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freefall · Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:18 am

Just want to know if any WiFI PCMCIA card can be used in a Pentium 200 laptop with 96MB of RAM.

Don't want to buy newer equipment... Just need it for surfing...

cheesyking · Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:25 am

I've run 802.11b on a P1 233 with 96MB

so it will probably work.

Plazmodeus · Fri Oct 14, 2005 11:46 am

I think the only hitch would be OS support for wifi. If theres drivers for it for that computers OS, then it will be no problem.

-A-

Sun Oct 16, 2005 6:31 pm

Also, you may have a hardware compatibility issue..
most notebook cards today aren't PCMCIA anymore, but Cardbus. Cardbus is reverse compatible with PCMCIA devices, but I'm not sure if cardbus devices will play nicely with a PCMCIA slot. At least nothing will fry, it just won't work if there's a compatibility mismatch.

bhtooefr · Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:01 pm

I've tried putting my CardBus WiFi card in a PCMCIA, non-CardBus slot, and it didn't even FIT. Guess there's some weird keying going on...

Anyway, you CAN find a PCMCIA v2 (read: non-CardBus) WiFi card, it's just not easy. It won't have a gold grounding strip on the end with dots on it, if it's PCMCIA v2.

OS support won't be a problem if you run Linux, and it's a supported chipset (that's the hard part).

Also, your laptop MIGHT be new enough to have USB. Does it? If so, USB is the way to go.

If not, there are PCMCIA v2 USB cards. That can come in handy on an old laptop, to add USB.

Taddeusz · Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:24 pm

Yea, you didn't mention what version of Windows this low class computer would be running. Or if it has a CardBus or PCMCIA slot. You can still find PCMCIA cards. As was already said CardBus cards, i.e. cards with the gold strip on top of the connector, do not work in PCMCIA slots.

Most wireless cards do NOT work in versions of Windows older then 98SE. 98 first edition's networking is too close to Windows 95 to support wireless. If you do not have at least 98SE on that machine your you have very little hope of getting wireless to work.

UberGerbil · Sun Oct 16, 2005 7:47 pm

I had a 166MHz Pentium (classic w/MMX) with 64MB running Windows 98 and the WiFi Cardbus card I had in it worked fine.

freefall · Fri Oct 21, 2005 10:16 pm

Thanks for the inputs!

Anyway, what I have is an old NEC mobio NX (Pentium 200MX, 96MB, 2gig HD). And I have installed Windows ME in it. So basically I just have to find a PCMCIA WiFi card and I think I just found some (brand Edimax or Surecom).

Hope it works though

UberGerbil · Sat Oct 22, 2005 2:45 am

freefall wrote:
Thanks for the inputs!

Anyway, what I have is an old NEC mobio NX (Pentium 200MX, 96MB, 2gig HD). And I have installed Windows ME in it. So basically I just have to find a PCMCIA WiFi card and I think I just found some (brand Edimax or Surecom).

Hope it works though

Win98SE is far superior to ME, especially on that hardware.

bhtooefr · Sat Oct 22, 2005 10:57 am

The 3com XJACK 3CRWE62092B is PCMCIA, by the looks of it.

I found one for $33 after shipping on PriceGrabber.

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getp ... CRWE62092B is a link to their results.

I also found one for a little over $20 on eBay, if I trusted someone in *IRELAND* to send it.

(Turns out, I actually DIDN'T need it, so I didn't get it, though.)

Also, UberGerbil's right, Win98SE is *MUCH* better than ME.

freefall · Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:33 am

Thanks!

In what ways, WinSE 98 is better than Win ME?

Right now I have no time to reformat the laptop so am stuck with ME for a while.

bhtooefr · Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:11 am

Windows ME is what you get when you take Windows 98 and Windows 2000, and attach the two with lots of low-quality duct tape.

It is *VERY* unstable. Also, with the exception of Windows Movie Maker, there's nothing that ME can do that 98SE can't.

98SE is also faster than ME.

FWIW, if you *MUST* use ME for some reason, install 98SE, then install ME as an upgrade. There's some registry corruption that occurs when ME is freshly installed, that doesn't occur when it's installed as an upgrade. That's the one case where Windows is more stable as an upgrade than as stock.

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Can a Pentium 200, 96MB RAM run a WiFI PCMCIA card?

Can a Pentium 200, 96MB RAM run a WiFI PCMCIA card?

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