PCMCIA Question on Laptop

[Goober]

Hi guys,

Ok, I have been encountering a strange term while trying to figure something out regarding my Laptop, which is an old Toshiba Satellite 100CS, and that is a "PCMCIA Card". What is it? I tried Googling it, and Wiking it, but got more confused. I understand its a Card of some sort that can be an "add-on" to the Laptop, Memory and stuff, but, well, I've never heard of it before.

Are these sold anymore? if so, do they sell them with, like, USB ports or CDROM drives attached?

"PC Card Slot: A PC Card slot (PCMCIA 2.0) can accommodate two 5mm PC Cards (Type II) or one 10.5mm PC Card (Type III). " That is what is says for the description of my Laptop, but, well, it confused me more then anything else. Can anybody help me here?

[Brunellus]

Hi guys,

Ok, I have been encountering a strange term while trying to figure something out regarding my Laptop, which is an old Toshiba Satellite 100CS, and that is a "PCMCIA Card". What is it? I tried Googling it, and Wiking it, but got more confused. I understand its a Card of some sort that can be an "add-on" to the Laptop, Memory and stuff, but, well, I've never heard of it before.

Are these sold anymore? if so, do they sell them with, like, USB ports or CDROM drives attached?

"PC Card Slot: A PC Card slot (PCMCIA 2.0) can accommodate two 5mm PC Cards (Type II) or one 10.5mm PC Card (Type III). " That is what is says for the description of my Laptop, but, well, it confused me more then anything else. Can anybody help me here?
Yes, PCMCIA are add-on cards. You insert them into the relevant slot on your laptop. You can get PCMCIA cards that are modems, ethernet interfaces, GPS receivers, wireless network adapters....

They look kind of like the offspring of a credit card and an Atari cartridge.

There are PCMCIA USB cards, also Firewire cards. Older "backpack" CD-ROM drives and 3.5" floppy drives also had PCMCIA interfaces, but have largely gone to USB now.

Man. I remember when PCMCIA was the hot new thing...they were even offering 4 MB (!) nonvolatile flash memory in that format!

[Goober]

Ya, ok, I now understand what they are. Now I need to, y'know, acquire one.

Thanks for the info though. Nothing like learning by trying, eh?

And yes, in case some are wondering, this is about me trying to install DSL on a very old Laptop, which I mentioned in a thread earlier, the Toshiba 100CS P75Mhz, 16Mb RAM, and 580Mb HD. I just didn't have a way to get DSL from the Internet to the Laptop, and I believe that a PCMCIA card will solve that for me.

BTW, if anybody has any experience with installing Linux on such an old machine, I would be eternally grateful if you enlightened me . . .

[az]

I have a similar toshiba. You will need to get an older 16-bit pcmcia card! I got bitten in the ass by buying a cheap 32-bit card and it was not recognised by the machine. Older PCMCIA controllers were ISA, which means 16-bit.

The 32-bit bus is faster, but for an 802.11b card, it does not matter.

Netgear PCMCIA cards say right on the sticker if they are 16 or 32 bit. Other cards are not so obvious.

Also, a usb wireless adapter will probably not work on such an old machine. The cpu will not be able to keep up the connection for very long. They reccommend 300 mHz, or more, but I have gotten away with less. It is just that the connection drops if I save something to a usb stick, but I digress...

BUY MORE RAM, TOO! Easily, the single most performance-enhancing addition you can make to that machine.

[Goober]

azz: Thanks a lot for your post, very enlightening.

I have essentially determined that a USB PCMCIA card will not solve my problem. But, since I have 2 Type II slots, then I can get one PCMCIA card for Ethernet, and one for RAM . . .

Thanks a lot for your post. Very helpful :D

Heh, I love projects like this . . .