A new wireless card?

[Tom M]

Got a rather increasingly antiquated laptop - IBM Thinkpad R50 - That am having problems with connecting to the wireless network with.

Just keeps dropping the signal basically. Might be for a few seconds, might be for a little longer, but will generally re-connect itself. The wireless signal itself is very strong, and as far as I am aware, is working okay as the other people who use the network have no problems.

Is just annoying, particularly when trying to watch i-player and things like that.

My layman's thought was would a new wireless card in the laptop help?

And how easy is it to replace? Just a matter of unscrewing the back, then bung the new one in?

Thoughts appreciated,

Ta.

[rusky]

I would be inclined to try updating the drivers assuming there are later ones available. it might even be worth trying an older driver version before you try replacing the card.

[rafletcher]

Might struggle for support for an eledrly thinkpad, but if it's homebased why not get an Edimax USB dongle. I've one on my Dell Vostro (failing wireless is endemic in the variety & vintage I have, and not worth a new internal card).

If you decide on a new card, then thete are plenty of very good online manuals for the IBM thinkpads showing "how-tos"

[Ewan Houzami]

How strange! It's just taken me ten minutes to connect my laptop to get a-posting on here, and have given up on my broadband temporarily. Thankfully I can use 3G via my mobile hotspot, and it's not that much slower*. I'm getting connection probs and intermittent dropouts, and the first thing I thought of is that my wireless card is on the way out, which seems a bit odd for a two year old machine. Will go for updated drivers first now, thanks to this timely thread!

*Three say they their SIM packages don't allow for unlimited broadband via tethering/hotspotting, but apparently most laptop chipsets can't tell where the signals coming from. Mine can't at least - which leaves me wondering what's  the point of having my BT line...

[hulver]

Replacing them is fairly easy, if it's a standard Mini-PCI one. I did it in my laptop, upgraded to a Wireless-N card when I got a new router. Quicker speeds now.

In mine it was just a question of unscrewing the access door. The card will have a few wires attached for the antenna, un-clip those carefully. Unscrew the card and replace with the new one. Re-connect the wires (they do have specific colours, make sure you get them right), and screw it all back together again.

Different laptops might require a different procedure.

I would first try looking for updated drivers. Windows updates might have made your current drivers a bit flakey, so try that first.

[Tom M]

Well, mentioned it to one of the IT guys at work and he lent me a little USB wireless thing, and that seems to have sorted the problem thankfully.