I just got a new laptop and was interested to discover that it doesn’t have a floppy drive (no big deal, I don’t need one), but it does have a PC card slot. I’ve never used one of these before. I did a quick search around, and pretty much everything I found for it was some kind of wireless networking thing (which I don’t need) or a home network thing (which I don’t need, there’s a completely different network port on the laptop).
So any suggestions what items and what brand names I can make use of with this slot? I’ve never had one before and don’t have a clue what to do with it.
If your modem and network cards are built in, I can’t think of any reason (outside of the previously mentioned wireless card) for which you’d use the slot.
If your digital camera uses flash media, you could buy a pcmcia adapter for your card, maybe.
I’m guessing that your built-in USB ports are USB 1.1; if this is the case, you can stick a USB 2.0 PC Card into that slot and get much faster transfer speeds, which comes in handy if you’re moving lots of data, such as backing up to an external hard drive.
There are also FireWire PC Cards, though FireWire devices for PCs are not common.
As previously suggested, using a memory card adapter to transfer photos off a digital camera is a good idea; IIRC, the CardBus interface (which is what the PC Card uses) data transfer rate will kick USB’s butt left and right.
Another use for a memory card adapter is to fit a 1 GB IBM Microdrive (which uses the CompactFlash form factor) into it and expand your data storage options.
There are PC Card GPS receivers if you’re so inclined.
a) Attach a 24-inch Trinitron or an Apple Cinema flatscreen display and use your laptop’s TFT screen as a second monitor, especially if your laptop doesn’t support connecting an external monitor as other than “mirrored display” out of the box; or even as a third display.
b) Would you perhaps have any use for a handful of PCI slots, like a desktop computer has? And while we’re at it, perhaps a rack of addititional drives? I’ve always heard it called a “breakout box” and a company called Magma makes them for connection via PC Card.
I was going to suggest that you could drill a small hole in it and wear it on a chain around your neck but after reading the rest of the post I suppose thats not really an option.
Perhaps in a few days from now when your notebook has suddenly become obsolete…
