My sad netBook

[wirebook]

I still love the Psion netBook. But, the internet is being picky with my Cisco Aironet 340 PCMCIA card. I've posted here before, but none of the answers worked quite yet. I hope that now that I've come back a few months later, the answer to my question might be known by someone out there.
I believe diem was one of the ones who kindly and quickly responded, but for those of you who don't know, my netBook and Aironet card don't seem to work anymore. The netBook works just fine, and so does the Cisco Aironet 340 PCMCIA card, but only when they are seperate. The Aironet card works in a PC laptop with the cisco software, but when the card is plugged into the netBook, the orange light just comes on solid for about five seconds, and then turns off. When I try to access the internet, the orange light comes on again, but then the netBook claims it cannot connect, and then the light turns off. Is it possible that maybe a solder joint broke? The evening when it stopped working I was accessing the internet just fine, but then the screen flashed brightly, and then logged me out. When I tried to log in again, it claimed it couldn't get in.
Plus, I cannot get a hold of the technical support for the Psion netBook, so anyone who knows a phone number or email address withing the U.S. that works, your help would be appreciated. Thank you for your time.

[donkeyontheedge]

So they used to work fine, right? You have successfully connected to the internet using your netbook and Aironet card?

There's no way any changes have been made to the access point? Changed security settings, encryption, SSID etc?

Do other PCMCIA card work in the netbook? It would be good if you could try i.e. a GoldCard modem to see if that works OK.

Let us know how you get on and we can go from there.

John

[diem]

Yes, it will be key to ascertain whether other PCMCIA cards still work - if not, then the port is broken somehow. It can't be the classic 'bent/pushed in pin' problem because you did not remove the card between it working and not doing so.

IIRC, you have tried a hard reset. If other cards work, then all that remains is that the card is drawing just a little too much power for the netBook to supply; this is consistent with the light coming on whilst the card is interrogated to discover its requirements. Since the card stopped working after the screen 'flared', perhaps the screen now draws a little more power than it did, not leaving enough current capacity for the slot? I am guessing wildly here, but if the slot still works for other cards there are few remaining possibilities.

I do not know of any Psion service centres in the States; anyone else?

[wanman]

Have you tried other cards in your pcmcia slot? Not just other Wi-Fi cards but wired modem, wired ethernet (psion Goldcards), PCMCIA/CF card adapor? If these do not work either, then it sounds as if you netBook may need a visit to a repair shop after all.

One thing I would check if other cards are working, is the SSID reference. I got a feeling that when some WAP's are reset, the restore the default SSID, which is usually the MAC address. If your WAP (wireless access point) has been reset recently, the SSID on your netbook may not be the same. (doubt this would have happened during useage though).

The SSID on your netBook is found by clicking on the Options button on the Service tab of your Ethernet settings for the Aironet card. It is not called SSID on the netBook but "WaveLAN network name"

Regards

Si