Wifi card mystery

I reluctantly dusted of my Belkin F5d6020 wifi card to use in my new 6651. Why the hesistation? That card has always run *very* hot, and I emphasize *very* when used in any of my non-CE machines. It's never damaged them but being cautious I would yank the card when I felt the heat building up.

The card has been running a long time in my 6651 and is barely warm to the touch. Same thing when I use the card in my other 6651. Barely warm after a long run.

Why such a difference between the platforms? I'm thinking the prism ref drivers are running the card at reduced output, but my signal is strong.

I have a util to run the card at 5mw when in the Windows boxes but that doesn't reduce the heat. Yet another prism card, my MA401, runs really hot on CE or my laptops.

Why such a difference in the heat this card produces between CE and my laptops?

edit: Just good karma?

Edited by wallythacker 2005-07-19 8:02 PM

I always say… if it works with your HPC; use it. Also (it seems you already did) stop using it on anything else. Cards usually run cooler with CE.

My MA401 runs warm to the touch after a while, but never hot - I'm going to be replacing it right away (bought a CF+PCMCIA sandisk on eBay so I can swap it easily for a BT CF card), but it was never something I worry about.. Hell, I use it on my lap in bed for hours without a problem.

I'm gonna take a guess here and say that the heat had nothing to do with the card itself, but was just absorbing heat from CPU heated air flowing out the open hole in the side of your laptop. PCMCIA slots on laptops (particularly older Pentium/PII laptops - dunno about newer ones with low power CPUs) were often a secondary heat exhaust port for CPU heat. In fact, you used to be able to buy a little PCMCIA bus-powered exhaust fan to pull hot air out and keep your CPU cool. Anyway, when your CPU has the air inside the case heated to 45-50C (my old Pentium 233 laptop would routinely get this hot - maybe why it's dead now ), that room-temperature PCMCIA card with it's aluminum frame is just become a heat sink.

[PS: for my contrymen who can't/don't do conversions, 50 C is 122 degrees Farenheight. ]

I suppose it could also be bus voltage - if the laptop ran the card on +5V and the HPC is supplying +3.3V, the card should run cooler. Hopefully it isn't a 3.3V only card that you're pushing 5V through!!

FWIW, my Belkin has newer firmware than my MA401. Maybe that's the difference?
As mentioned my MA401 runs about 50C in any machine of mine.

Also, I use the cards on the Libretto dock, so they are below and isolated from the Libretto cpu and hdd. Maybe I'll never solve the mystery but I'm not complaining about having a cool & solid wifi for my other 6651.

I really should flash the belkin fw into the MA401 and see if that does it.

Help? I've never ripped/flashed the fw from one NIC to another. Flashed everything else but.

I missed the edit timeframe but it's been just 45 mins from my post.
NM about flashing info. I found enough sites to toast all my cards in a *flash*

what do you mean by "CF+PCMCIA sandisk"?

I'd bet a Sandisk brand pcmcia-cf adapter. I have one and a Lexar brand adapter. Both work well.