newbie question ... please help

[kidsolo]

i have a gold mate writer and i was given the hex files from a tech that said the codes don't go down. the card worked fine untill i decided to buy a humax box for the bedroom, i bought another gold card and programmed it with the same hex files. the next day the card in the ftel box didn't work. so i put the card in the writer then back in the ftel box and evrything was fine, untill the next day when my new humax came up with 30 error. so i reprogrammed it. this whent on every day for a week so i bought a few more goldies to program . each box crashed everyday but at different times. now i have come to the point where all the cards i prog with the hex files don't work in the ftel box and the only working card works ok in the humax but yesterday morning the card came up with a irdeto 30 error and would not work so i got pissed off and left the card in the slot. over 4 hours later the card kicked in and i have pics again. i am not sure what to do next....
1. is my ftel box a prob?
2. i read in a thread to leave your card in the decoder and it will kick in, this happens with the humax but not the other box
3. does my writer or cards need to be set to 00 and then program again
4. is it the humax box that is updating the card to keep it alive?
5.i also read on a thread that each card needs a different id... could this be a problem?

thanks in advance
kidsolo