Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Laptop express card help needed

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Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 02-24-2007, 11:06 PM:

My new HP laptop has an express card 54 slot in it, however my brother gave me an a PCI card to use for wireless at my place but obviously it doesn't fit in there. I read online there are adapters; I found one through a USB connection but it was $150 or so, does anyone know of a cheaper option?

Posted by Darryl Spicer (Member # 711) on 02-25-2007, 12:33 AM:

by chance have you checked or tried to see if you laptop has a built in wireless conection. Some laptops have wireless built into them and you do not need a wireless pci card.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-25-2007, 04:30 AM:

Almost all new ones do, now. The major problem I'm finding now is that laptops increasingly don't have dial-up modems in them, now that wifi is so widespread. I find myself in hotels etc. without any wifi just often enough to need the dial-up facility; when I last bought a new laptop in October '05, I found one model that was perfect for all my needs, except for it not having a modem. The nearest equivalent one which did cost £150 more, and included extra bells and whistles which I didn't want and resented having to pay for (e.g. a ShiteScribe DVD drive etc.).

If yours doesn't have built-in wifi, in my neck of the woods laptop wifi cards (PCMCIA) go for around £20 ($35) in any high street electronics store. Unless there are other PCI cards you'd like to use with the laptop, this strikes me as a cheaper and less bulky alternative to the $150 PCI to USB converter.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-25-2007, 11:24 AM:

quote: Mike Heenan
My new HP laptop has an express card 54 slot in it, however my brother gave me an a PCI card to use for wireless at my place but obviously it doesn't fit in there.

Mike, did you mean a PCI card, or a PC Card?

Quite a few laptops seem to be getting Express card slots now, recent Dell ones we've bought have them, for example. We also have a few Research Machines laptops, which have both PC Card and Ecxpress Card slots, but this seems to be quite rare. The production of the Express Cards themselves seems to be lagging somewhat behind the machines with the slots to take them. We tried to get an O2 mobile card in Express Card for one of our senior management for example, but they were only available in PC Card format.

Apple have done something not very sensible; they have put an Express Card slot on he Macbook Pro, but it's an Express Card 34 type one, rather than a 54, so most of the cards which are available won't fit it. Apple seem to have shot themselves in the foot again.

The other option if you can't find a card to fit this laptop is to use an external USB wireless adapter; not as neat, but they do work.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 02-25-2007, 04:10 PM:

My laptop does have wi fi, but I dont have internet connection at my apartment (nor are there any unsecured connections that I can steal, lol), which is why my brother got me a PC card (this was before we knew the laptop only has a express card slot) to connect to Tmobiles network.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-25-2007, 08:41 PM:

...From this site that credits the Express Card:

quote:
A number of notebook manufacturers are now exclusively including Express Card slots in their newer models and doing away with the PCMCIA slot. Some people might not be completely aware what this new slot is for. Express Cards are the replacement technology for PCMCIA cards -- they run using less power and generate less heat while being substantially faster. Like PCMCIA cards, Express Cards are hot swappable and can be installed and removed without restarting the system.

-Monte

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-26-2007, 02:48 AM:

Thanks Monte - hadn't heard of those. My laptop only has PCMCIA.

That would explain why PCMCIA wireless cards are so cheap, and in some cases are being given away. I now have two virgin ones: the first came with my router and the second came free when I signed up with a new broadband provider. Presumably nobody wants them any more because virtually all new laptops have wifi built in, and the owners of the few that don't will be looking to buy an Express Card upgrade rather than a PCMCIA one.

I tried sticking one of mine on Ebay, with a reserve of a fiver; but it didn't get any bids. Presumably a huge number of them were initially manufactured and dealers are now trying to get rid of them.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 02-26-2007, 04:25 AM:

The '34' and '54' are the two different sizes of these cards, the number indicating the width, in mm. The 54 is about the same size as a PCMCIA card, the 34 is the same length, but obviously narrower. both use the same connector, which covers the full width of a 34 card, but a 54 has a section cut out of one corner, forming a sort of 'L' shape, with the connector being mounted on the narrower section at the end. There are proposals for a smaller, but electrically compatible card, much as Compact Flash was to PCMCIA, but I don't think any standards have been released yet.

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 02-26-2007, 08:58 AM:

Am on a service trip through Montana and Wyoming right now and have yet to get even a small town motel that does not have wireless. It seems like that within just 2 years its quickly become the standard mode for the internet.... there was also a news article I saw a couple of days ago that said about 1/3 of all internet users are using wireless. In Cody, Wyoming for instance there is even a city wide internet wireless system... pretty amazing. Bufalo Bill woulda loved this! Last year coverage was not anywhere near this good...

Didn't you just get that laptop Mike... If it doesn't have internal wireless you might want to return it for one that does.

Mark

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 02-26-2007, 10:34 AM:

The laptop does have wifi capabilities as I said above, but I can't connect at my apartment as I dont subscribe to an internet service there nor can I steal someone elses signal (all secured). What I am looking for is an adapter that will let me use the PC card in the Express 54 slot. The card my brother got me will allow me to connect to Tmobiles network, I used the card a few times on an old junky laptop we have to test it out. So far I've only found the USB adapters, hopefully there's some other cheaper options out there.