M1330 and Weak Wireless Signals

I've found that wireless work great when there's a strong signal strength, but when the signal strength is average, low, or very low, it's impossible to get connected to the internet. When I mouse over the network icon it'll either say "Identifying" forever with "Access" saying "Local only" or it'll simply fail to identify the network and drop the connection. I tried getting the latest drivers directly from Intel's site, checking power options to make sure that power saving wasn't turned on, and even reformatting my laptop, but none of those things have helped at all.

At first I thought this applied to everyone, but my friend sitting to my left using an Inspiron 6000 with Windows XP had no problem getting online and keeping the connection active. My friend sitting to my right using a Macbook with OSX had to try to connect 2 or 3 times, but once he got connected he had no further problems. Even the guy sitting in front of me with some Sony VAIO had no problems getting online.

So does anyone know what's wrong with this laptop? I have the Intel 3945ABG wireless card in my m1330 and I'm running Windows Vista. Also, there's nothing I can do about the signal strength - the retarded modernist architect that designed the campus buildings for my university 40 years ago thought it would be cool to make the interior walls prison-style thick cement, so unless if I'm in one of the few lecture halls that its own wireless access point, the signal is not going to be very strong.

 

Do you have any antivirus software running in the background like mcafee?
if not then you can try the following:

try going to START-->RUN--> type "CMD" and press OK.

now:
type ipconfig/release and wait for the connection to release, THEN
type ipconfig/renew and wait for it to reconnect.

 

Is this essentially what Windows tries to do if you click on "repair"?

 

I've tried that many, many times. Each time on renew I either get a timeout message after a couple minutes, or if it doesn't timeout I lose my IP address altogether.

As for antivirus software, I run AVG. Could that be a problem?

 

try downloading the latest drivers from intel

 

try disabling avg, oh and if you can set your internet settings to auto-obtain I.P. to make sure. i know how to do this in xp but not vista.

 

I tried that already...

I uninstalled AVG and it still doesnt work any better. Also, I just checked and yes it auto-obtains IP.