have to reboot 9-10 times, then zd1211rw is stable

I bring up my system.
After enabling my zydas wireless card, system generally hangs after about 10-20 seconds.
I have to reboot 9 or 10 times.
When it does not hang, then it is good for a very long time.  (many days)
So............  I dread OS updates.   Any ideas?
info:

using ubuntu (hardy heron)
using zd1211 "out of the box"

egoff@egoff-desktop:~$ uname -a
Linux egoff-desktop 2.6.24-21-generic #1 SMP Mon Aug 25 16:57:51 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux

egoff@egoff-desktop:~$ sudo dmesg | grep zd1211
[   44.582126] zd1211rw 2-6:1.0: eth1
[   44.582145] usbcore: registered new interface driver zd1211rw
[   51.764344] zd1211rw 2-6:1.0: firmware version 4605
[   51.805284] zd1211rw 2-6:1.0: zd1211 chip 07b8:6001 v4330 high 00-12-0e AL2230_RF pa0 g----

egoff@egoff-desktop:~$ sudo lsmod | grep zd
zd1211rw               64008  0
ieee80211softmac       34688  1 zd1211rw
ieee80211              38344  2 zd1211rw,ieee80211softmac
usbcore               170288  5 zd1211rw,usbhid,ehci_hcd,ohci_hcd