thank you everyone for all the advice. I used Cocktail (does it do more than MacJanitor? should I use both?) to clean out cache files and whatever, and the pcmcia card has now worked twice, without causing crashes! I know I'll feel safer once I've upgraded to Panther, but until I do, this seems to be working, which is great. I really appreciate the contributions - what a great thing this list is! -- Best Regards, Malcolm