Lost wireless on T420?

I've no idea what happened but it seems my T420 has gotten confused about whether the wifi card is installed. When I press Fn-F5 the wifi radio does not appear, but it used to. The bluetooth radio is the only one listed. However, when I check the device manager the card is there. And the network and sharing center will let me connect with it. What doesn't seem to be working properly is lenovo's software. The Access Connections manager in the taskbar is likewise confused about.

Where does the Access Connections software store it's data? I'd be willing to nuke it and start over. Or, worst case, restore it all from the DVDs.

I really didn't do anything that should have screwed anything up. I did create a profile in Access Connections and it seemed to work. But now suddenly it's screwy. What gives?

Anyone else had this happen? Got a fix?

 

Perhaps disabling Access Connections and trying the Windows Utility might be worth a look.

 

Maybe try reinstalling that portion of ThinkVantage or the entire ThinkVantage software? Do you connect through TV or Windows?

 

I much prefer Windows as the wifi manager.

I only used Access Connections when I was also using a WWAN.

 

I don't have a strong preference either way. I'm willing to try the Access Connections manager. I travel between several locations and it would be handy to have something like AC babysit all the various settings. That's what it's supposed to do, right?

I have 2 drives in the machine, a 310 SSD and a 500gb HD. I can boot from either one. When I boot from the HD things appear to work as designed. But whe I boot from the SSD it's not. I tried exporting the various registry entries from the working setup and merging them... no luck, same trouble.

But I think the problem may not be with AC software, but with how the Lenovo tools recognize the wireless card. It seems like it's not grasping that the wireless card is present, or maybe all of the network connections.

I just tried to import a location from the working HD setup. It won't import, throwing an dialog stating "The file is encrypted with a passphrase. Please enter the passphrase to import the profiles." But when I exported them it did not ask me for a passphrase. WTH?

It may just be simple to nuke the whole damn drive image and start over. But I'd really like to know what went wrong so I can avoid it in the future.

 

I double-checked and during an export you're not asked for a passphrase. Nor are you asked for it if you attempt to import again to the same machine. It would appear location profiles like this can't be exported from one machine (or OS instance) to another.

 

I managed to get it working again. I eventually had to install, remove and reinstall it again, rebooting in-between the steps. Along with removing the 6300 WiFi card and it's driver software (via the device manager). I've no idea how to managed to get screwed up. I'm guessing it had something to do with conflicts with the Windows tools for managing networks, but I can't be sure.

 

Reinstalling ThinkVantage? Or the driver software?

 

I didn't have to do anything to any other ThinkVantage software.

I had to remove the Access Connections software. Which I don't remember seeing the 1st time I looked in the Programs control panel. I re-installed it after downloading it from Lenovo. That didn't help. But then I saw it in the control panel (it may have been there the first time). I then removed it, and rebooted. I then went into the device manager (devmgmt.msc) and removed the 6300 WiFi card and it's driver software (when prompted). I rebooted again. I then re-installed the driver software (using the latest from Intel's website). I then re-installed Access Connections, rebooted and voila, it's working again.

The main problem I had with it was it would not let me create a profile. That is, it would let me go through all the steps but wouldn't actually save anything. That and when I used Fn-F5 the wifi card would not appear at all. Both of those now work.

Now, whether Access Connection is worth all this is a good question. I'll be trying it in several different locations over the next few weeks, some with both wifi and wired ethernet. It'll be interesting to see how well it handles the changes. Especially when going from a docked/wired connection to a wireless one (at the desk and then off to meetings).

 

I only install the Hotkey utility (for Fn+F5 functionality) and leave Access Connections uninstalled. Like others here, I prefer to use Windows for my wireless management.

I get my wireless card drivers directly from Intel rather than the huge bundle that Lenovo issues. Going with the basic drivers-only setup means the Intel software isn't managing my wireless either.

 

I couldn't get the hotkey to see the wifi until I totally removed both the wifi card (and driver) AND the access connections software. Once I removed/rebooted/reinstalled Fn-F5 would properly show the WiFi and the Bluetooth radios. I wasn't aware that Fn-F5 was handled by the hotkey program (which makes sense). I assumed since I was having trouble with AC and Fn-F5 that they must be related. I'm sure in some oddball, behind-the-scenes, registry entry sort of way they are.

I noticed the Intel software could do a bit of the same thing but have not tried it (nor do I intend to try it).

I also saw the My WiFi stuff. Apparently allowing the laptop to act as a hotspot. Anyone tried it?