X61 - Wireless - XP mistakingly thinks my kill switch is off? [ Edited ]

[BurkeyTurkey]

I did a clean install of XP tablet (not using recovery tools), and have gotten most everything running except for the wireless.  I have the driver for the wireless card and all of the power manager driver/software installed.  I'm avoiding Access Connections on purpose (one of the reasons for the reinstall).

Here is what i can see:

-Windows XP wireless connection shows no access points

-My kill switch is slid to the enabled side (though i have tried it on both to be sure)

-The wireless light is off

-***Pressing F5 gives me a message saying that i need to flip the kill switch to 'enable' if i want to start using wireless?!?!

Things i've checked from searching the forums:

-My wireless card is set as 'enabled' in BIOS

-My computer is set to NOT allow the computer to turn off the wireless card in the power saving stuff

Something interesting to note:

-I have Ubuntu on another partition (the other reason for the clean install) and it can use the wireless fine.  In fact, flipping around the kill switch does not affect my wireless in Ubuntu.

Does anyone have any suggestions for me?  Things to try?  It is getting to be very annoying having to use Ubuntu to do anything internet related, and then use windows to do anything involving complicated software.  One thing I am not certain of is the drivers.  The intel driver did not seem to change anything, but the thinkpad drivers both made a wireless connection show up, so i went with the newest of that series.

Thanks for the time it took to read this far!

-Andrew

Message Edited by BurkeyTurkey on 05-31-2009 02:08 AM

[jasoncli]

I have this similar issue in Vista.  I slide the wireless switch to off, but when I turn it back on it doesnt respond. I need to reset computer to get wirelss to function again.  Pretty consistant too, now I just dont ever turn the wireless off.  Shame because that hurts battery performance.  I wish I had a suggestion for you, but all I can offer is my sympathy.

[bananaman]

BurkeyTurkey, do you have the System Interface driver installed?

[BurkeyTurkey]

Thanks for the empathy! At least you can get wireless at all though...even if my switch is on and i restart i still can't get a connection.

@bananaman:
I remember installing that driver. are there any prerequisates to it though (cause i know some of the drivers required other stuff first, like wireless needs power+accessconnections, though i read that it wasn't actually necessary)? also, is there a way to check if i installed the interface drivers right? does the kill switch show up as a device in the device manager? (i still have one unknown device in there, but then again i haven't dealt with the touchscreen or bluetooth stuff yet)

Thanks for the responses guys, i feel like bananaman is on the right track with this (some kill switch related driver that is separate from the wireless)

-BurkeyTurkey

[bananaman]

The switch probably needs the Power Manager Driver (don't need the Power Manager Utility itself), and HotKeys too.

The classic mistake to watch for when installing the drivers is not following the instructions. Lenovo driver installs are almost always a two step process. First the files are extracted (usually to a directory under C:/DRIVERS), then you go to where they were extracted and do the install (usually run setup.exe).

Most of the installed Lenovo software shows up in the Programs and Features or Add/Remove Programs Control Panel.

[BurkeyTurkey]

@bananaman:

thanks for the help.  I had tried using access connections before when it originally wasnt working, but nothing seemed to happen so i uninstalled.  I reinstalled today and found that the same thing happens.  heres what i mean when i say "nothing happens":

-I install it great, and immediately restart. 

-I wait for everything to load up. 

-Next, i go into my start menu into thinkvantage and run access connections. 

-i get an hour glass for about 6 seconds then nothing happens.  no tray icon or anything, just a new process running. 

-I wait and wait, and i dont get any sort of GUI or any way to interface with the program. 

-I try pressing f5 [which previously gave me the note that my kill switch is off] and i get an hourglass for about 8 seconds and then nothing except another process. 

-I wait around and nothing happens.  If i shut down, there are a few processes that have toruble quittingby themselves

From what i rememeber about the software, i should be getting some sort of interface right?  this might be scoping more into a thinkvantage issue then a thinkpad issue.

I appreciate all of the comments so far, its good to know that there is someone out there who is also befuddled by my silly laptop.

-Andrew

[bananaman]

I would actually remove Access Connections from the mix until you get your wireless working. Your wireless will work with Windows and the right Lenovo drivers.

So do you have System Interface Driver, Power Management Driver, and HotKeys properly installed?

[BurkeyTurkey]

ok. I have interface, power management, and hotkeys drivers etc installed (double checked version numbers too).  i included the links so you know which i'm getting to be sure i'm not doing something stupid.

Interface driver link:

 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-67228

power manager links:

 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-70602

 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-4gxpeg

hotkeys link:

 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-68000

and i already uninstalled accessmanager again because it...didnt do anything.  whats the next step from here?  there are three different wireless drivers listed here:

 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-68009

where i've been getting my drivers from.  how do i tell which is for me?

thanks once again for your time,

-Andrew

Message Edited by BurkeyTurkey on 06-03-2009 07:23 PM

[bananaman]

Those are the right drivers. 

Enter your product number on the Lenovo Support & downloads page and it should give you your configuration, including which wireless card you have.

Also tell us what the product number is!

[BurkeyTurkey]

ok!  so that was really silly of me not to state all this upfront (it should be on my signature probably) but anyway here is my system:

X61 table 7764-CTO

4 gigs RAM, running XP Tablet (don't yell at me, i'm going to go 7 x64 or vista x64 in a year or 2 :-P )

so lenovo says i have one of these:

-ThinkPad abg wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter

-Intel PRO/Wireless 3945abg Mini PCI Express Adapter (NA)

-Kensington WiFi Finder Plus

-Belkin N1 Wireless ExpressCard

i'm assuming this means i really just have the pci express.  so now i know what driver i need.

 http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-70480

right?  I'm gonna go ahead and run this driver and see what happens again.

Grateful for another step,

-Andrew