[Tfug] Damned Intel WiFi (2200BG series mini-PCI) stopped working...

[Jim March]

SIGH.

OK.  Some may recall the saga to date.  Extreme short form: the
internal Atheros-based mini-pci WiFi card in my Acer laptop died of
"coke overdose" at one of the TFUG meets.  While selling an old
Fujitsu carcass for it's screen I noticed it had an internal mini-pci
Intel 2200BG series card - yanked that, dropped it in the Acer, worked
GREAT.

Until now.

Ubuntu (7.04) seems to see it.  It appears as an "Eth1" device same as
always, Eth0 (hardwire Ethernet) is present and working and if I put
my Atheros-based PCMCIA card in, it shows up as Ath0.

When the Intel card worked, I could still insert the PCMCIA WiFi Ath0
device and under the Network Manager pull-down menu in Gnome it would
list all available SSIDs twice, grouped under the Atheros (PCMCIA) and
Intel cards.  It was kinda neat, because you could see at a glance how
much more signal strength the Intel card had.

Those "group names" (Intel 2200BG and Atheros) are still listed as
usual, but with no SSIDs under the Intel card.  It's as if somebody
snipped the antenna cables, but since I'm hooking to a router one FOOT
away I figure it oughta work with no antenna at all?

I popped the access plate, re-seated the Intel card and checked the
antenna connections.  It all looks fine.

Somebody mentioned a second set of drivers (open source vs. the binary
blob I'm on now)?  I'm thinking I should swap them out, see if that's
it rather than the card mysteriously going "poof"?

Any other advice?  This is a damned nuisance...

Jim