Hello!

A new LevelOne wireless network card, a 108-Mbps WNC-0300, has worked fine on my computer for a year, running both in Windows XP and Ubuntu 9.04. During the course of a day, however, it stopped working, without the system being updated or altered in any way. Now, the card cannot be detected in either OS; "ifconfig" in Ubuntu does not return its presence, and the wireless network connection is not listed in Windows' appropriate list.

No physical damage can be seen, since it blinks away happily in its socket; the problem is not a router-issue as other computers can still connect to the internet.

I'm wondering if this is common for cards of this type to do after a limited use, even if no search of the hardware section at this site could spot similar situations, if it is a software (e.g. drivers updated to ones not compatible with the card without warning) or hardware issue, and what could be done to amend this.

Thanks in advance!

Things do die. We're talking a few percent over product lifetime.

The percentage can be lessened by 'burn-in' but this raises the cost considerably. It's usually cheaper just to issue replacements for the few that die under warranty and come back.

There is the other side: With miniturisation & radio in particular (wifi is hr radio), there is a very sensitive input circuit connected to the aerial. Poor connections, or any messing will freak it. Even heavy RF around you or electrical spikes can freak it. One tiny little transistor blows, and it's game over.

Okiedokie; thank you for the help!