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49
PC CARDS AND
PERIPHERALS

CHAPTER AT A GLANCE
Understanding the PC Card 1773 Optimizing Memory in PC Card Systems 1787
Making It Work Remove Any Unnecessary Drivers
Enablers Recover Unused Memory Areas
Card Types Utilize Any PCMCIA Reserved Memory
CardBus and Zoomed Video Change the Driver Loading Order
Inside the Card
Troubleshooting PC Card Problems 1791
Hot Insertion and Removal
Managing PCMCIA Support in Windows
Understanding Attribute Memory
Windows 95/98 Troubleshooting Guidelines
Connections
PC Card Symptoms
PC Card Applications 1783
Further Study 1811
PC Card Problems
Today’s Cards
Installing a PC Card

Desktop computers have always provided a standardized interface—the “expansion bus.” On the other
hand, mobile computers have traditionally lacked all the most basic upgrade potential. By the late 1980s,
it was clear that a standard would be needed to allow rapid and convenient upgrades for the exploding field
of mobile computing. Neil Chandra of Poquet Computer (which became part of Fujitsu) took a vision
originally conceived to provide memory for the handheld Poquet computer and brought together industry
leaders to forge a standard. In 1989 Chandra’s brainchild, the Personal Computer Memory Card Interna-
tional Association (or PCMCIA), was formed as a standards body and trade association. The objective of
the PCMCIA is to provide universal, nonproprietary expansion capability for mobile computer systems
(Figure 49-1). More than 500 organizations are affiliated with the PCMCIA, which also works closely
with other major standards organizations such as the Japan Electronics Industry Development Associa-
tion (JEIDA), the Electronics Industries Association (EIA), the Joint Electron Device Engineering Coun-
1772

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UNDERSTANDING THE PC CARD 1773

FIGURE 49-1 A PC Card SCSI adapter for mobile computers (copyright © 1995 49
Future Domain Corporation; reprinted with permission)

cil (JEDEC), and the International Standards Organization (ISO). This chapter explains the inner
workings of a PCMCIA interface and cards that use it. You will also find a broad selection of trouble-
shooting procedures intended to help you overcome many of the problems attributed to the PCMCIA
interface and the difficulties it can encounter under Windows 95/98.

Understanding the PC Card

Ultimately, the universal expansion standard envisioned by the PCMCIA has taken the form of a card
(called a PC Card) that is roughly the length and width of a credit card (Figure 49-2). This basic shape has
remained virtually unchanged since the initial release of PCMCIA standards (version 1.0) in September
1990. The original specification (reflecting the original Poquet vision) defined an interface that was
intended exclusively for memory cards such as DRAM, flash EEPROM, and ROM. However, a mem-
ory-only interface did not even come close to fulfilling the promise of mobile expansion capability. There
is much more to PCs than memory.
PCMCIA release 2.0 followed a year later in September 1991. Version 2.0 took the quantum leap that
version 1.0 ignored and incorporated I/O capability and software support into the PC Card. It was this
addition of I/O capability that allowed PC Card technology to finally attract serious attention from mobile
computer manufacturers. PC Card makers could now move past memory products and offer a wealth of

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1774 CHAPTER 49: PC CARDS AND PERIPHERALS

FIGURE 49-2 Basic PC Card dimensions

other expansion products, such as LAN cards, fax/modems, and disk drives. Release 2.1, which followed
in July 1993, specifies software support and BIOS card and socket services. The newest set of PCMCIA
standards appeared in February 1995 (loosely referred to as PCMCIA 95, or Release 3.0). Release 3.0
added support for multifunction PC Cards, such as modem/LAN cards, as well as support for 3.3 volt
operation, DMA handling, and 32-bit CardBus bus mastering.
Since February 1995, there have been some important revisions of the PCMCIA standards, but no
new revision levels. In May 1995, the second printing of PCMCIA standards addressed timing problems
during card power-up/power-down sequences. In November 1995, the third printing of PCMCIA stan-
dards included provisions for custom card interfaces and indirect CIS addressing. The update in July 1996
provided for a Zoomed Video (ZV) interface for fast video systems and a Flash Translation Layer (FTL)
for card reprogrammability. PCMCIA has published a March 1997 update to the PC Card standard. This
update provided developers with a clean copy of all the changes made to the standard since February 1995
and added several enhancements and corrections. One of the significant enhancements was Thermal
Management for PC Cards and host systems. The latest standards and collective updates over time have
been consolidated into Release 7 of PC Card specifications.
In June 1998, PCMCIA approved a new Small PC Card specification. This new form factor offers the
same functionality as a regular PC Card, but is 42 percent smaller. This enables manufacturers of portable
handheld devices—from digital cameras to personal digital assistants (PDAs)—to expand their product
features without sacrificing valuable product real estate. The Small PC Card offers the same I/O and mem-
ory capabilities as the full-size PC Card and utilizes the same software and electrical specifications as a
full-size PC Card.
In October 1998, the PCMCIA accepted the PCI Power Management specification. This is the result
of an industry desire to maintain as much compatibility as possible between desktop and portable systems.
PCMCIA announced at the same time that the new CardX (later changed to CardBay) standard—which
adapts the popular USB and 1394 serial interfaces into specifications compatible with the PC Card form
factor—would begin its formal development process. CardBay offers the ability to use the 1394 and USB
interfaces in the PC Card format. This is expected to be a real boon for laptop and PDA developers, and

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UNDERSTANDING THE PC CARD 1775

can add high-performance functionality (such as real-time video capture, disk drives, gigabit Ethernet,
and other high-speed applications), which USB and 1394 make possible.

MAKING IT WORK
Of course, integrating a PC Card into a computer is not as easy as just attaching a connector to the PC bus-
ses. A selection of system hardware and software is needed, as illustrated in Figure 49-3. This multilay-
ered approach is typical of most PC peripherals. If you’ve ever installed a CD-ROM drive before, this type
of diagram probably looks very familiar.
At the foundation of PC Card architecture is the hardware layer. This represents the physical card
itself, its connectors, and the circuitry needed to interface the card to the PC busses. In most cases, PC
Card support can be added to a computer with one or two VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) chips and a
bit of “glue” logic. You can see this hardware implemented for a desktop or tower PC in the PC Card drive
shown in Figure 49-4.
The next layer above hardware is called the socket services layer. Socket services act as a supplement
for system BIOS by providing the low-level routines needed to access the card hardware. It is important to
note that socket services software is frequently implemented as firmware—either in the system BIOS
itself (often in new BIOS versions) or on an expansion ROM included on the PC Card reader’s adapter
board. Socket services are used by the computer to identify how many sockets are in the system and
whether cards are inserted or removed while system power is applied.

49

FIGURE 49-3 Simplified PC Card architecture

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FIGURE 49-4 A commercial PC Card “drive” for desktop/tower PCs (Quatech)

The card services layer forms the interface between the operating system and socket services. When
socket services detects the presence of a card, card services allocates and manages the system resources
(interrupts, DMA channels, and addressing) needed by the card(s). When a card is removed, Card Ser-
vices will free those system resources again. It is this unique ability to find, use, and then free system
resources that gives PC Cards their powerful I/O capability and plug-and-play flexibility. Since card ser-
vices software is universal across hardware platforms, it can be loaded either as a DOS or Windows 95/98
device driver, or it may be an integral part of the operating system, as in IBM’s DOS 6.22 and OS/2 4.0.
Unfortunately, not all notebook and sub-notebook systems use socket and card services—this is a
major reason for PC Card compatibility problems. Some PC Cards come with software device drivers that
attempt to communicate directly with the system hardware. These cards were developed before the
release of the PCMCIA card services standard, and such cards will only work on certain hardware plat-
forms. Also, not all notebooks provide PCMCIA socket services. Some vendors provide proprietary
BIOS firmware that supports a specific, limited set of PC Cards. Just recently, some vendors have begun
bundling compatible card and socket services with their systems. These card support device drivers are
loosely termed enablers and are discussed in detail below.
Above card services, you see the familiar DOS and Application layers. Specialized (client) device
drivers that may be needed for particular cards (such as an ATA card driver or flash file driver) are consid-
ered as part of the DOS layer.

ENABLERS
Many PC Cards offer an additional wrinkle before they work on your system—they need an enabler.
Although socket services interface the card to your hardware, and card services provide resource manage-
ment, the PC Card is still not always fully configured. An enabler is often required to place the PC Card at
a particular I/O address, memory address, or IRQ. There are three types of enabler software: generic
enablers, specific enablers, and point enablers.
Perhaps the most common type of enabler is called a generic enabler. (Some vendors also refer to
these as “super client drivers.”) Generic enablers are capable of configuring a wide range of the most com-
mon card types, such as modems and network adapters, and are usually provided with PCMCIA system
software. Generic enablers typically require socket services and card services to be loaded before they can

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UNDERSTANDING THE PC CARD 1777

run. The problem with generic enablers is their demand on conventional memory. It is not uncommon to
see a generic enabler demand 40KB to 50KB. Along with socket and card services, the memory require-
ments to support a PC Card can easily reach over 100KB. This memory problem is most acute when run-
ning large native DOS applications. However, unless you’re running more than one type of PC Card, you
might be able to use a specific enabler.
A specific enabler is a program designed to configure a single type of PC Card and may be provided
by the PC Card maker (or by a third-party software company). There are two compelling advantages to
specific enablers. First, a specific enabler demands only a fraction of the memory used by generic
enablers. If you use only one specific type of card, a specific enabler can save up to 40KB of memory. Sec-
ond, your generic enabler may not support a particular type of PC Card, so a specific enabler can supple-
ment a generic enabler but use a minimum amount of additional RAM.
There is the potential for some problems when both a generic enabler and specific enabler are loaded
and both recognize and configure a particular type of I/O card. An oversight in the PCMCIA specification
allows the first enabler to be loaded and configure the card if the card is installed when the machine is
booted; if the card is inserted after the machine is booted, however, the last enabler loaded will configure
the card. This can create serious problems if the two enablers have different ideas about how the card
should be configured, or if the application software depends on a particular enabler to configure the card.
Here are the rules for loading generic and specific enablers together:

■ If you need a generic enabler to configure your modem or another device that doesn’t have a specific
enabler, load it.
■ If the only PC Card you use has a specific enabler, load the specific enabler instead of the generic one.
■ If you have one or more cards that are configured by the generic enabler, and a card that needs a spe-
cific enabler, first see if the generic enabler can handle the particular card. (Or see if a new version is
available that can handle the specific card.) If the generic enabler (or its updated version) can handle
49
all the cards, don’t load the specific enabler. Otherwise, load both.

There is also a third type of enabler called a point enabler. This is similar to a specific enabler in that it
is designed to configure a single type of PC Card. Unlike generic or specific enablers, however, point
enablers do not require socket services or card services to be loaded. Instead, they talk directly to the
PCMCIA adapter hardware. This has both advantages and drawbacks. The most compelling advantage is
memory. Since socket and card services are not needed, a point enabler takes up very little memory.
Unfortunately, that is where the advantages end. In order to communicate with hardware directly, a point
enabler must be designed for specific hardware. As a result, a point enabler usually doesn’t work on all PC
Card systems. Also, the point enabler will bypass the socket and card services if they are loaded. This can
be a real problem if you want to use other cards at the same time. Generally speaking, bypassing your
socket and card services is not a good idea, so reserve point enablers as a last resort (and only if you use no
other PC Cards in the system at the same time).

CARD TYPES
PCMCIA standards also define the physical dimensions that a PC Card is limited to. There are three types of
cards: Type I, Type II, and Type III. Although the length and width of each card remains the same, the thick-
ness of their substrate area can vary to accommodate different applications (as shown in Figure 49-5). The
classic Type I card is only 3.3mm thick. Although this is too thin for mechanical assemblies, it is ideal for
most types of memory enhancements. Type II cards run 5.0mm thick, which makes them ideal for larger
memory enhancements and most I/O cards such as modems or LAN adapters. Note in Figure 49-5 that the

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1778 CHAPTER 49: PC CARDS AND PERIPHERALS

FIGURE 49-5 Comparison of PC Card thicknesses

edges and connector area (the interconnect area) of the card remain at 3.3mm to fit the card’s slide rails. The
Type III card is a full 10.5mm thick, which is large enough to accommodate the components for a complete
hard drive or radio communication device like a cellular modem. Like Type II cards, the interconnect
area remains 3.3mm. This 3.3mm rail height permits thinner cards to be inserted into thicker slots (but not
vice versa).

The cards in Figure 49-5 are not to scale, but are provided for comparison only.

CARDBUS AND ZOOMED VIDEO

If you work with PC Cards at all, chances are that you’re going to encounter CardBus and Zoomed Video
architectures. The CardBus is a 32-bit implementation of the PC Card that appeared as part of the
PCMCIA standard in February 1995. The CardBus supports bus mastering data transfers up to 133Mbps
at 33MHz. In short, the CardBus is PCMCIA’s answer to the PCI interface used on modern motherboards.
Of course, CardBus is not identical to PCI, but it is as close as PC Cards have been able to come. Since
CardBus performance approaches the same high level as the host platform’s internal system bus architec-
tures (PCI), CardBus is an ideal way to add 100Mbps LAN, SCSI II, video conferencing, and other
high-performance capabilities to the notebook form factor. In addition, CardBus PC Cards operate at a
power-saving 3.3 volts—extending the battery life of most configurations.
Zoomed Video (or ZV) is another enhancement to the PC Card that supports a high-speed connection
between a PC Card and host computer system. This connection allows the card to write video data directly to
the system’s VGA controller. The data is transferred with no buffering requirements because it is transferred
over the ZV bus, not the system bus. As a result, ZV cards are ideal for video capture, PC/TV applications.

INSIDE THE CARD

You can develop a tremendous respect for PC Cards by understanding the fragile and compact assemblies
that are inside them. Consider the Maxtor MobileMax Lite shown in Figure 49-6. The drive contains a sin-
gle platter, upper and lower R/W heads, a voice coil servo motor to position the heads, a spindle motor to
spin the platters, and the circuitry required to handle all drive functions and interfacing. As you might
imagine, each element of the PC Card must be kept extremely thin. Still, it is sometimes difficult to

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UNDERSTANDING THE PC CARD 1779

FIGURE 49-6 Internal view of a PC Card ATA-type drive

(Maxtor Corporation)

believe that the assembly actually fits into a shell only 0.5cm thick (Type II). Another important consider-
ation in PC card design is the control and suppression of electrostatic discharge (ESD). Static electricity
must be prevented from reaching the card’s PC board where IC damage can occur. Once a card is inserted
into a system, a discharge tab at the physical interface connector carries away any accumulation of
charges to system ground. Until a card is inserted, a card protects its circuitry from damage using the Fara-
day cage principle—the same principle used by antistatic bags to protect their contents. The shell of most
PC Cards is either constructed of a metal (such as stainless steel) or some sort of metalized plastic. Both
shell halves are bonded together by a small spring. Any charge introduced to the card is quickly dispersed
over the entire shell surface instead of being allowed to enter the card. 49

HOT INSERTION AND REMOVAL

One of the great disadvantages to most desktop expansion devices is that computer power must be com-
pletely off before the device can be installed or removed. Not only is this necessary to prevent accidental
damage from improper insertion, but the traditional BIOS and DOS only allocate system resources when
the system is first initialized—they were not designed to accommodate the allocation of system resources
on-the-fly. Even plug-and-play devices allocate resources only during initialization. PC Cards take a
major step toward this type of “dynamic resource allocation” with the support of hot swapping. Hot swap-
ping (or hot insertion and removal) refers to the ability to insert and remove cards while the PC power is
still on without any degradation or damage to the system or card. Ideally, software applications can recog-
nize the card’s function and adjust accordingly.
Although PC Cards support hot swapping, and can be inserted or removed without fear of damaging
the card itself, very few operating systems or application programs are currently PC Card aware. That is,
they do not automatically recognize when cards have been inserted or removed. Therefore, users of any
computer with PC Card slots should close any open application programs before inserting or removing a
PC Card. Otherwise, the application may not initialize a card that has been inserted, and may lock up when
a card is removed.

When working with PC Cards, always be sure to close any open applications before inserting or
removing cards from the system. If possible, shut the system down entirely.

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1780 CHAPTER 49: PC CARDS AND PERIPHERALS

UNDERSTANDING ATTRIBUTE MEMORY

One of the greatest challenges facing PC Cards is cross-compatibility—the ability to use various card spe-
cies from diverse manufacturers in the same card slot. Quite a few card sizes and types are currently in pro-
duction, and many more card models will be available by the time you read this book. How does the
computer “know” when you have replaced your 2MB SRAM card with a 20MB flash card or a 100MB
PCMCIA hard drive? You should understand that a computer capable of accepting PC Cards must be able
to detect and adjust to the diverse attributes of each card it may encounter, even though each card may uti-
lize the same physical card interface.
Hard drives provide the best analogy to this. Hard drives are available in a staggering array of capaci-
ties, heads, cylinders, sectors, and so on, but all those drives can use the same physical interface (ATA-2).
A computer interacts properly with a hard drive because you enter the drive’s key parameters in the com-
puter’s CMOS setup routine. The same basic problem exists for PC Cards. However, memory cards are
intended to be “transient” items—inserted and removed at will. Imagine the inconvenience of having to
reenter a card’s key parameters each time a new card is inserted. Even a single typing error can be disas-
trous for some cards and their contents.
The PCMCIA has supported a standard for memory card services that defines the software interface
for accessing cards. The interface can either be a device driver loaded when the computer boots, or it can
be designed directly into BIOS ROM or the operating system. In order for this driver system to work, each
card must be able to identify itself to the computer. The complete characteristic and ID data for a memory
card is held in the attribute memory area of each individual card. Attribute memory contains a surprising
amount of information—as it must, considering the huge number of potential differences in card layout
and features. Attribute memory tells the computer how much storage a card contains, the particular device
type (memory, disk, I/O, etc.), the card’s data format, speed capabilities, and many other variables.
The contents of attribute memory typically contain setup information that falls into one of four catego-
ries of PCMCIA’s Card Identification System (CIS)—otherwise known as the card’s meta-format. Those
four layers are the basic compatibility layer that indicates how the card’s storage is organized, the data
recording format layer specifying how blocks of card information are to be stored, the data organization
layer defining the card’s operating system format (DOS, Microsoft’s FlashFile system, PCMCIA’s XIP,
etc.), and any specific standards (or system-specific standards) needed to support an operating system.
The CIS data contained in attribute memory is a collection of related data blocks that are interlinked
rather like a chain. Each link in this chain (a data block) is called a tuple, and can be up to 128 bytes long. The
first byte of a tuple encodes the function of that tuple and its parameters. The second byte in a tuple links to
the next tuple (if any) and specifies the precise number of bytes in that tuple. Since you know how long the
present tuple is, you know exactly where the next tuple begins. In addition to standard tuples, individual card
manufacturers are also free to add their own unique tuples to support proprietary features. It is not necessary
for you to know the precise operation of each tuple, but it can help you to be familiar with their nomenclature
and general purpose. One of the most important tuples is the Function ID entry called CISTPL_FUNCID.
This tuple tells the host computer exactly what kind of card is installed. Table 49-1 shows typical entries for
the most popular PC Card types.

CONNECTIONS
The standard PC Card is connected to a PC through a 68-pin header arranged in two rows of 34 pins, as
shown in Figure 49-7. If you look at the header pins closely, you’ll notice that several of the pins are longer
than the others—these are ground pins. By making them longer, a card will be attached to ground first
when inserted (and last when removed). Figure 49-8 clearly illustrates how a PC Card interfaces to its

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UNDERSTANDING THE PC CARD 1781

TABLE 49-1 TYPICAL FUNCTION ID ENTRIES FOR CISTPL_FUNCID

CISTPL_FUNCID: FUNCTION IDENTIFICATION TUPLE

CODE NAME
0 Multi-Function
1 Memory
2 Serial Port
3 Parallel Port
4 Fixed Disk
5 Video Adapter
6 Network Adapter
7 AIMS (auto indexing mass-storage)
8 SCSI
9 Security
A-FD Reserved (allocated as new devices are introduced)
FE Vendor-Specific
FF Do Not Use

FIGURE 49-7 PC Card header diagram 49

FIGURE 49-8 Typical PC Card connector scheme (AMP, Inc.)

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1782 CHAPTER 49: PC CARDS AND PERIPHERALS

mating connector. When the card is removed, ground will still be attached after the power pins have been
disconnected. Good grounding helps to ensure the card’s reliability, and permit “hot” insertion and
removal. When you look at the assignment of each pin in Table 49-2, you will see that there are basically
four types of signals at the PCMCIA interface: data pins, address pins, power (and ground), and control
signals. It is this healthy mix of signals that makes it possible to support many of the PC Card applications
that are available today. Also note that the CardBus PC Cards use the same 68-pin connector, but their sig-
nal assignments are vastly different.

TABLE 49-2 PIN ASSIGNMENTS FOR PC CARD AND CARDBUS INTERFACES

16-BIT 32-BIT 16-BIT 32-BIT

PIN MEMORY I/O+MEM CARDBUS PIN MEMORY I/O+MEM CARDBUS
1 GND GND GND 35 GND GND GND
2 D3 D3 CAD0 36 CD1# CD1# CCD1#
3 D4 D4 CAD1 36 D11 D11 CAD2
4 D5 D5 CAD3 36 D12 D12 CAD4
5 D6 D6 CAD5 39 D13 D13 CAD6
6 D7 D7 CAD7 40 D14 D14 RSRVD
7 CE1# CE1# CCBE0# 41 D15 D15 CAD8
8 A10 A10 CAD9 42 CE2# CE2# CAD10
9 OE# OE# CAD11 43 VS1# VS1# CVS1
10 A11 A11 CAD12 44 RSRVD IORD# CAD13
11 A9 A9 CAD14 45 RSRVD IOWR# CAD15
12 A8 A8 CCBE1# 46 A17 A17 CAD16
13 A13 A13 CPAR 47 A18 A18 RSRVD
14 A14 A14 CPERR# 48 A19 A19 CBLOCK#
15 WE# WE# CGNT# 49 A20 A20 CSTOP#
16 READY IREQ# CINT# 50 A21 A21 CDEVSEL#
17 Vcc Vcc Vcc 51 Vcc Vcc Vcc
18 Vpp1 Vpp1 Vpp1 52 Vpp2 Vpp2 Vpp2
19 A16 A16 CCLK 53 A22 A22 CTRDY#
20 A15 A15 CIRDY# 54 A23 A23 CFRAME#
21 A12 A12 CCBE2# 55 A24 A24 CAD17
22 A7 A7 CAD18 56 A25 A25 CAD19
23 A6 A6 CAD20 57 VS2# VS2# CVS2
24 A5 A5 CAD21 58 RESET RESET CRST#
25 A4 A4 CAD22 59 WAIT# WAIT# CSERR#
26 A3 A3 CAD23 60 RSRVD INPACK# CREQ#
27 A2 A2 CAD24 61 REG# REG# CCBE3#
28 A1 A1 CAD25 62 BVD2 SPKR# CAUDIO
29 A0 A0 CAD26 63 BVD1 STSCHG# CSTSCHG
30 D0 D0 CAD27 64 D8 D8 CAD28
31 D1 D1 CAD29 65 D9 D9 CAD30
32 D2 D2 RSRVD 66 D10 D10 CAD31
33 WP IOIS16# CCLKRUN# 67 CD2# CD2# CCD2#
34 GND GND GND 68 GND GND GND

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PC CARD APPLICATIONS 1783

TABLE 49-2 PIN ASSIGNMENTS FOR PC CARD AND CARDBUS INTERFACES (CONTINUED)

Table 49-2 Legend:

Ax or CAx Address line
BVDx Battery voltage detect line
CADx Multiplexed address/data line
CAUDIO Audio line
CBEx or CCBEx Command byte enable
CCLK System clock
CCLKRUN Clock status
CDEVSEL Device select
CDx or CCDx Card detect line
CEx Card enable line
CFRAME Address or data phase
CGNT Grant line
CINT Interrupt
CIRDY Initiator ready
CPAR Parity line
CPERR Parity error
CREQ System request
CRST Reset
CSERR System error
CSTOP Stop transfer cycle
CTRDY Target ready
Dx or CDx Data line
IREQ Interrupt request
49
OE Output enable
RSRVDIORD Reserved/IO read line
RSRVDIOWR Reserved/IO write line
VSx Refresh line
Vpp Programming voltage
WE Write enable

PC Card Applications
Now that PC Cards are being developed according to release 2.1 and the major updates to 1997, they offer
a series of compelling advantages for mobile computer users:
■ The I/O support offered by PCMCIA specifications allows virtually any product to be incorporated
into a PC Card. Modems, network adapters, video capture modules, audio cards, and hard drives are
just some of the devices that PCMCIA standards now embrace.
■ PC Cards can be made to operate in a dual-voltage mode (either 5.0 volts or 3.3 volts) depending on
the design of the mobile PC. Low-voltage compatibility saves power and extends battery life.
■ The programs and applications stored on PC Cards can now be executed in place rather than having to
load the card’s contents into main memory. This execute-in-place (or XIP) technology reduces the
demand for large amounts of onboard RAM.

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1784 CHAPTER 49: PC CARDS AND PERIPHERALS

■ The socket services software defined by release 2.1 describes a BIOS-level interface that allows
applications to access the card’s hardware. The device drivers written to operate specific PC Cards
will run on any PC that supports socket services.
■ The card services software automatically allocates system resources (such as memory and IRQs) once a
PC Card is inserted into a system (referred to as dynamic resource allocation). Information (called tuple
information) contained in the Card Information Structure (CIS) of a card describes the characteristics
and abilities of that card. In turn, the host system can automatically configure the card for proper opera-
tion. This type of operation is the earliest implementation of a plug-and-play architecture.

PC CARD PROBLEMS
Like all new PC technologies, there are some disappointing problems with the early implementations of
PC Cards. Before you decide to buy that next “PC Card-compatible” system, you should understand some
of the factors that have contributed to PCMCIA’s poor early showing. When the PCMCIA issued release
1.0 in 1990, socket and card services did not exist—card makers had to supply their own specific drivers,
which had to be tested on each specific computer. If the host computer were updated or upgraded, the
cards that worked on the older systems would probably not work on the newer ones. This resulted in per-
plexing compatibility problems.
Socket and card services were added in 1991 with PCMCIA release 2.0, but the release also brought
I/O devices into the PC Card picture. Although this made PCMCIA much more versatile, I/O brought in a
host of new problems. Although all I/O cards are supposed to be treated as a generic device, an operating
system does not see all devices the same way. For example, an operating system does not treat a hard drive
and a modem the same way, but card makers did not take that into account, so compatibility between sys-
tems is still an issue. Also, most operating systems are designed to work with resources that are present
when a system is booted, so although you may be able to insert and remove cards safely, the operating sys-
tem can rarely adjust the system resources properly. As a result, many cards have to be installed before the
system boots.
Today, most PCMCIA cards work in most systems, and can be inserted and removed without
rebooting the computer—but there are no guarantees. The situation has gotten much better over the last
year or so (especially with the release of Windows 98), but beware of older PCMCIA systems.

TODAY’S CARDS
PCMCIA cards have come a long way since the early memory cards of 1990. Virtually any device that can
be implemented on an expansion card can be fabricated as a PC Card. As a technician, you should under-
stand the range of devices that you may encounter when servicing notebook and sub-notebook systems:
■ Memory cards Memory expansion devices continue to be popular PC Card devices—not so much
for added system memory, but to run prefabricated applications directly off the card.
■ Modem cards PCMCIA modems are rapidly replacing proprietary modems as internal communica-
tion devices. PCMCIA modems are easily matching the speed and performance of stand-alone
modems, and are even being equipped with cellular connections for true mobile operation.
■ LAN cards Local area networks are becoming more popular as businesses integrate their operations
and add connections to such resources as the Internet. LAN cards allow mobile computers to play a
constructive role on networks using topologies such as Ethernet, Token Ring, and 3270 Emulation.

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PC CARD APPLICATIONS 1785

■ Digital video cards The soaring popularity of multimedia applications has dramatically increased
the demand for real-time video and still-frame capture products. PCMCIA technology allows video
and audio capture capability in PC Card products for high-quality multimedia “on-the-road.”
■ Hard drive cards Until the advent of PCMCIA, it was virtually impossible to add a second hard
drive to a portable PC. Fortunately, the use of PCMCIA combined with the stunning advances in hard
drive technology allow substantial hard drive capacities in a Type III form factor.
■ Audio cards Games and music composition software demand high-quality sound reproduction.
PCMCIA audio cards provide SoundBlaster-compatible sound to external speakers. The trend
toward mobile multimedia is integrating sound systems and speakers right into the mobile PC, but
stand-alone sound cards are available.
■ SCSI adapter cards The Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) is a system-level interface scheme
that allows a multitude of devices (CD-ROM, scanners, tape drives, etc.) to be connected to a system. A
PCMCIA SCSI adapter card opens a whole new level of compatibility for a mobile computer.
■ Floppy drive cards The recent trend among sub-notebook and palmtop computers has been to forgo
the floppy drive in favor of a PCMCIA slot. However, PCMCIA floppy disk adapters such as the
Accurite Technologies PassportCard bring a standard floppy drive to any mobile PC that lacks an
internal floppy drive.

INSTALLING A PC CARD
Like so many things in PC service, proper installation can prevent a round of troubleshooting later on.
This is particularly true for PC Cards because they are completely dependent on software for proper con-
figuration and operation. This part of the chapter describes the general steps involved in setting up a typi-
cal PC Card. Of course, always be sure to read the manual that accompanies your card for specific
49
instructions or caveats. Most PC Cards require access to four different pieces of software: the socket ser-
vices, the card services, the enabler (or super client driver), and a resource manager (usually a high-level
driver). Table 49-3 lists some typical PC Card drivers for DOS, and Table 49-4 lists the PC Card drivers
for use under Windows.

The file names shown in Tables 49-3 and 49-4 are examples often used in Compaq laptops. Your
own system may utilize entirely different file names, but their purpose and loading order will almost
always remain the same.

If your system does not yet support PC Cards (or if you are restoring a failed hard drive), you’ll need to
install the socket and card services first. This should usually be done before installing the card itself. How-
ever, keep in mind that most mobile computers come with card and socket services installed already, so
you should not reinstall those applications since they may be optimized for your particular hardware.
Power-up the PC and read the driver banners. If you see mention of card and socket services, that software
is probably installed already. Windows 95/98 has a small suite of card and socket service drivers. (Refer to
the PCMCIA plug-and-play card wizard under your Control Panel.)
Next, you’ll need to install the PC Card enabler. (You may also see this grouped with card services
software.) In many cases, the disk accompanying the PC Card will have an installation routine that will
add the enabler’s command line to CONFIG.SYS. Otherwise, you will have to add the enabler’s com-
mand line manually by editing the CONFIG.SYS file. Once the enabler is added to CONFIG.SYS, save
the file and turn off the PC. Insert the card in its card slot, and then restart the PC. If the software is installed

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TABLE 49-3 DOS PC CARD DRIVERS

FULL NAME FILE NAME FUNCTION MEMORY NOTES

Socket Services SSVLSI.EXE Provides a standard software 3,760 (4K) Must be loaded first
SSCIRRUS.EXE interface to PCMCIA host
controller chips and isolates
the socket hardware from
higher level software
Card Services CS.EXE Manages system resources 39,392 (36K) Requires socket
and configuration conflict issues services
Card Services CSALLOC.EXE Initializes Card Services — Requires Socket
Resource Allocation resource table at boot time and Card Services
Card Services CARDID.EXE Configures PC Cards that do 20,320 (20K) Requires Socket
Super Client not have CS client drivers and and Card Services
“exception” cases
Memory Card Driver MEMDRV.EXE Block device driver for 17,184 (17K) Required for SRAM
memory cards or flash card
support
ATA Card Driver ATADRV.EXE Provides support for ATA/ IDE 6,496 (6K) Relies on CARDID
Support mass storage cards such as to configure
rotating media or Sundisk-style ATA cards
cards
Microsoft Flash MS-FLASH.SYS Provides file system support 70,240 (69K) Requires
File System for flash memory cards MEMDRV.EXE
DoubleSpace for DBLFLASH.EXE Provides DoubleSpace data 13,504 (13K) Requires
Flash File System compression support for the MS-FLASH.SYS
Microsoft Flash File System
Power Management PCMSMIX.EXE Provides support for standby — —
Driver hibernation and ring resume
for certain PCs

TABLE 49-4 WINDOWS PC CARD DRIVERS

FULL NAME FILE NAME FUNCTION NOTES

Communications driver SSCOMM.DRV Card Services-aware version of Replaces COMM.DRV
Windows COMM.DRV
Card Services Serial Port CSVCD.366 Card Services-aware version of Replaces *vcd
Virtual Driver standard Windows VCD.366
Card Services Windows API SSWINCS.DLL Provides the Card Services —
interface to Windows applications
Card Services Virtual Driver CS.366 Provides the Card Services —
interface to Windows virtual
sessions library (DLL) required to
support hot plugability
Card Event Monitor CPQEVENT.EXE Displays pop-ups on —
insertion/removal of PC Card

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OPTIMIZING MEMORY IN PC CARD SYSTEMS 1787

correctly so far, you should hear a beep as the card is recognized. You will hear two beeps if the card is not
recognized. (Check the card and software installation.)
Finally, you will need to install the “resource manager” (or client driver) that accompanies the partic-
ular card. For example, a PC Card fax/modem usually requires a fax/modem client driver, or a PC Card
hard drive requires an ATA IDE client driver, and so on. Client drivers are often card specific, so be sure to
install the client driver that accompanies your particular card.
You can see an example of how this works by looking at the combination of software in Table 49-5.
The program names are examples only. (Your particular software will use different names.) Notice that
PC Card support requires several different pieces of software, and the software varies depending on the
particular cards that you need to support. For example, an ATA IDE card and a fax/modem card use the
same socket services, card services, and enabler, but require two different client drivers. With this type of
relationship, you can load only the drivers that are needed to support specific card types.

Optimizing Memory in PC Card

Systems
PC cards in the real mode are very demanding of conventional memory. For example, a typical PC
Card–equipped PC must allocate almost 180KB of conventional memory in order to support the PCMCIA
slot and PC Card devices. While this is not so much of a problem in Windows 95/98, DOS and Windows
3.1x environments can experience severe memory shortages. Fortunately, it is often possible to reclaim
some conventional memory (sometimes as much as 115KB). The actual amount depends on the number
of drivers required for proper PC Card support, and the size of each respective driver, but the process
needed to reclaim memory often breaks down into four steps: 49
■ Remove any unnecessary drivers.
■ Recover unused memory areas.
■ Utilize any PCMCIA reserved memory.
■ Change the driver loading order.

TABLE 49-5 PC CARD SOFTWARE VS. APPLICATION

FLASH FAX/ SRAM

FILE NAME ATA IDE MEMORY LAN MODEM MEMORY
PCMSS.EXE (Socket Services) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PCMCS.EXE (Card Services) Yes No Yes Yes Yes
PCMCSFUL.EXE (Card Enabler) Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
PCMSCD.EXE (Comm. Client) No No Yes Yes No
PCMATA.EXE (HDD Client) Yes No No No Yes
PCMFFCS.EXE (Flash Client) No Yes No No Yes

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REMOVE ANY UNNECESSARY DRIVERS

The first step in regaining the memory normally used by PCMCIA drivers is to remove (or disable) any
drivers that are not required in your configuration. If there are PCMCIA drivers that are not currently
being used by the particular PC Card, remove them by inserting the word “REM” (which stands for
“REMark”) or a single semicolon (;) at the beginning of the appropriate statement in your CONFIG.SYS
file. This will prevent the driver(s) from being loaded the next time the system is booted, and will therefore
reclaim the memory that the driver(s) would have used.

If you are not currently using PC Cards at all, you can add a REMark to all PCMCIA driver references
and delete the X=D000-DFFF exclusion on the EMM366 command line in your CONFIG.SYS file.
This disables PCMCIA support entirely. You will regain all the upper memory usually available in
non-PCMCIA-based PCs, but you will not have access to PCMCIA capabilities.

For example, REMarking out the PCMCIA files ATADRV.EXE and MEMDRV.EXE will recover a
bit more than 20KB of memory. REMarking out the files MS-FLASH.SYS and DBLFLASH.EXE will
recover 83KB of memory. Just keep in mind that these drivers must be loaded later if you add an ATA,
SRAM, or flash memory card to the PC.

RECOVER UNUSED MEMORY AREAS

Take control of memory regions in the UMA that you know are not being used. For example, Compaq rec-
ommends that if you are not using a monochrome controller in an expansion base, you can recover the
monochrome region (B000h–B7FFh) to gain 32KB. To accomplish this, you’d use the “Include” state-
ment in your EMM366 command line, such as:
I=B000-B7FF

Remember that you will lose the ability to utilize devices that need that memory region. For the Compaq
example, you’d lose the ability to use monochrome cards in an Elite SmartStation.

If you have any problems entering Windows after making this change, you may need to add the fol-
lowing to the [366enh] section of the SYSTEM.INI file:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\MONOUMB.366

UTILIZE ANY PCMCIA RESERVED MEMORY

The next step is to make use of any reserved memory in the UMA not being used by PCMCIA cards. As an
example, new Compaq PCMCIA-based PCs reserve a 64KB window of memory in the UMA from
D000h through DFFFh for PC Cards to reside in. Card services requires 4KB of that memory, but most
cards that you install do not require the balance of 60KB. In fact, some cards do not require any memory in
this area other than the 4KB required by card services. (To determine how much memory your PC Cards
require, consult the card’s user guide or call the manufacturer.)
First, determine how much memory each of your PCMCIA cards require in order to initialize. For
example, PCMCIA modems usually do not require any memory, and most PCMCIA Ethernet adapters
require only 8KB to 12KB. If your memory requirements are relatively small, you can usually move the
PCMCIA window out of the D000h range, allowing for larger contiguous UMBs. A good place to move
this range is the C800h area (so long as no other devices have BIOS residing in this area).

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Modify your CONFIG.SYS file by moving the PCMCIA card initialization area out of the D000h
range and reducing the amount of memory used from 64KB to a smaller amount. As an example, a modem
(with the 4KB card services overhead) and Ethernet Card will usually only require 16KB or less, so you
can change the default EMM366.EXE statement of
X=D000-DFFF

to
X=C800-CBFF

The example above will yield a 48KB gain in the UMA. If you are unable to determine just how much
memory your card requires in order to initialize, it may take several trial-and-error attempts to assess how
much memory it requires. In this example, you may even be able to recover more memory since some Ether-
net PCMCIA cards require less than 12KB. You will also need to modify the card services INI file
(CSALLOC.INI) by adding or editing the MEMEXCLUDE entry to exclude the newly defined C800–
CBFF range, such as:
MEMEXCLUDE=CC00-EFFF

This will tell card services to avoid using any memory above CC00h to configure PCMCIA cards.
Finally, modify the [366Enh] section of your SYSTEM.INI file to include an EMMEXCLUDE state-
ment that matches the range excluded on the EMM366.EXE line in the CONFIG.SYS file. For this exam-
ple, the line must read
EMMEXCLUDE=C800-CBFF
49
Whenever you alter the exclusion range in your EMM366 line, be sure to modify the MEMEXCLUDE
statement in your card services INI file and the EMMEXCLUDE statement in the SYSTEM.INI file to
match.

CHANGE THE DRIVER LOADING ORDER

Shifting the load order of your specific drivers (but not the PCMCIA drivers themselves—they must
remain in the same order) may allow you to load more drivers into upper memory. To do this, you can
manually adjust the driver order through trial and error by changing the execution order in the
CONFIG.SYS file. Alternatively, you can try to force specific drivers into desired regions of upper mem-
ory by using the /L: option for DEVICEHIGH (CONFIG.SYS) and LOADHIGH (AUTOEXEC.BAT).

The load order of PCMCIA drivers themselves should not be modified.

Example: IBM Token Ring PC Card

As an example, let’s look at some typical configuration files for an IBM Token Ring PC Card on a
Compaq laptop. You’ll need to attack the memory problem in four steps: optimize the card’s resource
assignments (the IBM Token Ring adapter uses a utility called PCCARD to change the card’s I/O, IRQ,
and memory assignments), modify CONFIG.SYS, modify SYSTEM.INI, and modify the card services
INI file (CSALLOC.INI).

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Here is an example of a modified CONFIG.SYS file:

DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM366.EXE NOEMS I=B000-B7FF X=C800-D0FF I=D100-EFFF
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
FILES=60
BUFFERS=20
DOS=HIGH,UMB
LASTDRIVE=E
FCBS=4,0
STACKS=9,256
SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /E:512 /p

REM *** Begin PCMCIA Drivers, DO NOT Change Order ***

DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\SSVLSI.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\CS.EXE /IRQ A
DEVICE=C:\CPQDOS\CSALLOC.EXE
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\ATADRV.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\CARDID.EXE C:\CPQDOS\CARDID.INI
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\MEMDRV.EXE
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\DBLFLASH.EXE
REM DEVICEHIGH=C:\CPQDOS\MS-FLASH.SYS
REM *** End PCMCIA Drivers ***

DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\POWER.EXE
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DXM\DXMA0MOD.SYS
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DXM\DXMC0MOD.SYS ,CC00

And here is the corresponding SYSTEM.INI file changes:

Add the entry
DEVICE=C:\DOS\MONOUMB.366

and change the entry

EMMEXCLUDE=D000-DFFF

to
EMMEXCLUDE= C800-D0FF

This range should reflect the exclude statement on the EMM366 line in your CONFIG.SYS file.
Here is an example of modifications to the CSALLOC.INI file:
MEM=C800-D0FF
RIO=170-177,2E8-2EF,360- 367,3E8-3F7,3F0-3F7
IOINCLUDE=3F0-3F7
MEMEXCLUDE=B000-B7FF,C000-C7FF,D100-EFFF

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TROUBLESHOOTING PC CARD PROBLEMS 1791

Troubleshooting PC Card Problems

The PCMCIA represents an interface rather than a particular card. As a consequence, PC Card trouble-
shooting is rather like solving problems with any other type of bus interface (SCSI, ISA, VL, etc.). The
objective is not to repair a PC Card itself, but rather to isolate a functional problem to the card, the inter-
face itself, or some portion of the host system’s driver configuration and operating system. When you
determine that a PC Card is defective, your best course is to replace the card outright, or return it to the
manufacturer for repair.

MANAGING PCMCIA SUPPORT IN WINDOWS

Windows 95/98 supports many PCMCIA cards, including modems, network adapters, SCSI cards, and
others. If Windows includes drivers for the PCMCIA card and the socket you are using, installation and
configuration should be automatic. This part of the chapter provides some guidelines for enabling
enhanced PCMCIA support in Windows 95/98 when automatic detection and configuration are not avail-
able for your card. Windows 95/98 setup automatically detects the presence of a PCMCIA socket, but to
enable it, you must run the PCMCIA wizard.
To enable Windows 95/98 plug-and-play support for the PCMCIA socket, run the PCMCIA wizard.
The PCMCIA wizard comments out the real-mode drivers in the AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS
files and enables the PCMCIA socket. In some cases, Windows 95/98 disables plug-and-play PCMCIA
support if there is a risk of incompatibility. Note that when Windows identifies and loads the appropriate
PCMCIA driver, the computer emits a beep when the new device is configured. You can run the PCMCIA
wizard using the following steps:

1 Click Start, select Settings, and then click Control Panel. 49

2 Double-click the PCMCIA icon and allow the process to complete.

Windows 95/98 should work with real-mode drivers, although some plug-and-play capabilities (such
as automatic installation and friendly device names) will not be available.

Verify that Windows 95/98 has properly detected your PCMCIA socket:

1 Click Start, select Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click the System icon, and then click the Device Manager tab.
3 Look for a PCMCIA Socket listing.

If Windows 95/98 has not detected a PCMCIA socket, your socket controller might not be supported
by Windows 95. Determine whether a PCMCIA socket is supported:

1 Click Start, highlight Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click the Add New Hardware icon, and then click Next.
3 Click No, then Next.
4 In the Hardware Types box, click PCMCIA Socket, and then click Next.
5 Click the appropriate manufacturer, and then examine the Models list. If your socket does not
appear in the list, you should contact the manufacturer to see if new drivers are available.

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Determine whether Windows 95/98 has activated enhanced PCMCIA support:

1 Click Start, highlight Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click the System icon, and then click the Device Manager tab.
3 Double-click the PCMCIA Socket entry.
4 Click the entry for your PCMCIA controller, and then click Properties.
5 Click the General tab. If a hardware profile is selected in the Device Usage box, PCMCIA support
is enabled.

If you have the correct drivers, and enhanced PCMCIA support is activated, but the device is still not
available, your computer may be using the wrong memory address range for the device. Windows 95/98
selects a default set of commonly supported settings. Your socket might not support certain IRQ settings,
so you may be able to get the PCMCIA socket to work by changing the IRQ setting. Similarly, the socket
may not work with certain memory addresses, and changing the memory address might solve the prob-
lem. Try changing the memory address for your PCMCIA device:

1 Click Start, highlight Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click the System icon, and then click the Device Manager tab.
3 Click the PCMCIA Socket entry, and then click Properties.
4 Click the Global Settings tab.
5 Click the Automatic Selection check box to clear it.
6 Change the start value based on information from your hardware manual. Typically, selecting a
start value higher than 100,000 should work.
7 Restart Windows.

You might also change the interrupt for a PCMCIA device:

1 Click Start, highlight Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click the System icon, and then click the Device Manager tab.
3 Double-click the PCMCIA Socket entry.
4 Click the entry for your PCMCIA controller, and then click Properties.
5 Click the Resources tab.
6 Click the Use Automatic Settings check box to clear it.
7 Double-click Interrupt Request and change the entry to a new value that does not conflict with
other devices already installed on the system.
8 Click OK twice.
9 Restart Windows.

If Windows 95/98 still does not detect your PCMCIA card, you should disable the Windows 95/98
enhanced PCMCIA support:

1 Click Start, highlight Settings, and then click Control Panel.

2 Double-click the System icon, and then click the Device Manager tab.

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TROUBLESHOOTING PC CARD PROBLEMS 1793

3 Double-click the PCMCIA Socket entry.

4 Click the entry for your PCMCIA controller, and then click Properties.
5 Click the General tab, and then click the Current Hardware Profile check box to clear it.

WINDOWS 95/98 TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDELINES

When you encounter problems with PC Card configurations under Windows 95/98, you can use the fol-
lowing tips to help isolate the most common troubles.

Mixing Real-Mode and Protected-Mode Drivers

As a rule, you cannot use real-mode and protected-mode PCMCIA drivers at the same time under Win-
dows 95/98. For example, if you use a real-mode driver for a PCMCIA (PC Card) device such as a
CD-ROM drive, your PCMCIA card socket (and any other PCMCIA card devices) must also use
real-mode drivers in Windows 95/98. You may encounter unpredictable results when mixing real- and
protected-mode drivers in this fashion.

Redetect the PCMCIA Device(s)

Before you install Windows 95/98, make certain that your PCMCIA card device works in real mode. If
you’ve already installed Windows 95/98, but you have not run the 32-bit PCMCIA Card Socket wizard,
restart Windows directly to the command prompt using the Startup menu, and test your PC Card(s). If
your PCMCIA devices work in real mode, follow these steps:

1 Restart Windows 95/98 normally.

2 Right-click the My Computer icon, and then click Properties on the menu.
3 On the Device Manager tab, double-click the device icon, click the PCMCIA device, and then 49
click Remove.
4 Restart your computer.
5 Click Start, highlight Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the Add New Hardware
icon.
6 Follow the Add New Hardware wizard instructions to redetect your PCMCIA hardware device(s).

Some devices do not appear in Device Manager if real-mode socket services are running (such as
CD-ROM drives). If your device does not appear in Device Manager, contact your hardware manu-
facturer for driver or socket services updates.

Change Resources Through the Real Mode

If you use real-mode drivers for your PCMCIA card and you change its resources in Device Manager, the
change does not take effect. These resources must be changed through the real-mode drivers and/or utili-
ties that accompanied your particular PC Card. You may wish to check with the device manufacturer for
software updates and patches that may ease real-mode resource management.

Trouble in the Real Mode

If your PCMCIA card device does not work in real mode, try restarting your computer with an earlier ver-
sion of DOS, and then test your PCMCIA card again. If your PCMCIA card does not work in this configu-
ration, the card may be defective, or the real-mode drivers are missing or damaged. You should contact

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your hardware manufacturer for driver updates. If your PCMCIA card does work with an earlier version
of DOS, follow these steps:

1 Start your computer by stepping through the startup files. To do this, choose Step-By-Step Confir-
mation from the Startup menu.
2 Answer yes to all prompts except two. Choose No when you’re prompted “Process the system reg-
istry?” and choose No when you’re prompted “Load the Windows graphical user interface?”
3 If your PCMCIA card still does not work, try the device on another computer. If problems persist,
the card may be defective.

Enable Socket Services in the Protected Mode

To use a PCMCIA card device in protected mode, the device must be supported by Windows 95/98 (or the
vendor must supply a current Windows-compliant driver). Before you attempt to use your PCMCIA card
device in protected mode, you must first enable the protected-mode socket services:

1 Open the Control Panel, and then double-click the System icon.
2 On the Device Manager tab, make sure that the PCMCIA Card Socket device is listed (and that it is
disabled). Disabled devices are indicated with a red X.
3 Open the Control Panel, and double-click the PCMCIA Card icon.
4 Follow the PCMCIA Card Socket wizard instructions.
5 Turn your computer off when you’re prompted to do so. Make sure to leave your computer off for a
few seconds, and then turn it back on. Do not press CTRL+ALT+DEL or use your computer’s reset
button to restart your computer.

Install the Protected-Mode Card Device

After the Windows protected-mode drivers for socket services are enabled, you can install your PCMCIA
card device. Insert the device in the PCMCIA card socket. You can insert the device before you turn the
computer on or after Windows has started. If the device is supported by Windows 95/98, Windows auto-
matically installs the appropriate drivers and (if necessary) requests that you restart your computer. (Most
PCMCIA cards do not require a restart.) If the device is not supported by Windows 95/98, Windows dis-
plays a dialog box with the prompt “Select which driver you want to install for your new hardware” and
the following options:

1 Windows default driver (This option is probably unavailable.)

2 Driver from disk provided by hardware manufacturer
3 Do not install a driver (Windows will not prompt you again.)
4 Select from a list of alternate drivers

If you have a Windows driver disk from the manufacturer, click option 2. If you have information
from the manufacturer that this device emulates another device that Windows 95/98 does support, click
option 4 and select the appropriate device from the list.

Testing the Protected Mode

If your PCMCIA card device does not work in protected mode, perform the following steps:

1 Use Device Manager to remove the device, restart your computer, and then let Windows 95/98
redetect your PCMCIA hardware.

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2 If your PCMCIA card is not detected and Windows 95/98 has a protected-mode driver for it,
remove any EMMExclude= lines from the SYSTEM.INI file, or any exclusions on the
EMM366.EXE line in the CONFIG.SYS file. Reboot your computer and let Windows 95/98
redetect your hardware. If the EMMExclude= line is the problem, you may hear one beep instead
of the standard dual-tone beep when Windows 95/98 starts.
3 Force the PCMCIA card device to a specific configuration:
■ Open the Control Panel, and then double-click the System icon.
■ Click the Device Manager tab, double-click the device icon, highlight the suspect device, and
then click Properties.
■ Click the Resources tab.
■ Click the Use Automatic Settings check box to clear it.
■ Click Change Setting and set the resources to the settings you want.
■ Save your changes and reboot the system if necessary.

If some of your PCMCIA card devices work while others do not, it’s possible that the offending
device is a different revision of a supported card, and that it will not work even though the driver is listed.
Check with the manufacturer for an updated driver that may encompass later card revisions.

PC CARD SYMPTOMS
SYMPTOM 49-1 The SRAM or flash card loses its memory when powered down or
removed from the system Since flash cards make use of advanced EEPROMs, you might wonder
why batteries would be incorporated. Some flash cards use a small amount of SRAM to speed the transfer 49
of data to or from the card. Batteries would be needed to back up the SRAM only. If your memory card
does not appear to hold its memory, you should start your investigation by removing the memory card and
testing its batteries. Make sure the card’s batteries are inserted properly. Use your multimeter to check the
battery voltage(s). Replace any memory card batteries that seem marginal or low. You should expect a
two-to-five-year backup life from your memory card batteries depending on the amount of card mem-
ory—more memory results in shorter battery life. All battery contacts should be clean and bright, and con-
tacts should make firm connections with the battery terminals.
Try a known-good card in your system. You may verify a new or known-good memory card on
another computer with a compatible card slot. If another card works properly, your original memory card
is probably defective and should be replaced. Under no circumstances should you actually open the card.

SYMPTOM 49-2 You are unable to access a memory card for reading, and you may
not be able to write to the card either Begin troubleshooting by checking memory card com-
patibility. (Programmed OTPROM cards and Mask ROM cards cannot be written to.) If a memory card is
not compatible with the interface used by your computer, the interface may not access the card. For exam-
ple, a PCMCIA-compatible 68-pin card will probably not work in a 68-pin card slot that is not 100 percent
PCMCIA compatible. Try a known-good compatible card in the suspect card slot. Also check your
CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file to be sure that any required device drivers have been installed
during system initialization. If you are having difficulty writing to an SRAM or flash card, take a moment
and inspect the card’s write-protect switch. A switch left in the “protected” position prevents new infor-
mation from being written to the card. Move the switch to the “unprotected” position, and try the memory
card again.

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If you are having difficulty writing to EEPROM or flash EEPROM cards, check your programming
voltages (Vpp1 and Vpp2). Without high-voltage pulses, new data cannot be written to such cards. Mea-
sure Vpp1 and Vpp2 with your oscilloscope with the card removed from your system. (It may be neces-
sary to ground the card-detect lines (CD1 and CD2) to fool the host system into believing that a card is
actually installed.) You will probably have to disassemble your computer’s housing to gain easy access to
the motherboard’s card connector. If one or both programming pulses are missing during a write opera-
tion, check your power supply output(s). When high-voltage supplies are missing, troubleshoot your
computer’s power supply. If programming voltage(s) are present, there may be a defect in the card con-
troller IC or board, or any discrete switching circuitry designed to produce the programming pulses. Try
replacing the card controller (or motherboard).
The memory card may be inserted incorrectly. Two card-detect signals are needed from a PCMCIA-
compatible card to ensure proper insertion. If the card is not inserted properly, the host system will inhibit
all card activities. Remove the card and reinsert it completely. Make sure the card is straight, even, and
fully inserted. Try accessing the card again.
If trouble remains, remove the card and inspect the connector on the card and inside the computer.
Check for any contacts that may be loose, bent, or broken. It may be necessary to disassemble the mobile
computer in order to inspect its connector, but a clear view with a small flashlight will tell you all you need to
know. Connections in the computer that are damaged or extremely worn should be replaced with a new con-
nector assembly. When a memory card connector is worn or damaged, the memory card should be replaced.
If your results are still inconclusive, try a known-good memory card in the system. Keep in mind that
the new card must be fully compatible with the original one. Make sure that there are no valuable or irre-
placeable files on the known-good card before you try it in a suspect system. If a known-good card works
properly, then the old memory card is probably damaged and should be replaced. If a known-good card
also does not work, the original card is probably working properly. Your final step is to disassemble your
computer and replace the memory card controller or motherboard. A defective controller can prevent all
data and control signals from reaching the card.

SYMPTOM 49-3 You see an error message indicating that a PCMCIA card will not
install or is not recognized Chances are that one or more device drivers in the system are interfer-
ing with the offending PCMCIA card. Load your CONFIG.SYS file into an ordinary text editor and sys-
tematically edit out any other PCMCIA drivers. Try reinitializing the system after each change. Once you
locate the offending driver, try reconfiguring the driver such that it will not interfere. (Maybe a new driver
or patch is available.)

SYMPTOM 49-4 Even though a desired card is installed, an error message or warning
is displayed asking you to insert the card The PCMCIA card may not be installed properly.
Try removing the card, and then reinsert it carefully. The card socket may not be enabled, so the applica-
tion may not be able to see it. Make sure the card socket is enabled. For most systems (such as the Canon
NoteJet 486, which ships with the PCMCIA socket turned off), the solution is to get into the BIOS setup
for the computer and enable the PCMCIA socket. Check the documentation for your system to find out
how to get into the BIOS setup. Sometimes this feature is located in the “advanced settings” or in the
“power management” area of the BIOS settings. After you have changed the settings, save the changes
and restart your system. In more advanced systems (such as the Compaq Concerto), you can turn the
PCMCIA socket off and on with the computer’s setup utility under Windows. After changing the settings,
save the changes and restart your system.

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Another possibility might be that the application program interacting with the PCMCIA slot is
addressing the wrong interrupt line for insertion or removal. Check for any card socket diagnostics and
determine which interrupt(s) the application is trying to use for Card Status Change. Check the device
driver for the card and add an explicit command-line switch to specify the desired interrupt. If an interrupt
is already specified, make sure that this is the correct one.

SYMPTOM 49-5 You encounter a number of card service errors or other problems
when antivirus programs are used Such errors include “Card Services Allocation Error,” “Error:
configuration file not found,” “Error: Could Not Open Configuration File,” or “Error using Card Services.”
Under some circumstances, an antivirus program can interfere with PCMCIA card services. The Norton
antivirus program NAV&.SYS is known to cause this sort of problem if it is loaded before the card services
software. There are typically three ways around this type of problem. First, rearrange the order of drivers
called in your CONFIG.SYS file so that NAV&.SYS comes after the card services software. Second, use
NAV_.SYS instead of NAV&.SYS. Although NAV_.SYS requires more space than NAV&.SYS, it coex-
ists better with other memory-resident programs. Third, remove NAV&.SYS and use NAVTSR instead. If
you are using antivirus programs, try REMarking them out of CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT.

SYMPTOM 49-6 There are no pop-up displays when a PC card is inserted or removed
Normally, when a card is installed or removed, a dialog box will appear indicating the card that has been
inserted or removed. However, there are three reasons why the pop-ups might not display. First, the DOS
pop-up function—also called a “card event manager”—is disabled under DOS (but still works under Win-
dows). Check the card services software and make sure the proper command-line switches are set to
enable the DOS pop-up. Second, there may be an upper memory area (UMA) conflict. Many card manag-
ers require 10KB or more of UMA (each). If there is no free UMA, the card manager cannot read the card’s
attribute memory to install the card. Make sure there is plenty of UMA space available for the card ser- 49
vices software, and check that it loads properly. Third, the PCMCIA card may not be supported by the
card services software—the two might not be fully compatible. Try a different card, or update the card ser-
vices software.

SYMPTOM 49-7 The application locks up when a PC card is inserted or removed

Not all applications are fully PCMCIA aware—that is, they do not recognize card insertion and removal
properly. If your application crashes or locks up when a card is inserted or removed, chances are that the
application is not written to handle hot insertion or removal with the card services software being used.
Try inserting the card before starting the application, or close the application before removing it.

SYMPTOM 49-8 The fax/modem card works fine in DOS, but refuses to work in
Windows 9x In virtually all cases, the port addresses and IRQ assigned by Windows 9x do not match
the assignments the card is expecting. Go to the Control Panel, double-click on Ports, and double-click on
the COM port you are assigning to your fax/modem. Then go to Advanced and check to see if the port
address and IRQ match your fax/modem settings. If they don’t, put in the proper settings and restart
Windows 9x.

SYMPTOM 49-9 The mouse/trackball locks up or acts strangely after a fax/modem

card is installed Chances are that the pointing device is sharing the same IRQ as the fax/modem
card. In most cases, changing the fax/modem card IRQ assignments will correct the problem (though you
may also change the pointing device IRQ instead).

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SYMPTOM 49-10 My peripheral (sound card, scanner, etc.) no longer works now that
the PC Card is installed This type of problem almost always indicates a hardware conflict. In most
cases, the IRQ assigned to the PC Card is conflicting with the IRQ assigned to the malfunctioning device.
Survey your system and determine the IRQs used by every device. You can change the IRQ of the PC
Card, or change the IRQ of the other conflicting device. In either case, you’ll need to restart the PC after
you make those changes.

SYMPTOM 49-11 The PCMCIA CardSoft enabler software won’t install You probably
have a PCMCIA enabler already installed on the system. If enabler software is already installed, it may sup-
port your card. If so, you can skip the new enabler software. If not, you need to remove the current enabler
software, and then install the new enabler software.

SYMPTOM 49-12 When installing a PC Card such as a fax/modem card, you find that
the desired COM port or IRQ is not available In virtually all cases, the needed COM port or
IRQ is being used by another device. Check for hardware conflicts, and reset the PC Card to use different
resources.

SYMPTOM 49-13 You don’t hear the proper number of beeps when inserting a PCMCIA
card When the PC Card is inserted into a slot properly, you should hear a certain number of beeps. In
most cases, this will be either one or two beeps (depending on your particular card software). If you don’t
hear the correct number of beeps, chances are that the card has not been inserted properly into its socket.

SYMPTOM 49-14 The card’s configuration refuses to accept memory addresses (if
needed) Some PC Cards require certain memory resources for proper operation. If you are prohibited
from assigning those addresses to the PC Card, chances are that those memory locations are being used by
another device in the system. Check for resource conflicts. You can usually resolve memory conflicts by
changing the address assigned to the PC Card or the address assigned to the conflicting device.

SYMPTOM 49-15 Other programs stop working or change their behavior after the
card software is installed In most cases, new DLL files installed to support the PC Card have
changed shared files used by other programs. Check with the technical support for your particular PC
Card maker to see if any problem files have been identified and if any updated files are available. If so, you
can usually download the corrected file and copy it to the /Windows/System directory (or other suitable
directory). If no corrected file is available, you will need to uninstall the PC Card and restore the original
shared files from installation disks or tape backups.

SYMPTOM 49-16 When starting a client driver under Windows 9x, the message
“Client registration failed” appears In most cases, the client driver is not installed, or not
installed properly. In principle, you’ll need to remove any traces of the client driver, then reinstall the cli-
ent driver from scratch. You may also have resource conflicts that prevent the client driver from loading.
For example, consider problems with Nogatech’s CaptureVision 95 client driver:

1 Open the Control Panel, and then double-click on the System icon.
2 Click the Device Manager tab and select View Devices by Type.
3 If you have the line “Other Devices,” and under it you see “NOGATECH NOGAVISION,” do the
following:

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■ Highlight the “NOGATECH NOGAVISION” entry and click the Remove button. Now,
remove the card from your computer.
■ Go to the Windows\INF directory.
■ Look for an OEMx.INF file (where x can be any digit). Don’t worry if you can’t find any
OEMx.INF files.
■ Rename the file(s) to OEMx.BAK (where x is the digit).
■ Look for a NOGATECH.INF file and delete the file. Don’t worry if you can’t find the file.
■ Now go to the Windows\System directory.
■ Look for any files starting with “noga” and delete them.
■ Reinstall the software and start CaptureVision 95 when finished with the setup.
If you do not have the line “Unknown Device,” continue with the following:
4 Double-click the line Sound, Video, and Game Controllers.
5 You should see the line Nogatech Nogavision Video Capture.
6 If you do not get this line, try to install the software once again.
7 If you see an exclamation mark in front of the line Nogatech Nogavision Video Capture, you have
resource problems and the drivers have not been loaded.

SYMPTOM 49-17 The PC Card will not configure properly, and an I/O address conflict
message is displayed There is a resource conflict between several PC Cards. For example, net-
work and SCSI PC Cards often require the same I/O addresses. You will need to find available I/O space,
then reconfigure one of the conflicting devices to use that available space. 49
Check for point enablers. Most PC Cards depend on card and socket services software, as well as
generic enablers, for proper configuration. However, point enablers bypass card and socket services. If
you can use a generic enabler instead of a point enabler, try removing the point enabler. As a rule, point
enablers should not be used when there is more than one PC Card in the system.
Check for I/O resources using a program such as MSD (Microsoft Diagnostics), and note any regions
of I/O space that are unused. If the cards provide several different “prefabricated” configurations, try each
of those configurations. Chances are that one of those configurations will work on your computer. If none
of the prefabricated configurations resolves the problem, you will need to manually change one of the
cards to use free space available in the system. In many cases, this can be accomplished by making com-
mand-line changes to the card’s enabler or client driver. Once you finish making changes, you’ll need to
reboot the computer for your changes to take effect.

SYMPTOM 49-18 The system hangs when card services loads First, check to see that
you are only loading one copy of card services software—attempting to load a second copy can some-
times hang the system. It is also possible that the PC Card software configuration file (typically an INI file
such as PCM.INI) is set up improperly. You may need to modify the configuration file to place the card
services software in the “poll” mode (/POLL). Refer to the documentation that accompanied your soft-
ware or system for more information on configuration modes.

SYMPTOM 49-19 You get an “Invalid command line switch” message displayed when
loading services or client drivers You may be placing command-line switches in the wrong
places. Traditionally, command-line switches are placed on the actual command lines in CONFIG.SYS or
AUTOEXEC.BAT. For some PC Card installations, however, command-line switches must be entered in

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the PC Card configuration file (an INI file such as PCM.INI). In some cases, switches must be entered in the
configuration file instead of the actual command-line entry.

SYMPTOM 49-20 You have a Xircom Combo card (fax/modem and LAN) and cannot
get it to work with standard card manager software This is typically because Xircom devel-
oped a non-PCMCIA-compliant combo card (marked “Combo Card”) prior to the ratification of the new
PCMCIA standards. As a consequence, the card is supported with proprietary software. You will have to
install proprietary software in order to use the Xircom Combo Cards. Only cards marked “PC Card com-
pliant multi-function cards” are supported by standard software.

SYMPTOM 49-21 You get the message “Abort, Retry, Ignore” when accessing an ATA
PC Card In most cases, you are missing the client driver for your ATA PC Card (in CONFIG.SYS), or
the wrong client driver is installed. You will need to install the proper client driver for your ATA PC Card,
and then reboot the system and watch for the drive letter assigned to the socket.

SYMPTOM 49-22 You can’t get any sound from the PC Card sound device, or you get
an error message saying that it can’t talk to card services As with many network cards,
most PC Card sound devices have their own client driver software that configures the card. If you try to
use the card with standard card management software, you will need to remove the sound device from that
software, then install the PC Card-specific software after socket and card services (or other card manage-
ment software) has been loaded.

SYMPTOM 49-23 When you insert a Practical Peripherals PractiCard 14,400bps

modem (revision A) in a PCMCIA slot, the modem may not be initialized This is a hard-
ware problem with older Practical Peripherals PC Card modems. You will need to upgrade the modem to
revision B or later in order to correct the problem.

SYMPTOM 49-24 The SRAM card refuses to work In many cases, this is a software prob-
lem. SRAM cards are supported by an ATA PC Card driver. In effect, the SRAM card is treated like a
drive. Make sure that the proper client driver is installed for your particular SRAM card. Also make note
of the drive letter assigned to the SRAM card during system initialization. Point enablers for an SRAM
card can also cause problems when other cards in the system are being supported with socket and card ser-
vices or other enablers.

SYMPTOM 49-25 When you first install your PC Card software, you get the error
message “No PCMCIA Controller found” In virtually all cases, the software version that you
are using does not support the PCMCIA controller used in your system. You will need to contact the soft-
ware maker (or the system maker) and see if an updated version or patch is available for the PC Card soft-
ware. It is also possible that the system’s PCMCIA controller is disabled (in CMOS), or that it is defective.

SYMPTOM 49-26 When a program attempts to identify or check the status of a PC Card
modem, the program may stop responding (or cause the computer to hang) if the modem
has been powered off using power management features The problem occurs when the pro-
gram makes calls to the modem, but the modem had been powered off with power management features.
Ideally, you should not be able to make calls to a device while it is in idle or power-down mode, but some
programs allow this to happen. In turn, the program making the calls can crash, or take the system with it.
This is a known problem in Microsoft’s OSR2 for Windows 95. For now, the only way around the problem

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is to disable power save functions on the PC Card, or shut down the offending program before allowing the
PC Card to go idle.

SYMPTOM 49-27 When you eject a PC Card network adapter from a CardBus socket
without stopping the card in PC Card properties, your computer may restart This is a
software-related problem encountered under Windows 95. The PC Card network adapter is removed from
the CardBus socket without properly notifying VMM (the software that controls the resources used by the
PC Card). The software continues to “think” the PC Card is installed, even after the card is removed, and
subsequent access causes the system to crash. The only work-around at this time is to stop the PC Card net-
work adapter using the PC Card tool in your Control Panel (or the PC Card icon on the task bar) before you
remove the network adapter PC Card. Windows 98 has improved PCMCIA support, but you should still
consider this possibility if you experience a similar symptom.

SYMPTOM 49-28 After a multifunction PCMCIA adapter is installed, the adapter may
appear as a “parent” node below a “child” node in the Windows 9x Device Manager
In almost all cases, this is due to a problem during device installation. The INF file used to install the
device has been processed incorrectly. Unfortunately, this is not a Windows 9x problem, but a manufac-
turer-specific INF file problem. Contact the PC Card manufacturer and see if there is an updated INF file
or other work-around for the problem.

SYMPTOM 49-29 After a second boot with a CardBus PCMCIA controller installed in
your computer, the Device Manager may display a red X for one or more PCMCIA sockets
on your system Red Xs mean that the sockets are disabled. CardBus controllers are dynamically
enabled during the first boot after installation (even though they are installed disabled). On the second
boot, Windows 9x recognizes that the device is disabled and reports this to the Device Manager. Enable 49
the PCMCIA CardBus controller:

1 Open the Control Panel and double-click the System icon.

2 Click the PCMCIA controller, and then click Properties.
3 In the Device Usage box, click the “(Current)” check box to select it, and then click OK.
4 Click Close, and then restart the computer when prompted.

When Windows 9x restarts, the PCMCIA wizard runs to help you configure the PCMCIA controller.
CardBus controllers must be explicitly enabled to start the PCMCIA wizard on the second boot.

SYMPTOM 49-30 After installing Windows 95 OSR2, the Device Manager may display
a PCIC-compatible PCMCIA controller as a conflicting resource (an exclamation point in
a yellow circle) This typically happens with CardBus PCMCIA controllers. CardBus controllers had
been initialized by BIOS into the PCIC-compatible mode for backward compatibility. Unfortunately,
OSR2 disables the PCIC compatibility mode in BIOS and configures the controller straight to CardBus
mode. However, it neglects to remove the PCIC-compatible controller entry from your Device Manager.
You will have to remove the PCIC-compatible entry from your Device Manager manually:

1 In the Device Manager, click the PCIC-compatible controller to select it.

2 Click Remove, and then select Yes.
3 Click OK to save your changes.

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SYMPTOM 49-31 When using a 3COM Elnk3 PCMCIA network card and a Xircom
CE2ps PCMCIA network card together on a DEC HiNote Ultra CT475 computer, the
Xircom card is not recognized You’ll find that the Xircom card does not appear in the Device
Manager or the PCMCIA tool in your Control Panel. This is a system-specific problem that can be recti-
fied by inserting the Xircom CE2ps card first, then inserting the 3COM Elink3 card.

SYMPTOM 49-32 When you use the Suspend command on certain Gateway laptop
computers, battery power continues to drain This is a known problem with Gateway
ColorBook 4SX25, ColorBook 4SX33, ColorBook 4DX33, Liberty, and Solo systems and is due to a
BIOS bug. When the Suspend mode is implemented, the PCMCIA slots should receive 0.0 volts. Instead,
the slots are receiving 2.5 volts. This continues to drain the battery. Upgrade the BIOS on those systems to
correct the problem.

SYMPTOM 49-33 When you insert a Hayes Optima 14.4 PCMCIA modem into a PC
Card socket, you hear a single (low) tone (or other indication) that the PCMCIA modem
has not been recognized This is typically a modem hardware problem. Versions of the Hayes
Optima PCMCIA 14.4 modem before version 2.6H do not work with Windows 9x PC Card socket ser-
vices. These older modems can be easily identified by their beige color (later modems are silver). In a situ-
ation like this, there is no work-around other than to upgrade the PCMCIA modem to a later version.

SYMPTOM 49-34 When you use the Windows 95 Compression Agent with a
removable PCMCIA hard disk, the Compression Agent may restart continuously at 10
percent finished This can occur if the drive is marked as “removable” in the Device Manager. Fortu-
nately, there is a work-around:

1 In the Control Panel, double-click the System icon.

2 Click the Device Manager tab, and then double-click Disk Drives.
3 Double-click the appropriate drive to display its properties.
4 Click the Settings tab, and then click the Removable check box to clear it.
5 Click OK to save your changes, and then restart the PC when prompted.

Unfortunately, once the PCMCIA drive is no longer marked as “removable,” you may no longer be
able to swap drives on-the-fly.

SYMPTOM 49-35 When you start Windows 9x with a PCMCIA hard disk inserted in the
computer’s PCMCIA slot, the hard disk seems to be recognized, but may not be available
in Windows 9x This is a problem with Windows 9x that can occur if your computer does not have an
IDE hard disk controller installed. If there is no IDE hard disk controller installed, the PCMCIA hard disk
is assigned IDE port 1F0h. Since this port is normally associated with the primary hard disk controller,
Windows 9x treats it differently from other IDE ports and does not assign it a drive letter. To get around
this problem, remove the PCMCIA hard disk after Windows 9x starts, and then insert the disk into the
PCMCIA slot again.

SYMPTOM 49-36 When you start Windows 9x with a PCMCIA hard disk inserted in the
computer’s PCMCIA slot, the hard disk seems to be recognized, but may not be available
in Windows 9x When you insert a PCMCIA disk drive into a PCMCIA slot, your computer beeps
(indicating that the PCMCIA card is recognized), but the disk drive is unavailable in Windows 9x. This is

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often due to a hardware conflict. The PCMCIA disk controller may be configured to use I/O ports
170–177, and your computer may use the same ports for other purposes. Check the resource settings in
Device Manager. If the PCMCIA disk controller is using ports 170–177, you can try reserving I/O ports
170–177 (forcing Windows 9x to configure the PCMCIA disk controller at another I/O address):

1 In the Control Panel, double-click the System icon.

2 On the Device Manager tab, click Properties.
3 On the Reserve Resources tab, click the Input/Output (I/O) option button, and then click Add.
4 In the Start Value box, enter 170.
5 In the End Value box, enter 177.
6 Click OK to save your changes.
7 Restart the computer.

As an alternative, try disabling any secondary disk controller that uses I/O ports 170–177 in the com-
puter’s CMOS settings.

SYMPTOM 49-37 When you attempt to dial under Windows 9x using an Integrated
Services Digital Network (ISDN) connection, your computer may hang This is a hardware-
specific problem that has been known to occur with Eicon PCMCIA ISDN adapters. The hardware version
of the adapter does not support dialing under Windows 9x properly. Unfortunately, you will have to correct
this hardware problem by updating to a new ISDN adapter.

SYMPTOM 49-38 When you try to send a fax from a cellular phone using Microsoft
Exchange and a Motorola Power 14.4 PCMCIA modem, your fax feature may not work 49
This is a problem with Microsoft Exchange. The default initialization string sent to the modem from
Microsoft Exchange initializes the modem for noncellular calls only (regardless of the status of the Use
Cellular Protocol option in Modems properties). You will need to edit your Windows 9x registry with
REGEDIT.EXE to correct the problem.

Altering registry values can have devastating effects on your Windows 9x system. Always make a
backup copy of the registry files (SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT) before starting your edit.

The following registry key contains the initialization strings for installed modems (where <xxxx> is
the modem ID number). To determine which ID is the correct modem, see the DriverDesc key.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Class\Modem\<xxxx>\Init

Use the following value to use the modem with a cellular phone:
"2"="AT&F1&D2&C1\\V1S0=0E0V1<cr>"

To return the initialization string to normal (land use), change the key to:
"2"="AT&F&D2&C1\\V1S0=0E0V1<cr>"

You can reset these values to their default values by removing the modem in Device Manager and
then reinstalling it.

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SYMPTOM 49-39 When you run Windows 9x on a Dell Latitude XP Notebook computer
with a port replicator, PC Card services may not be available There will probably be no list-
ing for the PC Card socket in the Device Manager, and the PC Card icon may be missing in your Control
Panel. The Dell port replicator is fitted with a SCSI adapter, but by default, both the PC Card socket and the
SCSI port use the same IRQ (often IRQ 11). You will have to change the setting for the PC Card socket:

1 Detach the port replicator from the computer, and then use the Add New Hardware wizard in your
Control Panel to search for new hardware.
2 After the PC Card socket is detected and installed, restart the computer when you are prompted to
do so.
3 In Control Panel, double-click the System icon, and then click the Device Manager tab.
4 Double-click the PCMCIA Socket entry, double-click the PCMCIA controller, and then click the
Resources tab.
5 Click the Use Automatic Settings check box to clear it, click Interrupt Request, and then click
Change Settings.
6 In the Value box, click an available IRQ setting.
7 Click OK to save your changes.
8 Shut down Windows 9x, and then turn your computer off and back on (cold boot).
9 Reattach the port replicator unit.

SYMPTOM 49-40 When you try to undock a laptop computer with a PCMCIA card
installed in a Databook PCMCIA controller socket, you may receive the following error
message: “The computer failed to undock” This is generally a problem where the PC Card
adapter is interfering with the docking port adapter. The only known work-around to this problem is to
remove all PC Cards from their sockets before undocking the mobile computer. Afterward, the Eject com-
mand on your Start menu should work correctly.

SYMPTOM 49-41 When you insert a PCMCIA SRAM or flash memory card into a
Windows 9x computer that has been configured to use protected-mode PCMCIA card
drivers, there may be no drive letter in My Computer or Windows Explorer associated
with the PCMCIA card This can occur even though the card seems to be recognized properly and
the appropriate driver appears to be installed. The problem is often that while the drivers may be installed,
they are not installed correctly. The protected-mode drivers for SRAM and flash PC Cards must be
installed differently from drivers for other cards. To install a PCMCIA SRAM card in Windows 9x, you
must place one or more entries in the CONFIG.SYS file, such as,
device=c:\<windows>\system\csmapper.sys
device=c:\<windows>\system\carddrv.exe /slot=<x>

where <windows> is the Windows folder and <x> indicates the number of PCMCIA card slots in the com-
puter. To install a PCMCIA flash memory card in Windows 9x, you must also place some driver entries in
CONFIG.SYS, such as,
device=c:\<windows>\system\csmapper.sys
device=c:\<windows>\system\carddrv.exe /slot=<x>
device=c:\<windows>\ms-flash.sys

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where <windows> is the Windows folder and <x> indicates the number of PCMCIA slots in the computer.

Not all SRAM and flash card drivers are included with Windows 9x. In many cases, you will need to
use drivers provided with the particular cards.

If you use only protected-mode drivers for SRAM and flash cards, you will not have access to the
cards if you boot your computer to a command prompt.

SYMPTOM 49-42 You are logged on without a password When you remove a plug-
and-play network adapter in Device Manager and then restart your computer, the network adapter is
redetected, and you are logged on to the network and validated by a Microsoft Windows NT server with-
out entering a password. This problem also manifests itself when you remove a PCMCIA network adapter
from the PCMCIA socket in your computer, restart your computer, and then reinsert the PCMCIA net-
work adapter. You are logged on to the network and validated by a Windows NT server without entering a
password. This can occur under three circumstances: you have a null Windows password, password cach-
ing is enabled, or user profiles are enabled.
To correct these problems, configure Windows 9x so that your Windows password is not null, or use
the System Policy Editor to disable password caching. To configure Windows 9x so that your Windows
password is not null, follow these steps:

1 In the Control Panel, double-click on Passwords.

2 Click Change Windows Password.
3 If you want your network password to be the same as your Windows password, click the Microsoft
Networking check box to select it, and then click OK. If you do not want your network password to
be the same as your Windows password, verify that the Microsoft Networking check box is not 49
selected, and then click OK.
4 Type your new password in the New Password and Confirm New Password boxes, and then click
OK.

Use the following steps to edit the registry with System Policy Editor and disable password caching in
Windows 9x:

1 Click the Start button, and then click Run.

2 Type POLEDIT in the Open box, and then click OK.
3 On the File menu, click Open Registry, and then double-click Local Computer.
4 Click the plus sign (+) next to Network, and then click the plus sign next to Passwords.
5 Click the Disable Password Caching check box to select it, and then click OK.
6 Save the changes to the registry, exit the System Policy Editor, and then restart Windows 9x.

SYMPTOM 49-43 You have trouble with incompatible NDIS driver versions When
you are using a portable computer with a PCMCIA network adapter that uses NDIS 2.0 (16-bit) drivers,
the computer may stop responding (hang) or reboot when you try to start it while it is not docked in its
docking station if the docking station contains a network card that is capable of using NDIS 3.x (32-bit)
network adapter drivers. This happens because Windows 9x detects the NDIS 2.0 drivers for the
PCMCIA network adapter and forces the loading of NDIS 2.0 drivers for the other network adapter
(which is not currently present because the computer is undocked). Because one of the network adapters is

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not present, an incomplete binding occurs, which can cause the computer to hang or reboot. To enable
Windows 9x to start whether the computer is docked or undocked, create a multiple-boot configuration.

Before you attempt to create a multiboot configuration, make sure you have a docked state that
requires an NDIS 3.x driver to be loaded and an undocked state that requires an NDIS 2.0 driver to be
loaded (or vice versa).

SYMPTOM 49-44 You can’t set up the PCMCIA slot in an AT&T Globalyst 130 laptop
This is because the Globalyst 130 requires an unusual PCMCIA card setup compared to other
Globalyst laptops. The AT&T Globalyst 130 does not have any options in the BIOS for enabling/dis-
abling the PCMCIA socket services on the laptop. Instead, the socket must be enabled by loading the
device driver, SS365SL.EXE, in the CONFIG.SYS file. This file is a socket enabler and must be loaded so
that protected-mode socket services can initialize in Windows 9x. Without this file, the PCMCIA socket
services are disabled.

SYMPTOM 49-45 When you are using a Motorola Power 14.4 Cellular Modem with
Windows 9x, you may not be able to dial the second time you try to use the modem
The initialization string used for this modem in Windows 9x enables a “dial suffix” (also known as
“staged dialing”), which enables transmission of tones after the connection has been made without break-
ing the connection. This feature is often used in such applications as electronic banking. With staged dial-
ing enabled, you must remove and reinsert the PC Card modem each time you want to dial. You can
disable staged dialing by editing the MDMMOTO.INF file:

1 Use any text editor to open the MDMMOTO.INF file in the Windows\Inf folder. (Note that this is a
hidden folder.)
2 Add the following line to the end of the [Modem16.AddReg] section of the file:
HKR, Settings, DialSuffix,, ""
3 Save and then close the file.
4 Remove the Motorola Power 14.4 modem using the Modems tool in Control Panel.
5 Remove and reinsert the modem.

Be sure to make a backup of the INF file before beginning your edit.

SYMPTOM 49-46 A PCMCIA Token Ring network adapter refuses to work in the
computer This type of problem can occur when the following combination of conditions exists. First,
the Token Ring network adapter uses an address range of A20h–A2Fh. Second, the PC has a sound board
or other device in the address range of 220h–22Fh. And third, only the ten least significant digits are used
to resolve I/O addresses. Since the Windows 95 I/O arbitrator only pays attention to the first 10 bits of any
I/O allocation, devices that have I/O allocations that conflict in a 10-bit decode are registered by the sys-
tem as having an I/O address conflict. As a consequence, this is a problem with Windows 95. You can
work around this problem by manually configuring both devices:

1 In the Control Panel, double-click the System icon.

2 On the Device Manager tab, double-click “IBM Token-Ring Credit Card Adapter II or compatibles.”

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3 Click the Resources tab and note the resources the network adapter is using. To change a resource,
click the Use Automatic Settings check box to clear it, click the resource, and then click Change
Setting.
4 Change the Interrupt Request (IRQ) setting so that it does not conflict with the IRQ used by any
other device.
5 Change the first memory range to D4000-D5FFF. Change the second memory range to E0000-
EFFFF.

If these values continue to conflict with other devices, you may have to use different values.

6 Click OK to save those resource changes.

7 Double-click Sound, Video, and Game Controllers, and then double-click the sound card or the
conflicting device.
8 Make sure that the Use Automatic Settings check box is clear.
9 Click OK and return to the Control Panel.
10 Restart the computer.

SYMPTOM 49-47 You restart the computer improperly after installing PCMCIA drivers
After you run the PCMCIA wizard to install protected-mode socket services for a PC Card, you are
instructed to shut down Windows 9x and then turn your computer off and back on. If you restart your com-
puter by pressing CTRL+ALT+DEL instead of turning the computer off and back on, you may receive an
error message stating that the PCMCIA drivers are not working correctly. The problem is that the pro-
tected-mode drivers for the PCMCIA controller may not initialize correctly when you perform a warm
boot because the real-mode drivers still have control of the device. Correct the problem by performing a 49
cold reboot of the system.
Here’s a little twist—some computer systems don’t reset the PC Card socket controller when they are
restarted using the CTRL+ALT+DEL key sequence. Any configured PC Cards installed when the system is
restarted may be incorrectly detected by the system’s BIOS as peripherals that reside on the motherboard
(or in an adapter board installed in an expansion bus). The BIOS then believes it should handle the opera-
tion of these peripherals—creating a conflict with the CardWare software. This situation may often be
corrected by updating the system’s BIOS. When a computer manufacturer realizes that the BIOS fails to
reset the socket controller hardware, they typically release a BIOS update that fixes this problem. Until an
updated BIOS is available, there are two possible solutions:
■ Remove all installed PC Cards before restarting your system with the CTRL+ALT+DEL key sequence.
■ Restart your system by cycling the power off and then back on. (Most computers have a Reset button
that safely cycles power in such a manner.)

SYMPTOM 49-48 In System Agent, the Last Result column for a ScanDisk task may
report “Check was stopped because of an error” However, the SCANDISK.LOG file does
not list any errors, and you do not encounter any errors if you run ScanDisk manually. This problem may
be caused by an invalid drive in ScanDisk’s DrivesToCheck registry setting. The setting can become
invalid if a drive that existed when the ScanDisk task was created is subsequently removed. For example,
this problem can occur when you remove a PCMCIA drive, uncompress or unmount a compressed drive,

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or remove a laptop computer from its docking station. The way around this problem is to delete the exist-
ing ScanDisk task and schedule a new task—or run ScanDisk manually.

SYMPTOM 49-49 When you start Windows 9x on a Zenith ZDS 1762 laptop computer,
the computer may stop responding (hang) while Windows 9x is running the CONFIG.SYS
file This problem occurs if PCENABLE.EXE (Zenith’s PCMCIA driver) is loaded before
MZTINIT.SYS (Zenith’s Mozart sound system driver) in the CONFIG.SYS file. When this occurs,
PCENABLE.EXE installs a hook for IRQ 7, which MZTINIT.SYS also tries to use. Edit the CONFIG.SYS
file and move the Mozart sound driver above any PC Card drivers. Save your changes, and then restart the
computer.

SYMPTOM 49-50 When you use the Suspend feature on a Dell Latitude XP laptop
computer connected to a port replicator, your PCMCIA devices may not reactivate when
you exit the Suspend mode This problem can occur with BIOS version A05 or earlier. BIOS ver-
sions A05 and earlier do not send an Advanced Power Management (APM) “resume” event to reactivate
PCMCIA devices when the computer is connected to a port replicator. You may avoid this problem by not
using the Suspend feature while the laptop is connected to a port replicator. To resolve the problem on a
more permanent basis, you will need to update the laptop’s BIOS version.

SYMPTOM 49-51 You have trouble using similar cards simultaneously For example,
if you start Windows 9x with one Xircom PCMCIA network card inserted in the computer, the card works
correctly until you insert a second Xircom PCMCIA network card. When you insert the second card, the
second card works correctly and the first stops working. If you remove and reinsert the first card, it works
correctly and the second card stops working. This happens because both cards have the same PCMCIA ID
but different checksums. The cards both appear to be the same card to Windows 9x, so Windows 9x
switches system resources from one card to the other. Ultimately, if you must run two network cards at the
same time, they cannot both be Xircom network cards.

SYMPTOM 49-52 The Zenith Zplayer PCMCIA CD-ROM adapter does not function
correctly using Windows 95 32-bit drivers In virtually all cases, the 32-bit PCMCIA drivers
included with Windows 95 are not compatible with the Zenith Zplayer PCMCIA adapter. You will need to
disable the 32-bit PCMCIA drivers:

1 In the Control Panel, double-click the System icon.

2 On the Device Manager tab, double-click the PCMCIA adapter.
3 Click the check box for the current configuration to clear it.
4 Click OK or Close until you return to Control Panel, and then restart your computer.
5 To use the PCMCIA adapter with real-mode drivers, use the installation program included with the
adapter.

Do not run the PCMCIA wizard to install the 32-bit PCMCIA drivers.

SYMPTOM 49-53 On a computer with only one PCMCIA socket, Windows 9x cannot
set up a new PCMCIA card if the original PCMCIA card is being used to access the
Windows 9x source files If you remove the PCMCIA card that is providing access to Windows 9x
source files in order to set up a new card, Windows 9x cannot access the source files. When you are
prompted to provide the source files, you cannot remove the new card and insert the original card because

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Windows 9x does not detect the removal and insertion of PCMCIA cards during the configuration of the
new card. To get around this problem, use the Add New Hardware wizard to manually install the new
PCMCIA card. This process preinstalls the necessary driver files so that you can set up the new card with-
out accessing Windows 9x source files.

SYMPTOM 49-54 You cannot format an SRAM card using the Windows 9x graphical
user interface because the Full and Quick format options are not available In almost all
cases, there is a problem with the device driver for the SRAM card. The device driver is probably returning
device parameters for a 128KB SRAM card regardless of what card is actually inserted in the PC Card slot.
You will need to contact the SRAM card maker to obtain an updated driver that corrects the problem.

SYMPTOM 49-55 After you dock or undock a Compaq Elite laptop computer, the
computer’s PCMCIA devices may stop working Also, multiple disabled PCMCIA controllers
may appear in Device Manager. This is a problem with early versions of Compaq Elite PnP BIOS. Some
versions report incorrect PCMCIA resources. When this happens, Windows 9x disables the PCMCIA
controller. To correct this problem on a permanent basis, you’ll need to update the Compaq BIOS with a
current version (5/95 or later). To remove incorrect PCMCIA devices in the meantime:

1 In the Control Panel, double-click the System icon.

2 On the Device Manager tab, click each PCMCIA device, and then click Remove. (Remove all the
PCMCIA devices.)
3 Click Computer, and then click Refresh. (This will redetect the correct PCMCIA device.)
4 Click OK to save your changes.

SYMPTOM 49-56 When you set up Windows 9x, it will not install more than one 49
PCMCIA network adapter correctly This is because the Windows 9x 32-bit socket drivers are not
enabled. To install the Windows 9x 32-bit PCMCIA socket drivers:

1 Double-click on My Computer.
2 Double-click the Control Panel.
3 Start the 32-bit PCMCIA wizard, and follow the instructions on the screen.

Windows 9x is specifically designed to detect and install only one PCMCIA network card during
setup.

SYMPTOM 49-57 When you try to connect to a network using an IBM Token Ring
PCMCIA network card on an Omnibook 600 computer, you are unable to view any
resources There is a resource conflict between the Omnibook’s proprietary PCMCIA controller and
the IBM Token Ring PCMCIA network card. The Omnibook’s proprietary PCMCIA controller supports
I/O ranges up to 3FFh. The IBM Token Ring PCMCIA network card can only reside at I/O address A20h.
There is no solution to this problem. The IBM Token Ring PCMCIA network card cannot be used on an
Omnibook 600 computer.

SYMPTOM 49-58 When you run ScanDisk, the “Select the drive you want to check for
errors” box may show drives that do not exist, or may not show drives that do exist
In most cases, you have removed or inserted an ATA PC Card. Unfortunately, the drive list in ScanDisk is
static. That list is generated when you start ScanDisk, and it is not updated while ScanDisk is running. If

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you add or remove drives (such as PCMCIA drives or DriveSpace-compressed drives) while ScanDisk is
running, the list is not updated to reflect the changes. You must update the drive list by exiting and then
restarting ScanDisk.

SYMPTOM 49-59 When you insert a Xircom CE2 PCMCIA network adapter card, the
card may not work and the computer may not be connected to the network When this
occurs, your computer may stop responding. The network adapter may require a real-mode enabler or dif-
ferent client drivers to work properly. To correct this problem, load the real-mode card and socket services
drivers in the CONFIG.SYS file. The actual drivers that are required vary from one system to another, but
they typically look like this:
device=cs.exe
device=sscirrus.exe

SYMPTOM 49-60 PCMCIA cards are not configuring properly on your Compaq
computer In many cases, you have an outdated or buggy BIOS in the system. You can usually correct
this kind of problem by updating the BIOS version.

SYMPTOM 49-61 When the system boots, you see the error message “Divide
Overflow” before entering Windows 9x—this forces you to boot Windows 9x in Safe Mode
The drivers installed for the PCMCIA card are obsolete or otherwise incompatible with Windows 9x. You
will need to disable those real-mode drivers in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and, ultimately,
install the current drivers for Windows 9x.

SYMPTOM 49-62 Your PC Card client drivers refuse to load, and an error message
appears when starting Windows 9x In most cases you have real-mode PCMCIA drivers starting
in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT that are causing problems for Windows 9x. Try disabling those
real-mode PC Card drivers in CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT first. Turn off the PC and remove the
PC Card. Boot to Windows 9x normally, and then insert the card. You may need to run the PCMCIA wiz-
ard to install the proper card drivers. You may also need to download the latest protected-mode drivers
from the PC Card maker, then install the new drivers with the “Have Disk” option.

SYMPTOM 49-63 PCMCIA cards are not configuring properly on IBM Thinkpads
This is because you must first run a specific IBM utility to update the BIOS on IBM Thinkpads. Install
IBM WIN95SETUP before installing Windows 95. This utility updates the BIOS, which has several
plug-and-play fixes. This utility can be obtained from www.pc.ibm.com or IBM’s BBS. You can then
install Windows 95 and proceed to reinstall your PCMCIA cards.

SYMPTOM 49-64 The computer produces a single low beep when the PCMCIA card is
inserted, but the PC Card icon will show no information about the socket, and the “stop”
feature shows the error that a “Device Cannot Be Removed” In almost all cases, the PC
Card has not been assigned the proper memory exclusion and is experiencing a memory conflict with
another device in the system. Go into the Control Panel, and then select the PC Card icon. Choose Global
Settings and make sure that the “Automatic setting” check box is checked. Then restart Windows 9x. This
should clear the problem.

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SYMPTOM 49-65 Windows 9x does not recognize the parameters of the PCMCIA
Note Disk You will have to perform a hard disk drive setup for an unformatted drive. Before proceed-
ing, be sure to back up any vital information on the PC Card disk—it will be erased.

1 Choose My Computer and select the Control Panel icon.

2 Choose the System icon and select the Device Manager tab.
3 Select Disk Drives, and then choose the Settings tab.
4 Select Int. 13 unit.
5 Save your changes, and restart the system when prompted.
6 When Windows 9x has fully rebooted, choose Start, then Run.
7 Type FDISK, and choose OK.
8 When you start FDISK, make sure to choose DISK 2 before partitioning the drive.
9 Create partition(s) as required.
10 Repeat the first four steps and remove the check mark from Int. 13 unit.
11 Save your changes, and restart the system when prompted.
12 When Windows 9x is fully rebooted, choose My Computer.
13 Click the right mouse button on the D: drive, and then select Format.
14 After formatting the drive, run ScanDisk.

The PCMCIA disk should now be ready for use.

49
Further Study
PC Card Frame Grabbers: http://www.ct-oy.com/artsi/pcmcia.html
PC Card newsgroup: alt.periphs.pcmcia
PC Card suppliers: http://www.apresearch.com/databaselist.htm
PCMCIA: http://www.pc-card.com/
PC Card Support Group: http://fortezza-support.com/index.html
Making Sense of PCMCIA: http://www.execpc.com/~sunfish/pcmcia/
PC Card FAQ: http://www.rdrop.com/~cary/html/pc_card_faq.html

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