Thinkpad T40p: can I upgrade the 2915 abg wifi card?

Hello everyone,

I have an old laptop, a Thinkpad T40p, which is still working great. The only problem I can notice is that it gets more and more difficult to connect to wifi networks that use the WPA and WPA2 technologies. In the case of WPA, the connection works but it disconnects by itself, and then reconnects, and so on. With WPA2, connection is impossible. My wireless card is an Intel Pro Wireless 2915 abg (it came by default in the laptop) and my processor is a Pentium M. I'm using Windows XP SP3 with all the latest drivers. All the hardware is genuine, except for the Hard Drive and the RAM memory.

I'm wondering if I could change my wireless card to a more recent one that uses the a/b/g/n capabilities. Do you think it could fix my problem? If so, what are the special specs I should look at for choosing the right card?

Thanks in advance for your time!

 

ThinkPAD? I would be only looking for the drivers from Lenovo/IBM and see if the WiFi connections are more stable.

ThinkPAD's are very picky when it comes to drivers from anything other than the manufacturer.

A new card may or may not give you better performance - make sure that Lenovo/IBM had issued that wireless card with that notebook configuration and that you can get the drivers for that combo too (in other words: same issues you're probably facing now; proper drivers).

I also do not know if ANY wireless cards would work with the ThinkPAD... they may be whitelisted in the BIOS... (speaking of, you do have the latest BIOS for the system, right).


Good luck.

 

Your wireless adapter is likely something older than mPCI-E. If that is indeed the case, you're pretty much SOL.

 

By default you can only use WIFI cards on the Lenovo whitelist. If you can find one of these anti-whitelist BIOS, you should be able to use any mini PCI (not "e") card. Whether there are mini PCI cards better than the 2915 I'm not sure.

 

Another thing: Are you using Lenovos connection software or the Windows software which I find better?

And I think OP might get more help on the Lenovo forum.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied so fast! Here is some more information:
- I am using the latest version of the BIOS;
- The drivers are all up to date (I verified on Lenovo's website);
- I am using the Windows connection manager.

Ok, it seems I will have to live with this problem until I change my laptop... Thanks to everyone for your comments, and if you learn something new, keep me posted!

 

T40p there are only limited WLAN cards you can upgrade to;

Category:T40p - ThinkWiki

And 2915ABG is not on the list. IIRC Lenovo and IBM have the same WLAN whitelists, you must use an approved WLAN card from that generation. Why not get a USB wireless adapter?