Does anyone know if there is a PC Card (PCMCIA) with USB2 and/or Firewire ports that doesn’t stick out of the side of your laptop? Something that ads the ports but stays flush with the side of your laptop so you can leave it in all the time.
USB2/Firewire PC Card adapter that doesn't stick out?
Posted by on Sunday, October 17, 2004 - 12 comments
Comments
Martin Alderson - October 17, 2004 11:42 AM
Try getting a ruler and measuring the height of a USB port (or a 6 pin, Mac-style firewire port). Then measure the height of a PCMCIA slot, and you'll get your answer :).
Speaking of USB cards for laptops - I think I saw the most horrible solution to this. Someone had broken their laptop USB ports, somehow. The only thing they needed the USB port for was to run a mouse. Guess what they did - nope, not get a mouse with a PS/2 port, instead they got a powered (yes, thats right, with a big clunky AC adaptor) USB PCMCIA card. I just sighed heavily when I saw that.
Steven Garrity - October 17, 2004 11:51 AM
Martin, I realize that - but PCMCIA cards can be double (or triple?) height.
Steven Garrity - October 17, 2004 12:01 PM
I'm thinking something like the way Xircom PC Card Network/Modem cards worked - nothing out the side of the laptop.
Martin Alderson - October 17, 2004 1:02 PM
Excellent point! Sorry, didn't think of that at all.
But yea - good look finding one. Every PC Card I have seen has sadly been very badly designed :(.
Ross Macdonald - October 18, 2004 12:42 PM
Now, that would be truly convenient, so you'll have to wait until the Japanese have been using such a device for at least a few years before one hits the Western market.
Lenny Cooper - October 23, 2004 3:41 PM
Yes, great point!! ;-))
Jim Thompson - October 27, 2004 7:24 PM
Get a mac? (Sorry, I had to)
D - October 27, 2004 7:42 PM
Jim: I just checked Apple's site and even the 17" Powerbook G4 only has two USB ports... the same as Steven's ThinkPad... so, how's it going to help him going to a Mac? Mac users, like myself, would find this kind of card just as useful.
Isaac Grant - October 27, 2004 7:48 PM
I believe the issue isn't with number of usb ports on his computer, but with the lack of usb2 and/or firewire ports on his computer.
Steven Garrity - October 27, 2004 8:53 PM
Isaac is right - it's not the number of USB ports that's the problem, it's that I have the last model of IBM ThinkPads that shipped without Firewire or USB2. Any newer laptop, PC or Mac would probably have both.
My conclusion from this thread is that the card I have in mind doesn't exist.
diemer - October 29, 2004 1:12 PM
funny how i have a firewire port on my dell laptop, but no usb2
Brad Pineau - October 31, 2004 12:29 AM
I was looking for something like this too... but not because I don't want it to stick out... but because I already have a wifi card that sticks out, and there just isn't room to slide in a USB2.0 card that sticks out as well. So it seems I can't have both my current wifi and a usb card in at the same time.