pcmcia network card not seen by NT

we have a 3com 3ccfem556b nic that’s not being seen by NT. a little background info..a user has a dell latitude notebook that she took to a trade show. they attempted to put it on the network there, but because they lacked admin rights they couldn’t. she goes and buys a linksys card and they attempt to install it (again that fails because of the admin rights thing) so they remove it. now she’s back in our office and we have no link light on the card. all network settings are correct, removed/reinstalled the drivers, installed latest nic, pc card controller, and service pack and tried using a known good card of the same model. an older 10mbps 3com works fine but not the 10/100 card. any ideas?