How do I stop my X31 dropping it's reasonably strong signal?

April 24, 2007 4:54 PM

I just upgraded from a Thinkpad X22 w/ PCMCIA wireless card to an X31 with built in wireless, and the X31 is dropping the wireless connection on a regular basis, despite there being a reasonable signal. Aside from the wireless being built in, the other difference is that the X31 also has the ThinkVantage Access software installed - is it possible that there's a conflict with XP and this software?(XP is set as the default choice).

(and this is a new install, so it's the latest XP with all the latest IBM drivers).

posted by russmail to computers & internet (6 comments total)

I should add that another curiousity is that when I try to re-connect after being dropped, even if there is a signal present, XP won't re-connect for love nor money. As you can imagine, this is slowly driving me mental....
posted by russmail at 4:59 PM on April 24, 2007

Assuming the card is compatible and you still have it handy, have you tried the PCMIA card in the X31, disabling the onboard? That should give you some clue as to whether it's the hardware or something in the software. Of course if you don't have the card or it's not compatible you'd need to find another card to try this out.
posted by Rallon at 6:28 PM on April 24, 2007

Try stopping the "Wireless Zero Configuration" service and just letting ThankVantage manage the connection.
posted by bizwank at 6:34 PM on April 24, 2007

the Access Connections software is primarily* useful for older windows like 2000 which did not have xp's wireless configuration tool. not so sure it plays so nice vs. xp's inherent tool, compared to other 3rd party hardware-specific wireless connection apps e.g. intel, ralink etc.

so yeah you might want to try removing it and see what happens. I used it for a while but did not find all that much need for it so uninstalled it after a while. you can always get it again from the ibm/lenovo site if necessary.

best place to ask is probably here http://forum.thinkpads.com.

* however, it is also quite nice for setting up multiple network profiles for each wired or wireless card, if you need that sort of thing.
posted by dorian at 6:34 PM on April 24, 2007

I have an X31 and after reloading Win XP on it (gave it to the wife, it was running Ubuntu swimmingly on it) I relied on the SP2 software and the lastest drivers from IBM/Lenovo. I remember having similar problems to yours when I first got the Thinkpad, but switched to Ubuntu too quickly to notice it for long. I guess that means it's not a hardware problem.
posted by furtive at 7:16 PM on April 24, 2007

I've just uninstalled the IBM software and the wireless is running much better, and re-connecting automatically if I move to a weaker signal area where it drops off - so I guess those two weren't playing nice together after all. Thanks for all the advice.

furtive - you know that your wife and I have to be buddies now :-)
posted by russmail at 7:35 PM on April 24, 2007