Hi guys, so I have this old pentium laptop (12 yrs old) laying around with no use. It has a 1.3GB drive in it, and no OS. I want to load a small flavor or linux or win95 barebones on it and rip it apart as my 2nd homemade digital picture frame. But the only problem is that the only thing this thing has is 1 pcmcia slot and 1 floppy drive. That means no CD ROM options.

I was thinking to buy a 2port USB 2.0 PCMCIA card and install something from a usb stick, but before I make the purchase, I want to know if thats even possible? Will the BIOS detect the usb stick from the pcmcia card? Any clue? Suggestions.....

Edited October 9, 200718 yr by rcatank

No, of course not. 12 years ago usb was not invented yet, so how could the the BIOS detect an USB interface?

There are serveral ways to get your installation files on that laptop.

1) Buy a pcmcia network card. In combination with a Network Boot Floppy you should be able to copy them from a network share.

2) Use a serial crosscable and a dos bootfloppy with Telix to transmit the files. (On the other side you could use Hyperterminal).

3) Use a 2.5" to 3.5" convertor to put the laptop drive in a desktop machine to be preloaded.

but it was 11 years ago, the bios could have been updated to support usb

What would be a point of adding an USB support to a computer without USB port?

There will be no BIOS usb support with PCMCIA USB controller, for sure.

Another problem will be the type of the PCMCIA controller. The older type of PCMCIA is not CardBus compatible and almost all PCMCIA devices in productions are of CardBus standard, today.

It's almost certain a Pentium I class computer will not be CardBus compatible.

but it was 11 years ago, the bios could have been updated to support usb

Doubtful. My 9-year-old PC doesn't even boot from USB with the latest version of its BIOS (which only adds some small things I don't care about, so I never updated mine).

@rcatank

I used to have one of those laptops (I actually still have it) it's an Acer Travelmate of some model, that judging from the age must be similar to yours.

I can confirm that the slots were not "CardBus", aka PCMCIA II, but rather PCMCIA I, the slot has a "notch" to prevent the insertion of a "Cardbus card", my wife managed to insert a new modem in it (of the wrong type) with such force I had to use some pliers to extract it .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_card

Old PCMCIA worked at +5 V, newer at +3.3 V so, besides not working, you also risk frying it if you force it in.

When I bought it I also bought a little wonderful product by Archos that doubled as a "CD walkman" and as a (8x ? ) CD-Rom reader with PCMCIA interface.

Something like these (that must be later models):

http://www1.shopping.com/xPP-cd_rom_drives--archos

I think they are not available anymore, maybe on e-bay?

jaclaz

No, of course not. 12 years ago usb was not invented yet, so how could the the BIOS detect an USB interface?

There are serveral ways to get your installation files on that laptop.

1) Buy a pcmcia network card. In combination with a Network Boot Floppy you should be able to copy them from a network share.

2) Use a serial crosscable and a dos bootfloppy with Telix to transmit the files. (On the other side you could use Hyperterminal).

3) Use a 2.5" to 3.5" convertor to put the laptop drive in a desktop machine to be preloaded.

Alright, from the above suggestions, this one made a little more sense. Good news is, that I do have 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter so technically, I can use the laptop hard drive with one of my XP loaded desktops. Second, I do have a PCMCIA network card, but I am not sure on drivers or anything.

So, I can do one of two things:

1. Try using thing the PCMCIA network card + some software to transfer win95 files over for install..... (still not sure how this works)

2. Install win95 from a newer desktop machine using the 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter and then sticking the laptop hard drive back in the old laptop. (not sure this concept works due to different hardware - desktop vs laptop)

No, of course not. 12 years ago usb was not invented yet, so how could the the BIOS detect an USB interface?

There are serveral ways to get your installation files on that laptop.

1) Buy a pcmcia network card. In combination with a Network Boot Floppy you should be able to copy them from a network share.

2) Use a serial crosscable and a dos bootfloppy with Telix to transmit the files. (On the other side you could use Hyperterminal).

3) Use a 2.5" to 3.5" convertor to put the laptop drive in a desktop machine to be preloaded.

I'd go with option 1. It'll come handy to move files from any other media through an other PC and network shares. A boot floppy can also be made from Bart's site.

Option 2 with a parallel cable (software could also be LapLink) would be faster than serial (it'd take about an hour to copy Win95's install files), but still not as fast as network.

With a P1 at 100MHz (or less ?) and ... 16Meg of RAM (?), it should do it.

If you install Windows on your desktop and put it on your laptop, indeed, you might have trouble with hardware detection. If you do so, then don't install any driver and stick with bare windows.

But if you strip your windows CD to the minimum (about 100mb I think), you should be able to copy it on your HD from your desktop and then, install windows from your laptop using a boot disk and the copied files.

o, I can do one of two things:

<snip>

2. Install win95 from a newer desktop machine using the 2.5" to 3.5" IDE adapter and then sticking the laptop hard drive back in the old laptop. (not sure this concept works due to different hardware - desktop vs laptop)

You shouldn't install Windows from the desktop. Just copy the \Win95 or \Win98 directory from the CD to the laptopdisk. (+/- 100MB) Put the disk back in the laptop, boot the laptop from floppy, and run C:\Win95\Setup.exe

You shouldn't install Windows from the desktop. Just copy the \Win95 or \Win98 directory from the CD to the laptopdisk. (+/- 100MB) Put the disk back in the laptop, boot the laptop from floppy, and run C:\Win95\Setup.exe

That's exactly what I wrote... But it doesn't matter, your explaination is clearer.