Power usage, PCMCIA cards for Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)

According to an electronics sales person, Windows allows for the disabling of Wi-Fi cards, which ensures that it draws no power. I suspect that as long as the card is inserted, there will always be some power, and the most sure way of eliminating power drainage is remove the card.

Is the power difference between disabling and removing a card neglegible? What about the ease with which disabling can be done from Windows 2000? Is it a pain, or is there a system tray item to do this?

Is there a difference in power consumption between cards for 802.11b and

802.11g? Or is the difference overshadowed by power differences between card models for the same standard, or between different manufacturers for the same standard?

Thanks,

Bernie

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Bernie
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In comp.sys.laptops Bernie wrote: : According to an electronics sales person, Windows allows for the disabling : of Wi-Fi cards, which ensures that it draws no power. I suspect that as : long as the card is inserted, there will always be some power, and the most : sure way of eliminating power drainage is remove the card.

Some cards have a little toggle switch that allows you to disable the card. I've seen them, although I have a laptop with an "internal" mini-PCI card (the laptop has a toggle switch on it for the card). In any case, I suspect turning the toggle switch OFF prevents most of the power drain from the card.

Andrew

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Andrew

Thanks, Andrew, for a heads-up on the feature of a hardware switch. Whether it makes much difference from a software switch depends on the card design.

Bernie

Reply to
Bernie

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