PCMCIA slot help
sTyLezLP
be working, by which i mean not even detect any cards. I've tried
inserting a Microsoft wireless card, and a generic USB 2.0 card. the
wireless card doesn't even light up. I took a look thru the slot
opening and it doesn't look like any pins are bent. The device manager
says that the device is working properly, I even tried changing the
driver to the generic MS PCMCIA driver. Does anyone have any solutions
or fixes?
C.Joseph Drayton
the port on the laptop or a PCMCIA?
The terminology has changed over the years. PCMCIA these
days refers to Type I, II or III 16bit cards. PC-Cards are
Type II 32bit cards.
One of the things you want to keep in mind is that whereas a
PCMCIA card will not plug into a PC-Card slot a PC-Card will
plug into a PCMCIA slot. Some PC-Card do not terminate the
5v pin (which is used for some USB cards and can result in
damage to the PC-Card.
Ciao . . . C.Joseph
"A promise is nothing more than an attempt,
to respond to an unreasonable request."
http://blog.tlerma.com/
(A Windows professional's view of entering the Linux world)
pau...@efn.org
There are 4 hardware failure modes for these slots.
1) disconnected from the motherboard (saw this on a dell, put back the
part)
2) mount broke (saw this on a gateway, replaced motherboard) Visible
only as a hairline crack in the mount.
3) failure of the controller chip (never seen THAT happen yet, but i
suppose it's possible, but since the device manager says it's OK, i
think it unlikely)
4) It's possibe that a trace burned out, in which case, your nose will
tell the tale. It's something to look for.
Only # 1 is easy to fix, but it is by no means a novice repair. (you
have to pull a lot of parts to access what you need, keyboard, palm
rest, aluminum metal thingy whose name I don't recall, possibly a few
cables, and maybe more). If you pay attention, you'll be fine, but if
you're scared, there's no shame in sending this repair to a pc shop.
Besides, I think this generation compaq uses t-9 torx screws).
2 and 3 require a new motherboard. (Or a tech with rare skills and
equipment to do finicky surface mount crap).
4 may be fixable by soldering a wire across the burned out trace.
Don't go there unless you're a professional.
Barry Watzman
Period.
There are three types, type I, II and III but those designations differ
ONLY in the physical thickness of the card (type III is about double
thick for things like PC Card hard drives).
There are also 16-bit cards and 32-bit cards. The 32-bit cards are also
called "cardbus" cards. The 16-bit cards are, electrical, the
equivalent of ISA cards, and the 32-bit cards are the equivalent of PCI
cards. 32-bit slots are backwards compatible and will take 16-bit
cards, but 16-bit only slots will not take 32-bit (cardbus) cards. They
won't even go in (or at least they are not supposed to).
The 16/32 bit card types has nothing to do with either the terminology
of PCMCIA vs. PC Card, nor the "Type" of the card (Type I, II or III).
The correct terminology, today, is "PC Card" regardless of whether it's
a 16 or 32 bit card. PCMCIA Card should not be used, and Cardbus is ok
but of course applies only to the 32-bit cards.
C.Joseph Drayton
> What used to be called a PCMCIA card is now correctly called a PC Card.
> Period.
>
> There are three types, type I, II and III but those designations differ
> ONLY in the physical thickness of the card (type III is about double
> thick for things like PC Card hard drives).
>
> There are also 16-bit cards and 32-bit cards. The 32-bit cards are also
> called "cardbus" cards. The 16-bit cards are, electrical, the
> equivalent of ISA cards, and the 32-bit cards are the equivalent of PCI
> cards. 32-bit slots are backwards compatible and will take 16-bit
> cards, but 16-bit only slots will not take 32-bit (cardbus) cards. They
> won't even go in (or at least they are not supposed to).
>
> The 16/32 bit card types has nothing to do with either the terminology
> of PCMCIA vs. PC Card, nor the "Type" of the card (Type I, II or III).
> The correct terminology, today, is "PC Card" regardless of whether it's
> a 16 or 32 bit card. PCMCIA Card should not be used, and Cardbus is ok
> but of course applies only to the 32-bit cards.
>
>
> C.Joseph Drayton wrote:
Hi Barry,
I have been using laptops for more than 20 years and names
change all the time . . . so I don't even pay attention any
more. The technical information I gave is correct and he
does need to be careful if he plugs in a 32b card that does
not terminate the 5v pin. It can fry the card.
Barry Watzman
only PC card slot (I've seen laptops where it was possible, but only
rarely, and not recently).
The transition to cardbus occurred in about 1997, in roughly the time
frame of the Pentium I 120 to 166MHz laptop CPUs. It's not likely that
he has a pre-cardbus machine. Possible, but not likely.
C.Joseph Drayton
> A cardbus card isn't supposed to even fit into the socket of a 16-bit
> only PC card slot (I've seen laptops where it was possible, but only
> rarely, and not recently).
>
> The transition to cardbus occurred in about 1997, in roughly the time
> frame of the Pentium I 120 to 166MHz laptop CPUs. It's not likely that
> he has a pre-cardbus machine. Possible, but not likely.
>
>
The Compaq Presario 18xx series originally shipped with 16b
card slots. I know I had one and it was a bear finding a
wireless card for it. I ended up buying one used off of
eBay. The last of the Compaq 1600 & 1200 series also shipped
with 16b cards.
Up until 2002 some low-end computers were still shipping
with 16b card slots because it was cheaper.
There were as of 2004 still 32b cards that could plug into a
16b slot. I had a hard serial port card and it would plug
into a 16b slot. Not only that the 5v pin was not terminated
and I shipped it back thinking it was defective. They would
not honor the warranty because they knew it had been plugged
into a 16b slot.
dumbneasy
this problem currently. The 5th reason is:
There is no IRQ available for it.
My socket sees the card, but it no workie. Reason: My bios is older than
the technology and it will not configure an IRQ. Naturally, the card is for
my wireless card, which means it's a local only machine. LOL!
<pau...@efn.org> wrote in message
news:1183529405.5...@d30g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
pau...@efn.org
If there is a bios upgrade available, you may as well try.