Problems with built-in wifi on older Inspiron 8200

The issue with me isn't the Belkin, it has worked flawlessly until having recent issue of it now powering on at boot, or randomly powering off. In fact, I am on the Belkin card right now. The RaLink USB card also has worked. There's Windows Firewall in place, but it hasn't affected either of those cards. The Intel 2200BG is the one that does not connect. I did a little checkiig and found that the Ethernet port on the side of the Inspiron will blink to indicate presence of the wireless card (although in BIOS I'm curious why the mini-PCI card is only listed as "unknown," although the status is "enabled."). There's no power switch on the Intel card (there is a "wireless on/off" setting in the properties of the card, though if you select off, then on, it will say you would need to be sure the switch of the adapter is turned on to use the software switch setting.

The strangeness is that I have had instances where the Intel does see the connection (remember, it's my iPhone using the personal hotspot feature, which, by the way, is my only method of connectivity at home as there is no high speed service available). When I go to connect, using the preset WEP key, all it does it try to acquire an IP (I see the wireless icon in the system tray with a rotating yellow dot during this, but as it fails the icon goes to red X, then tries a couple of more times then gives up). Once the Intel gives up, I no longer see the iPhone's wifi, and all I get is "no wireless networks are in range." Going back to the RaLink at this point may also be problematic to see the network again; stopping and starting the iPhone service may bring it back up, but the point is that once it's back as a valid network, connecting is no problem; and that's with the same Windows Firewall settings in place.

Is it possible/likely that the Intel is simply too old a technology, and the iPhone, acting like a router I would think, simply is not compatible with the card? No, I haven't tried the Intel in a coffee house/wi-fi cafe, I have spent much too much time trying to make something otherwise simple to work. I did read that certain Cisco routers did not allow this Intel card to connect, and when the users went to older routers they had success. The card is no longer supported by Intel, although current drivers are available (the Dell driver did not make the card work at all, leaving it with a Code 10, the device could not start error). The last Intel driver is a version 9.xxxx, the card is seen in Device Manager as functional, and of course there are instances where it actually sees the iPhone, it just never connects.

And as I type this, I see my Belkin card has again powered itself off, the original cause for this pointless exercise. I may just look for another RaLink USB (they are quite inexpensive). It just ends up sticking out rather far, but if it works.....