hey route44
thanks for your fast reply!
actually my NIC card is nit from TrendNet but from Netgear (Netgear 311v3) - but perhaps it's the same card, just different names. anyway, it uses the marvell chipset you mentioned. since i couldn't really find a driver update on marvell's site, i downloaded one from netgear. i was aware of its existence but reluctant to install it because it had caused trouble when i still had windows xp. but now with vista i haven't noticed any issues and haven't had a BSOD for the last 18 hours, which is a record.
i hope to have solved this problem
thank you very much for the info