can't enable new wireless adapter

1st Post.
Moved to new house. Cable modem is far from desktop (no cable outlet in office), have to connect wirelessly. Bought wireless adapter (Asus PCE-N53). Installed drivers and card. All is well. BUT computer doesn't see any networks. Tried vista's Diagnose Why Can't Find Any Networks and says "the network adapter ASUS pce-n53 wireless lan card is experiencing driver or hardware related issues". On Device manager the card is enabled and working properly BUT on Control Panel > Network Connections the wireless connection is Disabled. When I try to enable it, it doesn't (goes through the motions but in the end it still shows Disabled.)
I re-installed the driver, rebooted the machine, removed and re-inserted the card more than once, same results.
This is the 2nd card that I try, the 1st was a Rosewill, so I don't think it's the card itself.
Is something wrong in my settings?
Or is it the motherboard?
Or something else?
Please Help!

P.S. the LEDs on the back of the card are both off

Go to Device manager and uninstall the device. Reboot.

I don't know why but I could never get an internal wireless card to work with Vista and the problem wasn't with the card. I was however able to get an external usb adapter to work.