PCMCIA Cardbus won't install - Please help

[BigKiwi]

Hi,
I'm new to the forum, but I think I will be looking around for quite some time.

Today I bought a Ritmo PCMCIA Carbus CC-M25. This is a 3 port IEEE1394 Firewire card.

When I inserted it in the slot, the laptop, a Dell Latitude D820 on Windows XP made the noise that says it knows something new arrived. But nothing else happened. When I insert the CD that came with it, it doesn't start up on its own. If I do a control panel, install new hardware, the system isn't seeing it.

Can anyone help me to make this work? I have tried everything I know over the last 4 hours and I am totally frustrated. Thanks.

Big Kiwi

[HuFlungDung]

I would shut the computer off before installing/removing a PCMCIA device. I don't think its as versatile as USB devices where it gets configured on the fly, and even some of those do not like being installed in a brand new system without a previous installation of a driver.

I'm just going by personal experience.

Also check your PC BIOS in case that port has been disabled.

[BigKiwi]

Hi HFD
Thanks for the reply. The off on trick didn't help. I don't know how to check my PC BIOS. Could you please tell me how, and I would appreciate it if you imagined I was an imbecile when it came to know how with computers. Mainly because I resemble that comment. :-)

When it comes to the inner workings of computers I am not flash.

I appreciate your time.

BK

[HuFlungDung]

You'd have to check your manual for your computer, but typically, you need to tap on a certain key just shortly after powering your computer on. Often, it is the F8 key but it could be other keys. Tap on the key about once or twice per second until the BIOS page comes up. If you get all the way to Windows loading, that is too far, and you'll need to shut down and restart and try again.

From there, you're also going to need to read the manual to find out what and where to check for the PCMCIA port status. You might be able to figure it out just from what is written in the BIOS screens.

After you make the change (if any) then you'll need to save the changes and exit the BIOS setup and this will reboot the PC again.

[scudzuki]

When I am unable to determine which key to hit to enter the CMOS setup routine on a PC I turn it on and immediately press f1, f2, f10, <delete> over and over until the machine either responds or the OS begins to load.

I have never seen a PC that responds to f8 and I have been a PC network consultant for 10 years BUT it can't hurt to add it to the sequence, one key at a time press and release through the sequence.

I have encountered machines along the way where I can never get into CMOS setup but not often.

As for the hot plug-ability of PCMCIA or CardBus peripherals within any OS since Windows 2000, I would be careful with removing them but not inserting. The OS is more likely to see the addition of new hardware after it is running in my experience.

Joe