T40 and T42 wireless won't connect after hibernate, restart

So I have at T40 and T42 both running at work and whenever I bring them out of hibernation, they fail to connect. They can both detect the network and whenever I try logging onto it, I get a "connecting" message for about minute and then both Thinkpads fail to connect.

I have tried:
- turning off power save mode on the wireless card
- flushdns, ipconfig /release and renew
- the "Repair" option
- manually disabling and reenabling the wireless connection
- restarting my computer
- installing new drivers (one is an Intel card and the other is Atheros)
- trying a new router (Linksys and Netgear)

I am all out of ideas and the searching the internet for new answers has been fruitless - and so I'm hoping someone here has an idea. Apologies if this isn't the right forum.

The frustrating thing is that both Thinkpads can see the network, which they are both configured to automatically connect to. The passwords are good. But the wireless tray icon always has a red X through it, even when I try to connect. The icon status never changes.

Any ideas?

Edit: I'm fairly certain this is a Thinkpad issue because my coworkers have a HP and Sony that are fine.

 

Have you tried reinstalling Windows? That's about all you haven't done.

 

That's next on my list! Hopefully it doesn't come down to that. Prior to this year, I've always had the Thinkpads plugged in via ethernet so I wouldn't have noticed if something got corrupted recently to cause these problems.

Maybe I need to start looking into 50' long ethernet cables

 

Are you using Windows wireless config or Access Connections?

Whatever one you are trying, you should try the other one.

Also try and install the drivers that shipped with the machine (may be in the SWTools or Drivers folder on the C: drive).

 

I am using Windows wireless config. I tried using Thinkvantage for the wireless this morning but nothing happened...although I forgot to turn off Windows wireless config before that so maybe there is some kind of conflict. When I get back to the office, I can try disabling Windows wireless config and rebooting.

Would using older drivers i.e. the ones that came with the machine be OK? I figured the more recent ones would be better. Hopefully I don't lose any functionality by rolling back.

 

Well considering that you don't have any Functionality now. I don't see how an old wi-fi driver could hurt things.

Access Connections and windows can fight over management. So if you use Access Connections (try old versions of this too) make sure you disable the Windows one, and if you use the Windows one, you should uninstall Access Connections.

You may also want to give a live Linux distro a try (e.g. Ubuntu 8.10 32-bit) just to make sure that the wireless adapter actually works.