PCMCIA NIC 'Media State ...:Cable Disconnected'

I use a Dell CPi laptop and a Netgear MA401 pcmcia wireless card.
I ran windows 98SE on the laptop and connected no problem.
I changed to xp and the card could not connect - system tray icon is
red and ipconfig says message similar to above (this message is from
windows 2000 which I'm also trying).
I know the card is ok as it worked on 98SE and I've tried it with
Knoppix.
I've switched off router wep encryption, enabled ssid broadcast and
stopped using access list - didnt help.
Tried the Media Sensing registry change (on xp) - still didnt help.
Tried the latest drivers from netgear but windows reckoned were no more
recent than the ones installed.
The machines BIOS revision is A05 which I think is the most recent.

Can anyone suggest my next move ?