Just pulled this out of my notebook

[mumboz]

Hi all

Im writing here because i've had a little wierd experience today: I have just bought a PCMCIA-WLAN card and after trying it out, I took it out of my notebook again. Then I saw a small piece of metal sticking out of the PCMCIA slot. Here is a few pictures of it:

The "metal thing"
Another picture
Yet another picture

Anyway, I have no real idea what it is. As you can see in the pictures, it has been bent by my WLAN-card, so I would not dare to let it stay. The small "pad" is made of a materiel, that seems conductive, so my only guess is that it is some kind of "grounding-thingie" for PCMCIA cards?

Hoping some bright heads in here can solve this little mystery for me: What is it?


Best regards
Rasmus Kristensen - 'mumboz'

 

[Abhi]

Which laptop?

Is it under warranty?

 

[Frightcrawler]

Never seen anything like it before...
The best possibility would be that its a grounding thingy.
The worst possibility would be that its apart of the card reader.

Did you try using the card again? And was the card hard to take out when the metal thing came out?

 

[mumboz]

Abhi: It's a Gericom Hummer Advanced. A pretty nice (and cheap) laptop in my opinion. Still have over 2 years of full warranty on it, but I would hate to send it in for repairs....tends to take quite a while, and I don't think I can live without it :roll:


Frightcrawler: The WLAN card seems to work fine - haven't got a network to test it on though (yet). It took a little force to pull the thing out, but I was more worried to leave it in, because it was in the way of the WLAN card. The third picture shows how the thing was sticking out (for a moment I thought someone had put a piece of tinfoil in my laptop :Q) - didn't look nice.

 

[AndrewKu]

Pulled from the top side or the bottom? It kind of looks like the cushioning for the slot that I have seen in some laptops when I take them apart, but the pic isn't at a high enough res for me to say for sure...

 

[cy7878]

looks like a shield of some sort. If it came off with the Wi-Fi card, chances are it's a EMF shield -- prevents electronic interference.

 

[mumboz]

Originally posted by: AndrewKu
Pulled from the top side or the bottom? It kind of looks like the cushioning for the slot that I have seen in some laptops when I take them apart, but the pic isn't at a high enough res for me to say for sure...

That sounds like a good explanation. I have uploaded two higher-res pictures:

Numero uno
The other one

(also notice the dog-hair - I wonder what function it has? )

The "pad" that is glued on the metal plate is made from a soft material, so maybe you're right. I have tried to get in touch with Gericom, but they are currently redoing their support system, so they can't answer right now.

 

[Frightcrawler]

I'm sorry, but when I saw that "dog hair" on the metal thing, I just started laughing for some reason.
Thanks for making me laugh.

 

[Justin216]

Definitely looks like an EMF shield

 

[mumboz]

Well, I don't think the "metalish-thingie" came off the WLAN card - im pretty sure it belong(ed) to the computer. It could be an EMF shield, I just wonder why it was stuck in the top of the PCMCIA-slot - looking at this picture, you can see there really is nothing above the slot to protect from those nasty EMF-beam'ies. :shocked:

(And what is the purpose of that hair? Perhaps it is a hidden spy device planted in my notebook by the government to intercept my intergalactical transmissions..... :frown: )