Hi,

In a state of ignorance I just bought my son a dual USB card for his HP
Pavilion 5000 not realising the HP has an Expresscard 54 slot and my card
is just a regular CardBus card. I checked with the guy in the shop (PC
World) but he didn't warn me. I didn't even know there was such a thing as
an Expresscard :-(

Is this new card usable in this machine? Is there an adaptor for
CardBus->Expresscard?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Dave

Dave Morriss wrote:

> Is this new card usable in this machine? Is there an adaptor for
> CardBus->Expresscard?

No and no. <http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/qa.jsp> "In the future,
we may see adapters that allow the use of older PC Card products on
systems without a PC Card slot through both the ExpressCard and USB
interfaces."

You need something like this:
<http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/details.aspx?view=info&itemid=2792781>

There is a converter to convert it, but it's priced high at around
125.00 Don't recall who makes it. I would take it back.


Dave Morriss wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In a state of ignorance I just bought my son a dual USB card for his HP
> Pavilion 5000 not realising the HP has an Expresscard 54 slot and my card
> is just a regular CardBus card. I checked with the guy in the shop (PC
> World) but he didn't warn me. I didn't even know there was such a thing as
> an Expresscard :-(
>
> Is this new card usable in this machine? Is there an adaptor for
> CardBus->Expresscard?
>
> Any suggestions appreciated.
>
> Dave

No, you are out of luck. You bought a totally different type of card.

PC Cards (and that is the correct name, "PCMCIA" should not be used)
come in two electrical types:

1. 16-bit
2. 32-bit (aka "Cardbus")

Machines that support cardbus also support 16-bit, but machines made
before about 1998 do not support cardbus, only 16-bit.

In addition to these two electrical varieties, they also potentially
come in 3 thicknesses, called Type I, Type II and Type III.

Express Bus cards are a totally different animal altogether. They are
not a "type of" PC Card, they are the successor to PC Cards. Note that
Express Bus cards come in two very different physical formats, one looks
like a stick of gum, the other is "L" shaped.

Electrically:

16-bit PC Cards are the laptop equivalent of ISA bus cards
32-bit PC Cards are the laptop equivalent of PCI cards
Express Bus cards are the laptop equivalent of PCI Express cards

In my view, Dell, HP and Compaq were far too quick to drop PC Card
support. Toshiba did this much better: Most of their current models
have one PC Card slot and one Express Bus card slot.

There are no adapters for going from any of the cards to any other type
of cards.


Dave Morriss wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In a state of ignorance I just bought my son a dual USB card for his HP
> Pavilion 5000 not realising the HP has an Expresscard 54 slot and my card
> is just a regular CardBus card. I checked with the guy in the shop (PC
> World) but he didn't warn me. I didn't even know there was such a thing as
> an Expresscard :-(
>
> Is this new card usable in this machine? Is there an adaptor for
> CardBus->Expresscard?
>
> Any suggestions appreciated.
>
> Dave

Barry Watzman wrote:

> No, you are out of luck. You bought a totally different type of card.

Thanks for the very clear explanation. It's a subject I (obviously) knew
nothing about.

I managed to return the card on the basis that it was mis-sold (I had
originally explained what laptop it was for and requested confirmation that
it was compatible). I asked the salesman I was returning the card to if all
the laptops he sold used Expresscard. He said they did. I asked how many
Expresscard devices they had in stock: none apparently. So unless they are
actually selling dual-format systems such as those you mention, they are in
for a number of other errors such as mine.

Thanks to all who took the time to advise me.

Dave

On Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:04:20 -0500, Barry Watzman
<WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>, wrote:

>No, you are out of luck. You bought a totally different type of card.
>
>PC Cards (and that is the correct name, "PCMCIA" should not be used)
>come in two electrical types:

Does that mean I must peel the lable of my MiniStor PCMCIA HDD that says
that it is a PCMCIA Disk Drive?
--
Arno

No, just take a marker and black out the "MCIA", then you will be in
conformance ;)

Val

"Arno Martens" <snetram@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:jdeip2pgcjm0jm53seg0auin65oosvges2@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:04:20 -0500, Barry Watzman
> <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>, wrote:
>
>>No, you are out of luck. You bought a totally different type of card.
>>
>>PC Cards (and that is the correct name, "PCMCIA" should not be used)
>>come in two electrical types:
>
> Does that mean I must peel the lable of my MiniStor PCMCIA HDD that says
> that it is a PCMCIA Disk Drive?
> --
> Arno

In message <jdeip2pgcjm0jm53seg0auin65oosvges2@4ax.com>, Arno Martens
<snetram@sympatico.ca> writes
>On Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:04:20 -0500, Barry Watzman
><WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>, wrote:
>
>>No, you are out of luck. You bought a totally different type of card.
>>
>>PC Cards (and that is the correct name, "PCMCIA" should not be used)
>>come in two electrical types:
>
>Does that mean I must peel the lable of my MiniStor PCMCIA HDD that says
>that it is a PCMCIA Disk Drive?

http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm#terms

Call a spade a spade and not a shovel :-)
--
Tony Morgan

Obviously not, but the correct terminology TODAY is "PC Card". They
were once correctly called PCMCIA cards, but PCMCIA (the "Personal
Computer Memory Card International (or Industry) Association", the group
that owns the standard and the trademarks, changed the name of the cards
back in the mid 1990's. PCMCIA refers to the organization, but the
cards are now correctly called "PC Cards".


Arno Martens wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Dec 2006 20:04:20 -0500, Barry Watzman
> <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>, wrote:
>
>> No, you are out of luck. You bought a totally different type of card.
>>
>> PC Cards (and that is the correct name, "PCMCIA" should not be used)
>> come in two electrical types:
>
> Does that mean I must peel the lable of my MiniStor PCMCIA HDD that says
> that it is a PCMCIA Disk Drive?