Get ThinkPad wireless radio back when pressing Fn F5 in Access Connections
Background:
I had problem one day when I used software installer to upgrade my ThinkPad X60, suddenly the wireless
radio could not be found when I launch Access Connections. After searching through a lot of forums, and
spending a lot of time to uninstall, re-install, change, update and all the nonsense, I finally found a workable
method from Lenovo itself at here. Unfortunately, the explanation there is a bit confusing, so I created a
step by step guide.
I hope this will help those who faced the same problem as me.
Settings:
I am using ThinkPad X60 with Windows XP and have some software that you may not be using, however, the
procedures are the same. Just adapt to your settings.
Brief summary
All the problem is a open source item call LIBEAY32.DLL, which got messed up. Fn F5 needs to get to the right LIBEAY32.DLL to show the wireless radio. The job is to fix this mess.
1) Launch the XP search window as shown.
2) Enter LIBEAY32.DLL in the search criteria as shown, narrow the search to the C drive, then enable the advance option to search in the system folder and the sub folders. We need to find ALL the LIBEAY32.DLL since it is open source and used by several programs.
3) After you press search, notice the list of found LIBEAY32.DLL as shown, the most important one is the one listed at c:program files\Intel\wireless\bin
4) Start the replacement by starting from the top of the list, select the first, RIGHT click the mouse, select the "Open the containing folder" at the top of the list
5) At the newly opened folder, select LIBEAY32.DLL, RIGHT-click and choose rename. Change LIBEAY32.DLL to LIBEAY32.DLL.BAK so that it becomes a backup file
6) When the file has been renamed, go back to the search list, CTRL-CLICK the LIBEAY32.DLL at the C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin as shown, drag the file across and it will COPY there.
7) Repeat step 4 to 6 for all the other listed LIBEAY32.DLL you have found in the search. Then close all the window.
8) Press Start, RIGHT click My Computer and select Properties at the last of the list as shown
9) When the window shows up, click on the Advance tab on the right as shown, go down and click Environment Variables
10) Scroll down on the lower side till you find path, select it then press the Edit button as shown
11) In the Path as shown, find the C:\Program Files\Intel\Wireless\Bin as shown, Cut and move it to the leftmost. Remember to have the ; separate the next ‘path’ setting as shown. What we are trying to do is to make sure that Window XP load LIBEAY32.DLL from the first path it encounters, ie the leftmost one you just made.
12). Close everything, reboot your computer and press Fn F5, viola, the wireless radio button is back!
