This week I went by the local PC store that was going out of business and picked up a used Thinkpad T60. I’ve recently rediscovered my minidisc collection and the software used to burn minidiscs only runs on Windows :( . I do have a Windows 7 VM on my MacBook but I got tired of the judgmental noises my MacBook kept giving me when I would open up Windows 7 on a daily basis so I decided to get a dedicated minidisc burning machine.

When I bought the computer the litte sign next to it said it had built in wifi and the computer had all sorts of stickers and lights reinforcing my belief that it did indeed have built in wifi. When I got home and booted it up I noticed that Windows said that there were no network adaptors. I checked the device manager and there was no wireless network card listed. I checked to make sure that the little wireless switch was on and I checked the bios to make sure that the wifi wasn’t turned off but there was still no wifi.

I was stumped so I decided to crack it open and see what was going on. One thing I do have to say about the T60 is how ridiculously simple it is to open up. After about 2 mins and 5 screws I was able to remove the top case and the keyboard and I discovered the problem. The internal wireless card has been removed. So while the machine did originally have wifi it didn’t anymore as the card was removed. After a quick trip to Ebay I had a replacement card for about $7.00.

I can guarantee you that when I purchased the machine it hasn’t even crossed my mind that someone may have removed the wifi card. While this was probably a pretty safe assumption on my part it got me thinking about what other assumptions I make on a daily basis. Most of them probably turn out to be true so I don’t really notice them but I probably make way too many of them. Anyway, maybe I will be a little more cautious in the future and make fewer assumptions. We’ll see :) .