Laptop Network Card giving me headaches

[erub]

I'm confused by the performance of my laptop's NIC card. It is an old laptop, a Dell Latitude LM, and the network card is a 3com EtherLink III Lan PC Card (10Base-T and Coax - model 3C589D), also an old network card. It worked fine under Windows 95, but since I got the laptop from my sister, I decided to format and put Windows 98 on it. Well Windows installs fine, and even recognizes the card..the card requires a dongle, so with the dongle hooked up and the ethernet cable from the dongle to the hub, the light on the dongle is green..but then I reboot and it quits working. I updated the drivers, no go, the light on the dongle is still not green - but the light on the hub is green!?! I decided to try Windows 2000; it also recognizes the card and installs the driver (all automatically), and the light comes on during the first setup - I reboot to try some network settings, and the light goes off (hub light is still green!) It isn't the cable, I have tried a few different ones, that work on my desktop as well. Windows 2000 reports that the Network Cable is unplugged (its plugged all the way in). Any ideas?

 

[Waveslidin]

Just a thought...but have you tried both Pcmcia slots?

 

[Utterman]

I never had this type of problem, but you may want to check the settings of the network card and see if there is any sleep or power saving modes.

 

[erub]

well as strange as this may be, i stopped the card, switch the spots..now its working..i have no idea why - im scared to reboot