Wireless using inbuilt Ralink hardware

OK, I've got an old Medion PC circa 2005 which has an inbuilt wireless card (Ralink RT2500 ?)- never had the need to use it wirelessly until now. XP home has been re-installed and I've installed the WLAN software using the driver disc that came with the PC. Problem is, I seem to have installed the Ralink software and the ability for the PC to pick up wireless is, at best, sporadic. On startup, Windows software sometimes find the available networks, sometimes it doesn't.
I've heard having both windows (WZC) and other wireless software causes a conflict. I'd prefer to stick with windows, but uninstalling the Ralink software also uninstalls the drivers for the wireless card hardware itself. Any ideas?
The Ralink software is not at all user friendly.

Uninstall the Ralink software & reboot your pc. Download the latest software for your card from here:
http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php

When installing, if you get the option of "driver install only" or " driver & utility software install", choose the former. You will now find that the Ralink driver will override the Win XP driver but without installing some fancy, bloated utility software and it should work perfectly