NIC card doesn't always connect to network on startup

[jtc218]

I have a Thinkpad A21m running under 98SE and just lately after running flawlessly for over 5 years, my 3Com Fast Ethernet PC Card began failing to connect (my 100 LED light fails to come on). The device manager shows a yellow asterik over the Ethernet card's icon which indicates a problem with connectivity. Sometimes a few restarts will establish a connection and the LED lights up as normal but I usually end up ejecting the card and reinserting it to force a connection. This happened out of the blue. Thinking I had an Ethernet card going bad, I purchased a new one but it does the same thing so it must be the laptop. Anyone know what is happening and if it can be fixed?