HTC :: Hero (CDMA) WiFi Stopped Working

I have a HTC Hero on the regional carrier, Cellular South. For some time I've been using the WiFi, which comes in particularly handy in those places I visit where I can't get a cellular signal. Recently the WiFi just stopped working. It's turned on, it just does not work. I've uninstalled a number of applications, rebooted the phone and took it in to the Cellular South store, where the Hero expert looked at it. Their suggestion was a hard reset, which would wipe out everything on the phone. It would all have to be reloaded afterward. The suggestion came with no guarantee and they said that it might have to be replaced if the reset did not cure the problem. I've experienced other problems with the Hero falling back to "base Android" when the HTC Sense application got set to not autostart. This probably due to interaction with some downloaded application.

My question is if anyone else has experienced WiFi not working and knows of any non-destructive fixes for the problem? (e.g. look for a particular program that needs to be restarted)