[Tfug] Damned Intel WiFi (2200BG series mini-PCI) stopped working...

[Jim March]

Well this may explain it: note the "radio off" thing on Eth1 (the
Intel WiFi card)!?

---jim at jim-acer:~$ iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

eth0      no wireless extensions.

eth1      radio off  ESSID:""
          Mode:Managed  Channel:0  Access Point: Not-Associated
          Bit Rate:0 kb/s   Tx-Power=off   Sensitivity=8/0
          Retry limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality:0  Signal level:0  Noise level:0
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

wifi0     no wireless extensions.

ath0      IEEE 802.11g  ESSID:"jimnet"  Nickname:""
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.417 GHz  Access Point: 00:15:E9:D8:F7:B9
          Bit Rate:54 Mb/s   Tx-Power:15 dBm   Sensitivity=0/3
          Retry:off   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=57/94  Signal level=-39 dBm  Noise level=-96 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:824  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

jim at jim-acer:~$

Jim again: note that pulling the Ath0 PCMCIA card doesn't help any.



On 9/18/07, Jim March <1.jim.march at gmail.com> wrote:
> SIGH.
>
> OK.  Some may recall the saga to date.  Extreme short form: the
> internal Atheros-based mini-pci WiFi card in my Acer laptop died of
> "coke overdose" at one of the TFUG meets.  While selling an old
> Fujitsu carcass for it's screen I noticed it had an internal mini-pci
> Intel 2200BG series card - yanked that, dropped it in the Acer, worked
> GREAT.
>
> Until now.
>
> Ubuntu (7.04) seems to see it.  It appears as an "Eth1" device same as
> always, Eth0 (hardwire Ethernet) is present and working and if I put
> my Atheros-based PCMCIA card in, it shows up as Ath0.
>
> When the Intel card worked, I could still insert the PCMCIA WiFi Ath0
> device and under the Network Manager pull-down menu in Gnome it would
> list all available SSIDs twice, grouped under the Atheros (PCMCIA) and
> Intel cards.  It was kinda neat, because you could see at a glance how
> much more signal strength the Intel card had.
>
> Those "group names" (Intel 2200BG and Atheros) are still listed as
> usual, but with no SSIDs under the Intel card.  It's as if somebody
> snipped the antenna cables, but since I'm hooking to a router one FOOT
> away I figure it oughta work with no antenna at all?
>
> I popped the access plate, re-seated the Intel card and checked the
> antenna connections.  It all looks fine.
>
> Somebody mentioned a second set of drivers (open source vs. the binary
> blob I'm on now)?  I'm thinking I should swap them out, see if that's
> it rather than the card mysteriously going "poof"?
>
> Any other advice?  This is a damned nuisance...
>
> Jim
>