Fn+F5 - Wireless toggle won't work, new T60/Atheros ABGN

[crawfordna]

Hi all,

New thinkpad owner here, just picked up a new T60 widescreen (8744) with the Atheros abgn wireless card.

I'm coming off of a fresh build. After installing all of the lenovo/ThinkVantage software, the Fn+F5 worked fine to turn off/on my wireless card. All of a sudden (not sure what I did in the interim), Fn+F5 no longer works. When I bring up the window with Fn+F5, the wireless card and the bluetooth card both show up, however I'm unable to change the Wireless card status, it's always set to OFF, even though it's actually ON and I can connect to wireless networks with no problem. I'd like to use this utility to toggle my wireless card off/on, but for some reason this just won't work anymore.

I've tried the following (from http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=) but it did not work. NOTE: I've never installed Access Connections, and don't think I need this. It worked fine before without it.

Follow these steps.
1. Using the control panel, uninstall access connections and intel wireless.
2. Reboot.
3. Install ACPI power management driver.
4. Reboot.
5. Install Hotkey driver.
6. Reboot.
7. Install Intel driver.
8. Reboot.
9. Test Fn+F5. You should now be able to toggle on and off the wireless device.
10. If #9 works, reinstall access connections.

Any help would be greatly appreciated... maybe some background as to how this actually works could help solve the problem. Reinstalling drivers/software (obviously) hasn't worked. I'm really curious to know what caused the malfunction in the first place, as it was working fine, I swear!

Thanks for any help/guidance...

[claudeo]

er... if your WiFi card is Atheros, installing the Intel drivers is not going to help.

[crawfordna]

Replace anything mentioned about Intel above with Atheros. That was taken from a different post, I just substituted atheros drivers.

[crawfordna]

Hi all,

Problem has been solved. I'm not sure what the underlying cause was, however following a couple of ideas I found on the board here ultimately led to the resolution.

Here's what I did:
- Uninstall all network drivers
- Delete network cards from device manager (BT can stay)
- Uninstall VM Workstation if installed (removes VMWare NICs)
- Reset WINSOCK following http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259
- Removed AC, and all power management related thinkpad software
- Removed HotKeys software

Rebooted, reinstalled network drivers. Atheros via the setup.exe, Intel wired ethernet via hardware wizard. Then re-installed/repaired TCP/IP (explained in KB811259), reinstalled HotKeys, PowerManager driver, and power management software.

Rebooted, worked fine.

Nick

[raceannouncer]

I bought my Thinkpad T60 in January, model 2008-7JU.

It originally came with the Intel 3945 abg card. While using this machine "on the road" in a hotel, I had an unusual compatibility issue with the Intel card. Regardless of whether I used Access Connections or Windows to manage the wireless setup, the machine could not "find" the wireless network of the hotel I was staying at. It could, however, "find" the wireless network of the hotel next door. 1st call to IBM tech netted no change; 2nd call was more productive. The tech rep said that there was some "compatibility issues" with the Intel abg3945 card. When I asked if another card could be substituted for the Intel one, I was told only one other card was available for the t60--the "IBM" mini pci express abg. The swap was made on-site by a third-party tech and voila! problem solved! The Atheros card was able to "see" the network previously unseen by the Intel 3945abg.

The solution, however, revealed another problem, one that was simple to fix but much harder to track down. Since the card did not come with any driver disk, I had to download the new card's driver package from the Lenovo support site (not the easiest thing to do as the different driver packages are not easily identified on the support page). With tech supports help, this was accomplished--the card worked properly when managed by windows--BUT, Access Connections would not work and the fn+f5 hotkey would not turn the wireless radio on. After another couple of phone calls (lasting over 2 hours each!) to tech support, the culprit was finally found in the "Add-Remove Programs" in Control Panel. Although the drivers for the Intel3945 abg were originally removed, there was another piece of Intel software that also had to go--Intel PRO/set wireless. Once EVERY single piece of Intel WIRELESS software was gone, the Atheros card responded to Access Connections, Power Management and the Hotkeys just fine.

Bottom line: it took awhile but it finally works as it's supposed to.

Hope this helps someone else along the way!

Mike Paz