Why can't I turn Airport on in my iMac? It turns off on its own.

I have an iMac with leopard and an intel processor. Airport (the hardware/software responsible for my Wi-Fi) seems to turn on and off on its own.
Sometimes when I log on, Airport is on. Sometimes after it goes to sleep, Airport is on. But sometimes, Airport isn't on, and there's nothing I can do to turn it on. It appears that this is an issue other users are having, but I can't find the resolution. I am looking for easy steps!
I have gone to network preferences, and tried pushing that cute little "Turn Airport On" button. Nothing. I've tried deleting the locations and adding a new one. Nope. I've changed the order of the network devices. I've tried to turn airport on through that little icon in the upper right. It's hollow, and tells me "No Airport Card Installed". It's lying. It was there two days ago. System profiler tells me that there's no Aiport card installed, but it did *two days ago*.
I admit my ignorance of Macs whole-heartedly. I bought my first a month ago - I only spent 3 hours that first day getting it on my network. The next day I spent another 3 hours getting it BACK on the network. Now I have spent 2 days trying to get it to believe it CAN get on a network.
An Apple salesman convinced me how terrific Macs were, and impressed me with how easy they are to use. He made a crack about how inferior Dell was and how sorry he felt for me. I am writing this message on a Dell laptop. It is connected to my wireless network. It took me 3 minutes to connect it, and it never once has told me that it no longer has a network card. Neither have the other 3 PCs in my house.
Can someone PLEASE save a poor, helpless PC user. I clearly need assistance -I read somewhere that I can run a 'script' to turn it on - but I don't know this OS so I don't understand what that entails
If any answer involves taking my Mac into a "Genius Bar", then the "Genius" can keep it. I've never had to take an out-of-box PC to a "Genius" - because it doesn't take one to fix a PC. Please guys, save a PC user. This Mac cost more than the PC I wanted and it's worth a lot less to me right now.

Hi, sorry to hear that you are experiencing these problems, but sometimes a new machine (be it Apple, Dell, whatever) can be defective right out the box - its not unheard of.
If your machine came with defective hardware and is still under warranty (seems to be the case here) then you have nothing to lose taking it back to where you bought it and, if there really is defective hardware present I am sure they'll rectify the problem.
A small note: these problems are not manufacturer-specific - its pointless blaming the manufacturer as I can assure you this happens with ALL brands. Apple supplies quality hardware and software - I know of a user who has had a machine switched on since 1987 without problems

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