T21 Freeze; WinXP and Xircom min-PCI

[lonewibl]

Ok, first post here; I looked for a suitable topic and couldn't find a decent match.

Thinkpad T21, Xircom mini-pci, Windows XP. Every so often this combo will freeze for no apparent reason. Power off, and back on - freezes at the Windows splash screen. By experimenting, I found that removing the Xircom card would allow the machine to boot. Re-installing it lead to the freeze again. HOWEVER if I leave it out for some period of days, I can reinstall and it will work fine. I suspect a problem with the card, but can't prove it. BTW, BIOS is 1.16, so I know of the caveats there, but don't use that feature. Any ideas? I'm thinking of replacing this card with a different one; any recommendations? I suppose I could have an overheating problem, so perhaps I should clean the fan and use more heatsink compound? Thanks for any suggestions!

An update. I went ahead and picked up a 3com mini-pci replacement for the xircom. So far things seem Ok, but it's waiting on these random events that drives me nuts!

I'll call this the final update. I've been running iwth the 3com card now in some of the rare hot and humid weather we get in the great Northeast. Connected for long periods of time (hours) without any problems whatsoever. With the Xircom card I would have expected a crash by now, so I believe it to have been the cause of my troubles. What I don't understand is why simply allowing the laptop to cool with the card installed didn't fix anything, or why I 'd have to leave the card out for days to get it working again.