T61 Does My Laptop Have Wireless Capability?

Bought a T61 Lenovo from Ebay with no o/s.

Have installed XP successfully, but it seems to have no wireless capability.

I press Fn and F5 and nothing happens, I switch the wireless switch on and off and nothing.

Is this just a case of me having to install drivers somehow or is there some hardware missing?

Under hardware device manager, in Network Adapters there is only 1394 net adapter, no mention of wireless.

Help!

 

you can take off the palmrest and keyboard, the wireless card is under the keyboard area near power switch button location. There is either 2 antenna or 3 antennas connecting to it.

 

Umm ok thanks for that lead_org, I dont have a screwdriver to hand...is the fact that I havn't downloaded a wireless driver likely to be the cause?...the fact I see nothing under hardware device manager makes me concerned something is amiss, it was sold on the basis it had wireless connectivity built in as standard.

 

even without the driver, the hardware manager should still pick it up as an unknown device usually.

Having a look is the easiest way to determine whether the wireless card is there or not. It is not unheard of, that some ebay sellers take out laptop parts before they ship the laptop to the seller.

You can also check your parts list to see which wireless card was shipped with your laptop.

Lenovo Support & downloads - Parts lookup

Also, there is a chance that the wireless is card is disabled in the bios. So go into the bios and see whether it is enabled.

 

Thanks, I will have a look tomorrow.

 

It's nearly impossible to see a laptop without a wifi card. What is your laptop's condition when it's sold? Is it brandnew or used? Is it in warranty or not?

 

EBAY

Grade , good condition will show minor signs of use, includes 3 months return to base warranty (and any remaining IBM warranty)
This laptop has no license sticker or Windows operating system installed please only buy if you are capable of installing Windows yourself.


Actually I will return it to the seller as am not happy with the wear and tear as well as the lack of wireless, it must be broken.

Thanks

 

at this price, it is probably one of those grade b or c laptop.

 

Yes it is, I have bought one before for the mother in law and was impressed with the quality, I have used them from new at work and the Thinkpads/Lenovos are well built.

Its probably a case of hit or miss as this one has too many scratches and wear to be advertised as "Good condition with minimal wear"...and what with the wireless not being apparent I'll be pushing Paypal for a refund if one isnt offered by the company involved.

Thanks for your advise people.

 

what i said about grade b and c laptop, it is ranking system for the second hand laptop that the second hand resellers use.

I am not saying about the T61 model per se.

 

The T61 should have a wireless adaptor as standard though there are 2 types, you either have the Thinkpad 54a/b/g/n Wireless adapter or the Intel PRO Wireless adapters (Earlier models have the 3945abg though some are upgraded to the 4965ABGN). Try to see if the wireless facility hasn’t been switched off from the BIOS, tap F1 when you see the Thinkpad logo then go to “Config” and “Network” and make sure it’s on.

As you mentioned you use XP, try either of the drivers from the Lenovo support site, if the Intel drivers don't work then try out the Thinkpad drivers to see if that works. From personal experience while Windows 7 finds these drivers for you, in XP you need to install them yourself. Check the device manager for any yellow exclamation mark on networking devices and check the hardware ID (my T61 shows “PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_4227&SUBSYS_10118086&REV_02” which is an Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG device).

If all else don’t seem to work then you really need to inspect the wi-fi card itself, this can be found easily but just removing the keyboard and making sure the antenna’s are firmly connected. Otherwise it seems that you’re really unlucky with a duff wi-fi card. My Thinkpad T61 was bought from a private seller from eBay for just £250, it was in great condition and everything worked out of the box so don’t be put off by price alone. See if your unit is in warranty by clicking here, if it is then contact Lenovo to see if they can sort out your wireless problem. If not then just contact the seller to see if they exchange or refund you on eBay.

 

I don't think it's out of the realm of possibilities that there was a special order without WiFi cards, but just pop off the keyboard and find out.