Hi, here's my success story flashing a 3Com AirConnect PCI card, which 
had already been updated to firmware 0.8.3 with the update program 
supplied for Windows by the manufacturer.

Flashing into RAM wasn't possible :
./prism2_srec -r -v wlan0 s1010701.hex
S3 CRC-16 generation record: start=0x003F1800 len=52084 prog=1
Start address 0x00000000
srec summary for s1010701.hex
Component: 0x001f 1.7.1 (station firmware)
Supported platforms:
   0x8002 1.0.0,  0x8002 1.0.1,  0x8003 1.0.0,  0x8003 1.0.1,  0x8004 
1.0.0
   0x8008 1.0.0
...
This image is not meant to be downloaded to volatile memory.
Shit.

But I tried with -f option and I got :
Downloading to non-volatile memory (flash).
Note! This can take about 30 seconds. Do _not_ remove card during 
download.
OK.
Components after download:
   NICID: 0x8002 v1.0.0
   PRIID: 0x0015 v0.3.0
   STAID: 0x001f v1.7.1
Yes !!!

My dmesg reports :

hostap_crypt: registered algorithm 'NULL'
hostap_plx: 0.1.2 - 2003-11-02 (Jouni Malinen <jkmaline@cc.hut.fi>)
PCI: Found IRQ 10 for device 00:0b.0
PLX9052 PCI/PCMCIA adapter: mem=0xe4000000, plx_io=0xa800, irq=10, 
pccard_io=0xa400
hostap_plx: CIS: 01 03 00 00 ff 17 ...
hostap_plx: manfid=0x0101, 0x0777
hostap_plx: cor_index=0x1 cor_offset=0x3e0
Prism2/2.5 PC Card detected in PLX9052 adapter
PLX_INTCSR=0x1063
PLX_CNTRL=0x180066d2 (Serial EEPROM present=1)
hostap_plx: Registered netdevice wlan0
prism2_hw_init: initialized in 100 ms
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x007f0000: failed
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x003f0000: failed
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x00390000: OK
wlan0: NIC: id=0x8002 v1.0.0
wlan0: PRI: id=0x15 v0.3.0
wlan0: STA: id=0x1f v0.8.3
wlan0: defaulting to host-based encryption as a workaround for firmware 
bug in Host AP mode WEP
wlan0: defaulting to bogus WDS frame as a workaround for firmware bug 
in Host AP mode WDS
wlan0: Channel setting out of range (3)!
hostap_crypt: registered algorithm 'WEP'

...

prism2_download: dl_cmd=3 start_addr=0x00000000 num_areas=3
   area 0: addr=0x003ee000 len=106 ptr=0x0805e710
   area 1: addr=0x003f17fe len=52086 ptr=0x0805fe60
   area 2: addr=0x003ff000 len=3046 ptr=0x080524c0
Download buffer: 4096 bytes at 0x0060:0x0000
prism2_hw_init: initialized in 70 ms
wlan0: starting flash download
prism2_hw_init: initialized in 120 ms
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x007f0000: failed
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x003f0000: failed
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x00390000: OK
wlan0: NIC: id=0x8002 v1.0.0
wlan0: PRI: id=0x15 v0.3.0
wlan0: STA: id=0x1f v1.7.1
wlan0: Card initialized successfully after flash download
wlan0: Deauthenticate all stations
hostap_plx: Doing reset via direct COR access.
hostap_plx: Driver unloaded
hostap_crypt: unregistered algorithm 'WEP'
hostap_crypt: unregistered algorithm 'NULL' (deinit)

...

Next boot :

wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x007f0000: failed
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x003f0000: failed
wlan0: trying to read PDA from 0x00390000: OK
wlan0: NIC: id=0x8002 v1.0.0
wlan0: PRI: id=0x15 v0.3.0
wlan0: STA: id=0x1f v1.7.1

The next step will be to remove the message that tells me I'm using a 
channel out of range : I'm french, and we could just use 10-13 channels 
when I bought the card. Now, it's possible to use every channels in 
France, so I must find how to allow it.

Thanks for your job, happy flashing !
Damien Persohn
damien @ persohn . net