T61p - Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN problems

I just bought a T61p laptop with an Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN.

My Wifi will not turn on (bluetooth and LAN do work). when I got it, the card wasn't even recognized in my System Device Manager but I updated the driver and now it is recognized on my System Device Manager. The LED light on the laptop still WON'T come on and I still have the "device not working properly" in the Device Manager. On my Wireless Radio the Bluetooth is displayed but not my Intel wireless.

On my Device Manager I also have
- Base System Device
- Base System Device
- Base System Device
- PCI Memory Controller

listed as "not working properly" under the Other Devices tab.

 

bumpity upity

 

Some obvious things, not to be meant as an insult but...

- is your wireless switch in the on position?
- When you press the Fn+F5 buttons a little black window should pop up telling you the status of the bluetooth and wifi. What is the status of your wifi, is it on?

 

Don't worry about that, I have done dumber things.

Yes my switch is in the on position, my wifi doesn't even show up, it just lists my Bluetooth.

 

This doesn't sound good. Looks like the card might be damaged or might need to be reseated. Thats all i can think of. Looks like you have done all the right things.

 

I have been having a large amount of problems with Vista, I am thinking about reinstalling it. Hopefully this will also cure my Wifi problems. Any suggestions or tips on things to do before reformatting?

 

BACKUP!!!

Seriously, back up any files you want to keep. How are you going to reinstall Vista, Clean install or with the Rescue and Recovery discs?

 

I thought Lenovo offered Vista downloads to consumers who bought it with their laptop to do a reinstall but I can only find Linux. Looks like I am going to have to do a Rescue and Recovery. I don't have any important documents on it already. Do I need to download any particular drivers?

 

I'm also having problems with my Card Reader and my Nvidia Quadro 570 GPU so I am trying to see what I can do to get all three fixed.

So far I know these things work

- HDD
- Fingerprint reader
- Disc drive, --CD and DVD Reader-- (haven't tried burning yet)
- all USB ports work

I still have to try out

- VGA port
- Card slot (don't know how I'm gonna test that)
- Firewire
- Modem port
- Headphone and microphone jacks

 

Hi Supercujo,
Sorry you are having these problems. Looks like you are going about checking out your machine in a very sensible and logical manner. Lenovo, and many manufacturers, are being a real pain and don't want to give out the Media for Windows anymore. I think that reinstalling the OS is a good move, can't hurt. You have 2 choices....

1.) Create rescue and recovery discs using the Thinkvantage Utilities(unless you already have them). There is a hidden partition on your harddisc where your OS and all the thrid party programs(ex: Thinkvantage utilities, PC Doctor etc) exist. The rescue discs that you create copy the contents of this partition to Discs. Therefore it will include Vista, third part apps and the drivers that you need. Effectively, it will bring back the machine to the way it was from the factory on day one.

2.) The other option is to do a clean install(which is what I did). This is a little more involved and time consuming, but it was worth it for me. You have the OEM license that came with the machine from Lenovo, what you need now is Vista media. You need to get the media from somewhere, either ebay, a friend, etc and install it using your key that came with your machine. In this method you will be installing the OS only, no drivers, third party software etc. You will then need to install all the drivers and stuff yourself. Here is a really great guide on how to do a clean install of Vista. I followed it and it worked great. You need to make sure to read all steps carefully and you should have a clean nice install of Vista.

If you have any other questions, just ask I will try to help.

 

I have my rescue discs from Lenovo so I will use those and do a recovery. Can you give me a step by step process of the recovery process, I have never had to do one of these before.

 

I am sorry, I have never done the recovery process and only want to comment on things I have done. I have done the clean install and can walk you through that.

I am sure that if you just put your recovery disc #1 in the drive and reboot the wizard should guide you through the process. Try it out and see what happens. If you get confused just post another thread in this forum asking about how to do the recovery process.