Do Airport Cards "Die"?

Question

Do airport cards die, croak, kick the bucket after a few years?
My iMac has had the same card for four years.
The iMac detects the card, and the card gets signal from the base station when it boots up.
But five minutes after the computer boots, the connection between the card and the base station fizzles, quits, dies, poof-out.
The iMac still detects the card, but no send/receive is going on.
Could it be that my Airport card has gone to Airport card heaven???

Answer 1

I had thought that the Airport card in my iMac G4 had died. When I had an old base station, I had upgraded to some system update of some kind - that's when the signal began dropping off first on the dark side pc with it's Dell TrueMobile, then on the iBook G3 then finally the iMac started to have problems. I went and bought a Extreme base & new DSL. For a few weeks A-OK. Just did software updates on the iMac (the last being a security update). The signal began going on and off with increasing degredation and loss time. I tried all the standard recommendations (as I did the 1st time with the old base) - still it got worse. I turned on the old base & moved it closer to the iMac & saw signal - so I ethernet'd the old base Wan to the Extreme LAN, & old base LAN to the dark side pc. AAll 3 were happy as a clam for one night -then the signal died on the iMac. For days I tried all kinds of things, checking with iStumbler - Nada - I was sure that it had died. I posted a question about getting USB wireless for the Mac. Duane suggested that I check out Ethenet wireless adapters (he seems to be an excellent poster interested in helping people and solving their problems - Frank does too). I was about to call and order one. I thought that I would LAN out from the old Base to the iMac. Before I did, I knew that the dark side pc would have no connection, so I re-installed the driver (actually the other day I had nuked & rebuilt the dark side pc). Suddeny, for the 1st time in over two years, the Dell TrueMobile maintained a consistent signal. Then i plugged the ethernet cable from the old base LAN to the iMac. Tried to get a web site, then remembered that I needed to go to the System Preferences and include Ethernet in the Network preferences - I onlly had Airport check & at the top of the list. Suddenly I had an airport signal & connected to a site. My son said it was the ethernet, so I unplugged the ethernet. It still worked. Now with iStumbler on the iMac I see both bases, the old and the Extreme - I had seen nothing for days - now I cocnsistenetly see signals maintained at levels that I never experienced over the last two years. All three, iMac, iBook, dark side pc (& an XBox) are all super good & have been for over a day.
I said all this to show how bizare this all seems, but to encourage you not to too quickly give up hope - the Airport card may not be dead after all! If, after you try the various recommendations or the suggested permutations & combinations, and still cannot get a signal - try to get the card checked if you can (Apple store, etc.) Otherwise, consider Duane's advice about wireless ethernet adapters (rather than a USB solution).
I know that I did NOT answer your question - I could be wrong, but I think that in the end, only Apple will be able to really answer the question - but until then, do not give up hope and please consider following the suggestions on some of the super-posters (not said in a derogatory way, but to establish their credibilty), even if some suggestions may seem too obvious, etc.
Gino