BCM 4401 / Power Management Issues

I have a Dimension 2350 hooked up (wired) to a Linksys WRT54g router, which is hooked up to a Motorola cable modem. All works well, except for when the computer goes into Standby mode. Randomly, when it wakes up, the network connection is gone, no icon, no connection, nothing. If I go into Network connections, the Status tab is grayed out, but the Device manager shows the item as enabled and working properly.  If I try to connect to the internet through IE when the network connection icon is gone, my home page begins to open, and then freezes up everything. I try to End Task, but it just freezes there, too.  I have to shut it off (won't shut down) and restart, and things are fine.

 

If I notice the network icon is gone after it resumes from Standby, and I put it back to sleep for a second, when it wakes up, all is well.

 

I know that many of you will say I should not use Standby. But... it worked fine for several months - this problem just began this week.  I have updated the driver to the most recent Dell has on its site (from 8/2003), but no help there.  I have unchecked the "Allow the computer to turn this off to save power" (that was unchecked long ago, as having that checked did cause problems...) That is what baffles me - I have made no changes in the past week that I can think of that would cause this. The only real changes I made were adding my virus program to the Exceptions allowed for windows Firewall and updating my AV definitions... I did notice, however, that the problem began one day after a System Checkpoint was made by System Restore, but that must just be a coincidence....

 

So... any ideas? Are there network cards that handle power management better? Our other Dimension is connected wireless through a Linksys USB adapter, and has no similar problems...

 

Would trying a new network adapter (they're cheap, right?) be a worthwhile endeavor?