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General discussion

PCMCIA to ExpressCard... the "other way"?

Dec 3, 2009 4:58PM PST

Hey everyone.

I just purchased a laptop that "looked" like it had a PCMCIA card slot and out of curiosity, I tried my Verizon Pantech PC5750 wireless broadband access card. I come to find out that the new laptop only has an ExpressCard slot, which probably explains why the PCMCIA card only seemed to go in halfway when inserted. To my dismay, surprise and eventual head-scratching and repeated index-to-pinky-finger drumroll on the desk, of course.

Naturally, I scour the Internet to see if there is an adapter for USB, but it looks like I can turn my PCMCIA port into additional USB ports, rather than slide my PCMCIA card into a mold that attaches to a USB plug.

Same with the ExpressCard adapters. I can snap an ExpressCard into a PCMCIA mold, but it didn't appear that I could do it the other way around.

The easy answer is to get a wireless USB adapter, I know, I know. But I'm stuck with this PCMCIA card for a while, and don't even really need it on this laptop. But I would like to know if there are any options with making it work on a computer without a PCMCIA slot. At this point, I'm just curious to know if such a monster exists.

I'm throwing it out there in case anyone knows.

Anthony

Discussion is locked

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You found the usuals. How about.
Dec 3, 2009 9:43PM PST

The PCMCIA broadband card "router"?

Look at www.3gstore.com to see those. Slide your card into that and your card turns into a wifi hotspot.
Bob

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You found the usuals. How about.
Dec 6, 2009 8:43AM PST

R. Proffitt,

Thanks, as always, for jumping in.

The goal was to be more portable, for instance, to use it in a automobile or in an airport terminal without needing another AC plug-in. Are any of the "usuals" an option? I read somewhere that phone cards are especially difficult for compatibility reasons, compared to say, hooking up a PCMCIA card with USB or Firewire ports.

(I read it "on the internet" so it *must* be true!) Grin

--HDTech

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Sorry.
Dec 6, 2009 10:29AM PST

But that's all I got for you today. Keep asking your provider for the exchange from that to USB or Expresscard.
Bob