Airport turns off, won't come back w/o restart

Question

My Airport card has been driving me crazy since approximately late May. It turns off at will, and I've searched the net and tried a host of fixes -- resetting RAM and whatnot (holding down various button at restart), deleting and adding a new location in network prefs, etc etc -- but nothing has worked. I'm afraid (and becoming increasingly convinced) that it is a hardware issue. Things are fine when I leave my MBP on the desk. But as soon as I try to move it, or put it in my lap, the Airport turns off (icon at upper right goes "empty"). And it won't turn back on unless I restart. This happens every time I move it, though if I'm reeeally careful and hold it at the front/sides, it might make it to its new location...for a bit. Then, if I move it around too much...gone.
I'm out of warranty and don't have Applecare, so if this is purely hardware related, I might be SOL...or have to do some surgery myself. But if anyone has any advice, it would be much appreciated. Like I said, I've tried resetting everything at startup, erasing and adding a new location in network prefs...nothing worked at all.
(Also worth nothing, back in Nov 08, I had a problem with the board, which incidentally was also interfering with the Airport a bit....but it was mostly just causing system failure. Sent it in via an Apple Store, and when it came back, the board issue/kernel panics/etc were gone, but I had a HD hum....as in, faint clicking noise coming from the right upper area. Stops when I hold down the P, [, or ] keys, or those in the vicinity. Unfortunately, my warranty ran out shortly after, and I couldn't afford to lose my comp for a couple of weeks in there. *****. Now here I am.)

Answer 1

try a security wipe, doubt it will work but worth a try
backup device
options- security options- general settings
menu button- wipe handheld
wait till you BB reboots adn test it again without restoring your backup
if that doesnt work, try this
make sure you have DTM 4.7 or 5.0 installed and closed
plug in BB
click on start- run and type
cmd
press enter, then type
cd c:\program files\common files\research in motion\apploader
press enter, then type
loader.exe /resettofactory
press enter
wait till you BB reboots adn test it again without restoring your backup.