[AequitasOmnibus]

It warms my heart to see people still taking about the X201’s faulty WiFi switch. I loved that laptop but ended up mothballing it over the switch. It remains a perfect example of how cheaping out on an extremely minor component (a plastic slide-switch) can sabotage an otherwise fantastic product.

[csydas]

Yes I used to run into these cards all the time in the past (maybe ancestors of the one from the article) but they were always a pain to deal with. I usually just recommended new wi-fi card if the card was showing these symptoms and i cannot recall anyone ever coming back with wi-fi complaints after that. but definitely if this trick would have worked i would have used it.

[numpad0]

Wi-Fi cards do wear out and needs replacement, especially old ones. There was also a widespread manufacturing issue in some Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chipsets around 2007-2012, which had to do with amplifier SAW/BAW filter(?) that lead to rapid and thorough degradation in radio performance. I think at least Qualcomm did notify rather silently on B2B news channels but it wasn't communicated to the public.