I'm running slackware 10.2 with wpa_supplicant and madwifi

I have the following config

rc.wireless.conf

pcmia card mac)
INFO="MY wireless card"
ESSID="NETGEAR"
GATEWAY="192.168.0.1"
;;

rc.inet1.conf

IFNAME[1]="ath0"
USE_DHCP[1]="yes"
DHCP_HOSTNAME[1]="NETGEAR"
WLAN_WPA[1]="wpa_supplicant"
WLAN_WPADRIVER[1]="madwifi"


wpasupplicant.conf

ctrl_interface_group=0
eapol_version=1
ap_scan=1
fast_reauth=1

network={
scan_ssid=0
ssid="NETGEAR"
Proto=WPA
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
pairwise=CMP TKIP
group=CCMP TKIP WEP104 WEP40
psk="mykeyhere"
}

Now sometimes when I do dhcpcd -d -n ath0 it works fine and I obtain an IP address and all is smooth sailing. However most of the time I can't obtain an IP address and I'm not quite sure why. I know sometimes the existing /var/run/wpa_supplicant/ath0 can cause a problem if I reboot and it already exists. So I make it a habit to remove the ath0 folder then take out the card and put it back in to get a fresh version before I dhcpcd -d -n ath0, but usually it doesn't work. Any help?

wpa_cli outputs:

<2>Trying to associate with (router mac addy here) (SSID='NETGEAR' freq=2462mhz)
<2>Association request to the driver failed
<2>Authentication with 00:00:00:00:00:00 timed out

and it repeats

Anyone please? I can't connect to my router anymore