CardBus on old notebook?

[Raul]

I tried to use a 3Com CardBus lan card on my old notebook
but it does not seem to work. According to the manual, the slots
are 32-bit so it should work, right? Or will it only work
in a CardBus slot? The card could not be detected when sloted in.

 

[Workin']

Must be CardBus

 

[Lord Gwynz]

Did the card even go all the way in? I have an old Thinkpad and I was trying to stick in a Netgear Cardbus NIC but it wouldn't slide all the way into the slot, but a regular non-Cardbus Linksys NIC slid in fine, so I assumed there were minor physical differences that would prevent a Cardbus card from fitting into a non-Cardbus slot?

 

[Smbu]

Did you install the drivers for the lan card?

 

[AndyHui]

If your old notebook is using the older 16-bit PCMCIA standard, then a 32-bit CardBus card cannot be inserted into the PCMCIA slot. There are notches on the end of the card to prevent it going all the way into the slot.

If your slots are CardBus, then your card should insert all the way in and you should get the beep to indicate insertion of card.

Once you are sure it has been inserted, install the drivers for the card.

 

[Raul]

It fits nicely but it cannot be detected at all.
The slot is indeed 32-bit but NOT CardBus capable.
That explains why it fits but does not work?

Smbu: The card is not detected at all so I guess it is not
possible to install the drivers.

 

[AndyHui]

There are only 2 standards for PC Card slots.

The original 16-bit standard is called PCMCIA, uses the ISA bus and spec'd at 5 volts for PCMCIA devices. The newer 32-bit standard is called CardBus, available on Pentium or later laptops, uses the PCI bus and is spec'd for 3.3 volt operation.

The only other PC Card standard is Zoomed Video, which is used for video capture.

If the card is not detected at all, then usually the problem is that Window's 32-bit drivers have NOT been activated to control the CardBus slots. Go to PCMCIA applet under Control Panel and make sure that 32-bit driver support has been installed.

 

[Raul]

So 32-bit means it is definitely CardBus capable.
I will check out the windows settings.
Thanks a lot Andy.