New laptop with a type II pc-card bus

Posted by Stephen on May 2, 2009, 12:22 am

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Hello,

I'm looking for a new laptop < 600 with a type-II pc-card bus. I'm
just wondering if they sell laptops with this any more. Websites such
as Dell do not mention card readers any more.

Thanks.

Posted by AnonDelMundial on May 2, 2009, 12:54 am

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Stephen wrote:
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Generally, you are out of luck. Most "modern" notebooks (even netbooks)
have ExpressCard slots of some size, even though the availability of
specific ExpressCard functions are very limited. The PC-Card is a dead
protocol, and has been for several years.

Now, many notebooks have card readers for the various storage card
formats used in cameras, particularly. This is not to be confused with
the ExpressCard. Card readers are for passive memory cards like SD, MS,
etc. ExpressCards are, like PC-Cards, active processors for a
particular function like wireless, wired, connectivities.

Posted by Barry Watzman on May 2, 2009, 5:14 am

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At this point I think that most laptops have ExpressCard rather than PC
Card slots. The last models I know of that had PC Card slots were some
Toshiba A105's (SOME of them had one PC Card slot and one Express Card
slot).

Note, however, all is not lost: There are adapters that plug into an
ExpressCard slot that take a CARDBUS PC Card (32-bit PC Card) and allow
it to be used with laptops to that do not have PC Card slots. Note that
these do not work with 16-bit PC Cards, only with 32-bit (Cardbus) PC
Cards. There are several brands, Newegg has them, the one I would
suggest is made by Rosewill and is $40.

Stephen wrote:
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Posted by Johnnie Leung on May 2, 2009, 5:05 pm

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The vast majority of the currently available Fujitsu notebooks have PC Card
slots. One even has an IrDA port.

OTOH, Fujitsu does not have anything that fits within the OP's budget
(<$600).

--
JL

Posted by Adrian C on May 3, 2009, 9:11 am

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Johnnie Leung wrote:
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Lenovo Thinkpad SL-series have PC Card slots, and so do others going up
(with cost) in the range.

--
Adrian C