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General discussion

Ok, here's a good one. . .

by Coryphaeus Jul 14, 2007 5:59AM PDT

Several years ago when running W98 on laptops, I bought a little cooling fan that fit into the PCMCIA slot. It ran as long as it was pluged in. It worked on all (several Compaqs, IBMs, and Toshibas) running W98 and did an excellent job of coolin the innards.

It will not turn on in any of my XP laptops.

Thoughts?

Discussion is locked

6 Posts
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Proprietary?
by ozos Jul 14, 2007 6:04AM PDT

My guess is, its highly proprietary, probably requires something more unique to the hardware of the older systems, not so much the OS.

Additionally, I don't think it would provide much cooling benefit as the PCMCIA area is usually isolated by plastic, to keep dust and dirt out of the greater system.

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It worked very well. . .
by Coryphaeus Jul 14, 2007 6:07AM PDT

I could actually feel the difference. I'm thinking it has something to do with the way XP handles the slot.

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Does your computer have
by PudgyOne Jul 15, 2007 4:08AM PDT

a diagnostic tool? I have a drivers disk. When inserted, I can boot from disk. It will run a diagnostic program. If tells me if the fans con on or not.

Are there drivers to control the fan?

I just guessing.


Rick

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Not an internal fan. . .
by Coryphaeus Jul 16, 2007 10:40AM PDT

It's a fan attached to a PCMCIA plug in thingie. When you plug it into a PCMCIA slot, the fan comes on. Picture a PCMCIA card with a fan on the end.

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Is it possible Wayne that ...
by Edward ODaniel Jul 15, 2007 5:23AM PDT

your XP laptops are using ExpressCard rather than the original 16 bit slots or even the later 32 bit CardBus slots? CardBus was backward compatible but think ExpressCard isn't since it eliminates the PCMCIA Host Controller in favor of using the USB or PCI Express controller directly.

Read here where it tells a bit about it and also mentions adapters:
http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/qa.jsp#13

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No. . .
by Coryphaeus Jul 16, 2007 10:58AM PDT

I used to have a Toshiba laptop that had W98SE and I used the fan. When I installed XP the fan wouldn't work. It HAS to be something about how XP handles that slot. Now that I notice, when I plug in the fan, it starts to run but turns off.

Wait. . .

Just a moment, Dave. . .

Well KMA. I plugged it in again, it turned on, I get the "New Hardware Found" message. I click Cancel and it's still running.

Never mind. Happy

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