• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

16-bit PCMCIA to USB Card - does it exist?

Even if you find one, they are most likely of not much use. Since 32-bit CardBus exist since 1995, not having that means the notebook is from 1995 or older. For USB, anything below Windows 98 is of no use (loading a PCMCIA stack and USB drivers in DOS will leave you with no memory) and Win98 on such an old notebook isn't going to work well - if at all.

I'm not sure what devices you would want to connect, but there are probably better ways.
 
It really isn't that clear cut in regards to CardBus - for example:
Apple didn't officially support CardBus until the PowerBook G3 Wallstreet in 1998! The 3400c and 2400c unofficially support CardBus, but it requires some modding and/or luck to get it working. There's also my ThinkPad 560. It's from 1996, running Windows 95 (which you can get USB working on) that is 16-bit only. It would be of some use for sure. I do have other ways of getting files onto my PowerBooks, but nothing is as convenient as a flash drive, so I'd be interested in one if they do indeed actually exist.
 
Why not just get a few CF cards, and a CF PCMCIA card reader. Should work fine on PCMCIA as even palmtops supported them. My Toshiba 486 has no issues with this setup, how I move files back and fourth. 👍
 
twolazy said:
Why not just get a few CF cards, and a CF PCMCIA card reader. Should work fine on PCMCIA as even palmtops supported them. My Toshiba 486 has no issues with this setup, how I move files back and fourth. 👍
Click to expand...
I second that.
 
3lectr1c said:
It really isn't that clear cut in regards to CardBus - for example:
Apple didn't officially support CardBus until the PowerBook G3 Wallstreet in 1998! The 3400c and 2400c unofficially support CardBus, but it requires some modding and/or luck to get it working.
Click to expand...
Apple? Your question was about a Pentium-class x86 notebook, and so was my answer.

There's also my ThinkPad 560. It's from 1996, running Windows 95 (which you can get USB working on) that is 16-bit only.
Click to expand...
Can it run Windows 98? Because Windows 95 never had stable USB support even with the last OSR and even then it did support HIDs only - it's not going to work with storage devices.

It would be of some use for sure. I do have other ways of getting files onto my PowerBooks, but nothing is as convenient as a flash drive, so I'd be interested in one if they do indeed actually exist.
Click to expand...
Ok, that helps. But why USB then? Simply use a PCMCIA-to-CF adapter. CF is flash media as well and will work just fine for file transfer. In fact, that's how I get files onto my Powerbook 540c for example.
 
I’ve already got one of those but it just refuses to work on Win 9x on any of my laptops. The card is detected but it just won’t see any card I try to use. Doesn’t mount. Formatted as FAT32, mounts on XP, adapter works on my PowerBooks as well. No idea why it won’t work on any of my PC laptops.
 
Testing was done with a 1GB card - and I'm also running OSR 2.5 on my ThinkPad 560, on a 6GB Hard disk, formatted as FAT32, so it shouldn't have any issue with larger drives either way. Of course, it also won't work on Windows 98 either.
 
I wonder if there is a problem with your CF to PCMCIA adapter... I have 3 different adapters and they work as intended.
 
It works perfectly on Windows XP and 7, haven’t tried older NT. Also works on all my PowerBooks , from Mac OS 7.6.1 to OS X Leopard. I just recorded a video demonstrating the exact issue - will link it here when it’s done uploading.
 
And there’s the issue - CardWorks is for CardBus thinkpads only.
450398DA-2D7F-42C8-A4D9-C484CFA0C3C7.jpeg
 
Once I get into the garage office, I'll go through my archive of software. Think I have some generic Cardsoft utilities that should work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top