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Sony Notebook - Pcmca Slots

post #1 of 7
12/20/04 at 6:01am
Thread Starter 
Hi all,

This is my first time posting so hopefully everything will work out ok.

Here is my question. I have a sony vaio PCG-GRS700. It has two pcmca slots that are ontop of eachother. I only have USB1.1 and I want to add an external HD to my machine. I have a four pin firewire but I use it for my Ipod connection.

I also have a wireless network card that has this BUBBLE on the top of it (it sucks). The problem I'm having is that all the PCMCA USB2 cards also have this bubble on them. I can't have two bubbled cards because they won't fit into the slots.

Is there a way to upgrade my internal USB 1.1 ports (I have three), or a PCMCA card with usb 2 that doesn't do the whole bubble thing.

If you have any ideas please offer me a hand with this problem.

Thanks,

Bluenote
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post #2 of 7
12/20/04 at 6:26am
This is not an upgrade, but you could try using a USB hub (like a regular network hub, but with USB connections). There is a cooling pad that you can buy that is powered by the laptop's USB port and provides additional USB ports. However, in order to get full USB 2.0 capabilities, you will have to use another PCMCIA card.

HTH,

zakaluka2.
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post #3 of 7
12/20/04 at 6:43am
Welcome

Your in a tight situation. Do you have an Ethernet cable? I'm thinking maybe you can hook on to a router/etc that has USB 2.0 ports built in. That's the only way I can think of. You can't use your curretn USB 1.0 port, and you say the firewire is filled. Wait, what about a firewire hub? Is that OK? Or do you need specifcally USB 2.0?

BTW, it's PCMCIA not PCMCA
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post #4 of 7
12/20/04 at 7:27am
look into getting a wireless network card without a bulge. they are plentiful and cheap.
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post #5 of 7
12/20/04 at 8:16am
Thread Starter 
Ya - I didn't think the buldge would be a problem when I bought the wireless card. I don't really want to invest in another card when this one works great. I like the sounds of the ethernet hub considering my wired ethernet port is open. Can someone give me a little more information on going that route? Do I need to do any tricky networking to work in an ethernet hub with a built in USB2 port?

I attempted to use my firewire port - but the hokey 4pin setup gave me problems.

I look forward to any other ideas people have,

Bluenote
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post #6 of 7
12/20/04 at 7:34pm
IF you don't mind accessing a hard drive over a network, you can look at some of the networked hard drive solutions available:

- Linksys, DLink both make devices that let you attach a usb hard drive to your network. (They both have drawbacks tho -- the linksys ones requires a new drive format which means erasing all your data beforehand, and I think the Dlink one only supports fat32)
- Buffalo makes their Linkstation products...I have one and it works great.

But I think the cheapest solution you will find is to buy a wireless card (they are so cheap these days, especially when compared to the solutions above) without a bulge.
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post #7 of 7
12/21/04 at 5:13am
Besides wireless PCMCIA cards without a bulge, you could also get a wireless USB adapter that you would then plug into the USB 2.0 PCMCIA card.
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