Why isn't the wireless radio in this laptop working?
Two days ago, the wireless radio in my parents T41 Thinkpad went kaput. Not that it’s completely dead, because the control panel still reads it as working properly, but it can’t recognize the signal that our router is sending (or any signals for that matter) anymore. I checked the divers, but those are all up-to-date too, so I’m stumped.
I was wondering if I could purchase an accessory wireless card to solve the problem, but would that work if the radio isn’t? Also, can anyone recommend a good wireless card.
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I apologize as you’ve probably done this, but are you sure it’s turned on? Sometimes I’ll accidentally knock the switch on my laptop off and not notice it.
Or maybe is it disabled via software?
@Rarebear
It’s an older IMB, pre-lenovo, so it doesn’t have a physical switch. When I get into the wireless settings window, it says the radio is on, and when I press the “radio off” button, nothing happens…
You could disable the hardware and go with a USB switch, I think the T41’s have a flakey wireless card, I have 5 of them and 2 of them have strange WLAN issues.
Also disable the encryption on the wireless router, make sure that the SSID is broadcasing and lock it to 802.11b disconnect it from your network if you are concerned about security. See if the laptop can connect to the router like that. If it can then you may have an incomaptibility with the encryption system.
I would help to know if the other wireless devices can connect to the router as well.
@rottenit
Yes, I have a T61 that finds the wifi from 2 floors away.
You could try to revert to older driver versions and experiment see if it gets corrected, at this point I would either try to replace the wifi card in the machine or use an external usb card. I cant make a specific recommendation on the USB card I have used a mess of different ones and none seem to stand out for any reason. I guess that Linksys has been my go-to brand for consumer level products.
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