As for your wireless problem, it may be that you need to uninstall not only the wireless driver, but also Access Connections. Access connections sometimes mucks things up and will not let you install the wireless driver. So do that, then first install the wireless driver, then install Access connections.

You can do both install and uninstall using the IBM Software Installer program found in the Start/Access IBM folder.

[gruurly]

Hello,

I apologize for the late reply; I don't have net access at the moment without the wireless.

My Computer reads:
IBM_Preload

Type: Local Disk
File System: NTFS
Used Space: 12.6 GB
Free Space: 22.3 GB
Capacity: 35 GB

I uninstalled Access Connections, but I still cannot install either wireless adapter.

[makai]

Ok, it does appear you have the hidden partition. By the way, what is the full model number of your laptop... (ie 2374-GHU)

Got a question... do you know what kind of wireless card you have installed? Intel, or IBM?

Have you tried running diagnostics on your wireless card? To do this, restart the machine, and while the IBM logo screen is showing, tap the blue Access IBM button. The Access IBM predesktop screen will appear.

You will see several icons... including a Recover to factory contents... uhhh, don't click on it! This is just FYI for now.

Click on the Run Diagnostics icon. The diagnostic will load up. Next, click on Interactive Tests, then on Intel Wireless Radio. If your card is detected, you will see a Pass when the utility searches for your card. This only applies to Intel cards, so if you have an IBM card, the search will come back with NA

Let me know what happens.

Edited by makai, 01 March 2006 - 02:31 PM.

[gruurly]

The onboard wireless card is an adaptec card, the PMCIA card (did I spell that correctly?) is a Motorola. Here is the link to the onboard wireless card driver, if that helps at all. The IBM site states that what I have insalled is:

Mini PCI devices for your system
Intel® PRO 100 VE LAN Adapter
Agere (Lucent Technologies) Soft Modem AMR II Adapter

I'll just repost what I had previously for my computer specs, but in a nutshell, it's a ThinkPad R40 2681-HU1. I'm going to do what you've requested here next, and will post my results shortly.

******************************* SYSTEM SUMMARY *******************************
OS information: Microsoft Windows XP
OS version: 5.10.2600 Service Pack 1
Processor: x86 Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 7
Memory: 261,040 kb
BIOS version: 1.15 (1OET49WW)
Machine type-Model: 2681HU1

****************************** BIOS INFORMATION ******************************
BIOS version: 1.15 (1OET49WW)
BIOS date : 2004-07-05
Embedded controller version: 1.11
Machine type-Model: 2681HU1

***************************** DRIVE INFORMATION ******************************
Logical drive: C:\
Drive type: Fixed drive
Drive size: 36,734,008 kb
Drive free space: 23,773,628 kb

Logical drive: D:\
Drive type: CD-ROM drive
Drive size: 0 kb
Drive free space: 0 kb


**************************** BATTERY INFORMATION *****************************
Status: No activity
Remaining percentage: 99 %
Remaining capacity: 45.45 Wh
Full charge capacity: 45.22 Wh
Temperature: 28 C
Cycle count: 99
Manufacturer name: SANYO
Manufacture date: 2003-05-28
First used date: 2003-09
Serial number: 2738
Battery name (FRU part number): IBM-02K7054
Device chemistry: Li-Ion
Design capacity: 57.60 Wh
Design voltage: 14.40 V

***************************** OTHER INFORMATION ******************************


Power scheme: Portable/Laptop
********** AC settings **********
Turn off monitor: After 15 minutes
Turn off hard disks: After 30 minutes
System standby: After 20 minutes
********** Battery settings **********
Turn off monitor: After 5 minutes
Turn off hard disks: After 5 minutes
System standby: After 5 minutes


************************* SYSTEM DEVICE INFORMATION **************************
Device class: Accessibility options
Device status: Disabled
No resources used

Device class: Serial port
Device description: Communications Port (COM1)
Driver provider: Microsoft
Driver date: 7-1-2001
Driver version: 5.1.2600.0
Device status: Enabled
Resource
I/O address: [03F8 - 03FF]
IRQ: 4

Device class: Parallel port
Device description: Printer Port (LPT1)
Driver provider: Microsoft
Driver date: 7-1-2001
Driver version: 5.1.2600.0
Device status: Enabled
Resource
I/O address: [03BC - 03BE]

Device class: TrackPoint
Device status: Enabled
No resources used

Device class: Audio
Device description: SoundMAX Integrated Digital Audio
Driver provider: Analog Devices
Driver date: 3-28-2005
Driver version: 5.12.1.5410
Device status: Enabled
Resource
Memory address: [E8000C00 - E8000DFF]
Memory address: [E8000800 - E80008FF]
I/O address: [1C00 - 1CFF]
I/O address: [18C0 - 18FF]
IRQ: 11

Device class: Infrared
Device description: IBM ThinkPad Fast Infrared Port
Driver provider: National Semiconductor
Driver date: 3-17-2001
Driver version: 1.0.0.0
Device status: Enabled
Resource
I/O address: [02F8 - 02FF]
DMA: 3
IRQ: 3

Device class: Internal modem
Device description: Agere Systems AC'97 Modem
Driver provider: Agere
Driver date: 6-27-2003
Driver version: 2.1.31.0
Device status: Enabled
Resource
I/O address: [2400 - 24FF]
I/O address: [2000 - 207F]
IRQ: 11

Device class: PCI Device Setup
Device status: Enabled
Resource
IRQ: 11

Device class: Device Bay
Device status: Enabled
Resource
I/O address: [0170 - 0177]
IRQ: 15

Device status: Disabled
No resources used

Device class: Mouse
Device description: HID-compliant mouse
Driver provider: Microsoft
Driver date: 7-1-2001
Driver version: 5.1.2600.0
Device status: Enabled
No resources used

Device class: Net
Device description: Intel® PRO/100 VE Network Connection
Driver provider: Intel
Driver date: 9-17-2003
Driver version: 7.0.28.0
Device status: Enabled
Resource
Memory address: [E8200000 - E8200FFF]
I/O address: [4000 - 403F]
IRQ: 11

Device class: Modem
Device description: Communications cable between two computers
Driver provider: Microsoft
Driver date: 3-9-2000
Driver version: 5.1.2535.0
Device status: Enabled
No resources used

[makai]

The onboard wireless card is an adaptec card

That's very curious. According to IBM, the machine specs indicate you're supposed to have an Intel 802.11b Wireless(MPCI) card. What tells you your card is made by adaptec? Did you or someone else change your wireless card?

We really need to verify what card is installed. Also, since you've been trying to also use an external card, we need to address what those drivers may be doing to affect your internal card. Maybe a conflict somewhere, although there shouldn't really be one... just a possibility.

[gruurly]

When I did the diagnostic, instead of it reading, "Intel Wireless Radio", it read, "Actiontec Wireless Radio", and was told, "Card could not be initialized".

I was told it's an Adaptec from a technician that opened up the back of the laptop and looked at the card to see if maybe it wasn't hooked up correctly or had come loose. He wrote down all of it's info (S/N, etc.) but I don't have it here with me... I'll grab it the next time I get net access and post it here.

I didn't try and install the PMCIA card until well after this problem commenced (almost a month since I've had no wireless service now). The motorola won't install either, and I cannot remove it, or the driver, from my device manager (it's not listed, never has shown up in the device manager so far).

No one has changed the card, nope. Only the tech has opened it up, and he put it all right back within minutes.

[makai]

Ok, that explains a lot. Obviously, the T40 drivers will not work with your card since the driver is for an Intel. It's a bummer the refurb company didn't install the card called out in your model configuration.

Let me do a little more research as this card may have been used in older Thinkpads. We may be able to find the correct driver.

[gruurly]

Well, ActionTec's wireless adapters are found here. I don't see what I have installed there.

Adaptec wireless card info here.

An interesting note: What I had installed before I had all of these problems was EXACTLY what is listed at the IBM site as being the driver for my system. Meaning, what the device manager said I had installed (High Rate Wireless LAN Mini PCI Adapter III), is what IBM shows as being the name of the wireless adapter installed on the factory-made Thinkpads (R40).

Also, when I do the IBM work to tell me what I have on my system, I get three different driver download options for a wireless adapter:

This one, [802.11ab, 802.11bg and 802.11abg Wireless LAN Mini PCI and ThinkPad 802.11bg, ThinkPad 802.11abg Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express adapter software for Windows 2000 and XP - ThinkPad General]

This one [Cisco Systems Mini PCI Wireless LAN driver for Windows 98/Me/2000/XP - ThinkPad R32, R40, T30, T40/p, T41/p, T42/p, X30, X31]

and this one [High Rate Wireless LAN Mini PCI driver for Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP - ThinkPad A3*, G40, R40/e, T23, X22, X23, X24], which is what was showing to be installed previously.

Finally, why would BOTH a plug and play and an onboard wireless adapter not be recognized, and not install properly? I don't know tech stuff, but I wonder if it's a larger issue than the adapters?

[makai]

Ok, I looked over at the IBM site and found what I believe are the correct drivers for your wireless card.

There is a firmware requirement that comes along with this driver and you will have to verify and possibly update the firmware BEFORE you use this driver. The firmware update may or may not apply to your particular card. Please read THIS PAGE fully so you understand what is required.

At this time, my recommendation is to uninstall all wireless drivers through Add/Remove in Control panel, to include Access Connections... then create a System Restore point.

Once you go through the wireless card driver/firmware updates (if needed), and "if" we find the wireless card is detected and installed, we can worry about the Motorola driver, and updating Access Connections.

Let me know if you have any questions prior to proceeding.

[makai]

Apparently, you posted just prior to my post. Your link to the Actiontec driver looks to be the same as I posted. Hmmm, I don't know... it is possible that there is more to this than just a driver problem.

Edited by makai, 01 March 2006 - 05:10 PM.

[gruurly]

And another note.

In the device manager, I'm showing five (5) WAN Miniport thingys installed. Is this correct?

WAN Miniport (IP)
WAN Miniport (IP) - Packet Scheduler Miniport
WAN Miniport (L2TP)
WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
WAN Miniport (PPTP)

There are also the following listed in my network adapters section:
Direct Parallel
Infrared Port
Intel® PRO/100 VE Network Connection
Intel® PRO/100 VE Network Connection - Packet Scheduler Miniport
Microsoft Tun Miniport Adapter

I have no idea if this matters or not, I'm just checking.

[gruurly]

Thank you for the quick response.

I've tried doing the firmware update, but my computer (R40) isn't listed as compatible with the update. I know, it's kind of silly.

Otherwise, I'm not too sure what to do.