Is my DCF_660W wifi card dead?? Options

[RichS]

Before I try returning it for warranty repair, I thought I'd give asking here a shot in case I'm missing something obvious (which very often happens)...

I plugged my D-Link 660W card into my 5600 last night for some net updating. As soon as I plugged it in, I noticed some screen lines and the Z was locked up. I didn't want to just pull the card out so I did a hard reset. The Z came back up as normal, but the 660 won't be recognised now...

Now if I insert the card one of two things happen. I get the screen noise and lock up, which will go away if I pull the card out...
Or, the card's light stays lit and it won't be recognised by the Z.

I played with cardctl (suspend, resume, reset, insert, eject, ident) and all seem to work except the ident. Only once out of dozens of tries did I get an ident on the card and almost a network connection. Then the card failed again and I couldn't repeat it...

My memory cards work just fine and so does the camera card. So it looks like the Z is okay. But is there any software config that could produce this with the 660? If not, then it hopefully goes back for repair... I just don't want to send it back if it's something in the Z from being reset?

Thanks for the help!

Rich...

[vanstrien]

I've had a problem very similar to that before. Over the last few years I've gone through a few cards, a D-Link like yours and a Linksys.

The sympton is much the same. I plug in the card and the screen (at the time my 5500) goes wobbly. When I try the card in another Z it also didn't work. When I try the card in a pcmcia adapter it is at least readable, but no longer works properly. I can't remember what tests I did in other pda's but I seem to remember the cards just wouldn't work.

I'm afraid it is bad news from my experience. I couldn't get my cards to work and had to get a new card.

[RichS]

Well, thanks for the reply. I thought maybe someone would at least let me know if a software/system setup could cause such a problem. Maybe not...

And to continue the bad news, I bought a Socket low power card as a replacement. Turns out there's a "Rev B" that doesn't work with the Z... That's what I get for buying quick and not researching a second time like I did the first time...

Now I have a LinkSys card coming. I haven't heard of any new revisions to that card and I didn't want to buy another Dlink...

But on the possible bright side. I haven't returned the Dlink yet (oh, just a great company to deal with...) and I decided to give it another try last night. But this time I gave the card a good "bend" in both directions. Not enough to break it ;-) Just a 'bend'... Plugged it in and it worked for an hour or so. It didn't stop working, I did... So it's either got a loose connection, bad solder joint, or some part of it was touching something it shouldn't... But now that it works, it will be difficult to have it repaired...

And since I got zero replies to my inquiry about getting the Socket 6004 card working, I'll have to try to trturn that one... And I though linux people kept on top of new hardware? Oh-well....

[zbones]

And since I got zero replies to my inquiry about getting the Socket 6004 card working, I'll have to try to trturn that one... And I though linux people kept on top of new hardware? Oh-well....

Well, any card can be made to work with the right drivers. Most people will buy a card that they know works already as it is so much easier.

All it takes is for somebody with a good understanding of linux internals/device drivers and a goodly bunch of spare time to aquire one of these cards and I am sure it could be made to work with possibly a small amount of help from the device manufacturer.

There is no incentive for somebody to buy an unkown card and try and make it work when there are plenty of known working cards to choose from. The only incentive would be if that particular card offered something that no other known working card did.

[RichS]

No doubt zbones. My comment was more serious than satirical. I honestly did think that the linux folk went after new hardware, but maybe more in the desktop arena? I do remember having problems with a sound card driver though last time I set up a linux box a few years ago...

My suprise came from finding out that people were looking at this 'problem' for at least 4 or 5 months and there's still no word on a driver, but many new buyers in the same situation I found myself in. Which of course was my own fault for not looking into it before I bought it. I just remembered the Socket from when I bought the Z and didn't even think of them changing it...

Still an "Oh-well"... My dumb mistake and I should be able to get a refund on it and just lose the shipping. Not the worst I've had happen by a long shot...