I've used my Agere ORiNOCO card with my Netbook Pro in the past, and IIRC I used the CAB named wireless.ARMV4.CAB, and it worked fine.
(The CABs are inside Inflated.zip, which is inside the 7.82.881 ZIP file.
)
Don't use non-alkaline batteries for backup - they'll run down much faster, and may damage the device if they leak.