PC Card Drivers

PC Cards are roughly the size of a credit card, but PC Cards are thicker and fit into a PC Card slot on almost any laptop PC. These cards were originally known as Personal Computer Memory Card International Association Cards or PCMCIA. The PCMIA Card was originally designed for adding memory to notebook PCs. Since then, PC Cards have been utilized to add a vast array of peripheral devices to notebooks. PC Cards are the standard for adding peripheral devices and some docking stations offer PC Card slots to use these peripherals with docking station PCs. While PC Cards are a standard, PC Card slots are slowly being replaced by USB ports.

CardBus is the latest specification of PCMIA. The CardBus also uses PC Card slots, but improves the I/O speed and increases the bus width to 32 bits while supporting lower voltage usage. Type I, Type II, Type III are the three standard types of PCMIA. The three different types of PCMIA Cards can generally be identified by their thickness. Used mainly for adding notebook PC memory, Type I cards are up to 3.3-mm in thickness. Type II cards will measure up to 5.5-mm in thickness and are generally used for a modem. Type III is substantially larger at 10.5-mm in thickness and can hold a small hard disk drive. Before the CardBus, PC Card slots could only use a 16-bit ISA interface when communicating between the card slot and processor.

The latest standard of PCMIA is designed to use the same types of interfaces as USB 2.0 and PCI Express. This new standard is known as ExpressCard. The ExpressCard is built in two different sizes. The ExpressCard/54 is 54-mm wide while the smaller ExpressCard/34 is only 34-mm wide. Both of these cards are 5-mm high and 75-mm long. While an ExpressCard/34 may fit into an ExpressCard/54 slot, an ExpressCard/54 will not fit into an ExpressCard/34 slot.

Common problems associated with PC Card drivers

1) PC does not recognize the PC Card.

2) PC Card is incompatible with the operating system.

3) PC Card does not operate correctly or experiences a loss function ability.

4) The PC Card is not properly seated.

How to troubleshoot PC Card drivers

First of all, always make sure to download and install the latest drivers from the PC Card manufacturer. Manufacturers periodically update drivers to fix bugs from earlier versions of their drivers. Also make sure the downloaded driver is compatible with the PC Card model and the operating system the card is being installed on. If the card is still experiencing problems, shutdown the PC and remove the card, then re-seat the card. Before re-seating the card, check the board and slot for visible dust and use compressed air to remove any dust that may be spotted. Lastly, check the manufacturer website if the PC Card is producing an error code.