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Wi-fi on a Thinkpad T39

Started by tkildegaard, 2009.04.10, 10:48:52

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tkildegaard

Hi,

I am looking for help getting a driver installed for a wifi card. I recently purchased a Thinkpad T30. It has an internal wireless card, a Mini PCI Intel Pro Wireless 2100. I think the same card is in some T40 and other Thinkpads (the FRU number is 91P7143). Anyway, I think it should work with the IBMPrism driver that's available on the eComStation website. I downloaded and installed this driver. During bootup the following is displayed:

G:\IBMCOM\MACS\IBMPRISM.OS2
IBM miniPCI PRISM 2.5
Failed to register IRQ 0 with Resource Manager
Failed to register the adapter with Resource Manager

Some facts that might be relevant:

(1) This is the third adapter installed in MPTS. The first is the ethernet card, and the second is virtual switch, needed for Virtual PC for OS/2. (2) I bound the TCP/IP protocol to the IBMPRISM driver. (3) the OS is eComStation 1.2R. (4) Finally, for what it's worth, GENMAC Wireless LAN Scan reports "error: no Wireless LAN device found being supported by GenMac!".

Any help getting this working would be greatly appreciated.

Ted Kildegaard

Blonde Guy

Check again with GenMac. The Intel 2100 Wlan [8086:1043] is supported.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

IBManners

I am the computer, it is me.

Saijin_Naib

Ah, lol. That is a cheap shot :P

tkildegaard

Quote from: Blonde Guy on 2009.04.11, 03:06:53
Check again with GenMac. The Intel 2100 Wlan [8086:1043] is supported.

Hi Neil,

Thanks, i found it and installed it. I also installed the WLAN Monitor. The wi-fi was working, however the system became very unstable. It crashed ("The system is stopped") half a dozen or more times in a 90 minute (approx) period. So I de-installed GenMac, an hour ago, and so far the system is stable again. There might have been something wrong with my GenMac installation, I don't know. I'll try to re-install it again in a day or two to see if it works better.

By the way, I noticed that the statement "dllbasing=off" had been put in the config.sys file. I don't know what put it there, but I think it was recent. Anyway, as dllbasing "prevents fragmentation of the shared environmen", I wonder if the fact that it was turned off might be related to the instability I experienced.

Anyway, I'll try GenMac again soon and let you know how it turns out.

Thanks.
Ted Kildegaard


Saijin_Naib

I usually have DLL basing on. It says the downside is that it may reduce performance when loading apps that have already stored DLLs or other info in the shared memory but on modern computers this should really be of no noticeable difference.

tkildegaard

Quote from: Blonde Guy on 2009.04.11, 03:06:53
Check again with GenMac. The Intel 2100 Wlan [8086:1043] is supported.

A follow-up to my post of 11APR -- I reinstalled GenMac twice (de-installing it in between) and continued to experience instability with GenMac. Each time the wi-fi worked but, as before, I got  "The system is stopped" crashes. I can't have this happening while I am working, so I de-installed GenMac once again (yesterday). I have been up and running since then without any crashes.

Since the system is not stable with GenMac installed, I am thinking my alternative might be to get a card that's supported by the IBMPrism driver that's supposed to be for T23 and T30 Thinkpads. I believe the T30 originally came with a Cicco Aironet PCI card. Do you know if that would work with the IBMPrism driver?

Ted


Blonde Guy

Your real problem is that you have something wrong with the system. GenMac is stable. Do you have ACPI installed on the T30? You should not. If you do, then that explains the instability.

In answer to your question, the IBMPRISM driver does not support the Cisco Card PCI card. GenMac doesn't support it either, although it  might in "UNSUPPORTED" mode. The IBM driver supports the IBM High Rate PC card. There is a unofficial beta driver that supports the Cisco 350 PC card.

I think GenMac is the only support for mini-PCI WiFi cards for the T30.
Expert Consulting for OS/2 and eComStation

tkildegaard

Neil,

> Your real problem is that you have something wrong with the system.
> GenMac is stable. Do you have ACPI installed on the T30? You should
> not. If you do, then that explains the instability.

There might be something wrong with my system, though I have no clue as  to what it might be. I don't have ACPI installed.

A couple of other possibilities come to mind. Namely, I wonder if perhaps I am not getting GenMac installed properly (it's the helper driver, I think, because the base had already been installed and had not caused any problems). The other possibility that occurs to me is that there might be something wrong with the Intel mini-PCI card that's in this T30.

> The IBM driver supports the IBM High Rate PC card.

Yes, I did a little research. There is an os2warp.de page that lists  IBMPRISM.EXE as the driver for several adapters (CompuShack SWN-103 PCI WLAN Adapter, IBM miniPCI compatibles, Intersil PRISM 2.5 miniPCI evaluation board, NetGear MA-311 PCI Card).

> I think GenMac is the only support for mini-PCI WiFi cards for the T30.

Would it not work if I were to replace the Intel card that came in this machine with one that is supported by IBMPRISM.EXE?

I have no idea what might be wrong with my system, and I imagine the investment of time trying to figure it out could be substantial. However, on eBay there is a card for sale that I think should work with IBMPRISM.EXE. It's an "IBM T30 High Rate Wireless 802.11B Card" (FRU 26P8520) for sale. It's a combo mini-PCI card (wi-fi/modem). At $15, it  might be worth a try.

Ted