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486 Laptop PCMCIA options
- Thread starter Imagios
- Start date
An ethernet PCMCIA card will give you so much. It's not easy to get it going in pure DOS.
How much RAM does your laptop have? - If you've got 8 MB RAM, you will be able to run Win95 and, with it, you will get easy access to TCP/IP and ethernet drivers.
How much RAM does your laptop have? - If you've got 8 MB RAM, you will be able to run Win95 and, with it, you will get easy access to TCP/IP and ethernet drivers.
There is no limit by DOS or a 486 that defines what cards will work. As long as the card is 16-bit (i.e. no 32-bit Cardbus, like e.g. all USB cards), and as long as there is DOS software available, it will work.
Note, however, that the card manager, services and the actual software for the card will eat LOTS of memory under DOS. If you want e.g. a PCMCIA sound card for DOS gaming, better don't spend too much money, as you will probably be very disappointed.
Note, however, that the card manager, services and the actual software for the card will eat LOTS of memory under DOS. If you want e.g. a PCMCIA sound card for DOS gaming, better don't spend too much money, as you will probably be very disappointed.
The point is driver support in DOS for PCMCIA cards, is extremely finicky (sometimes the DOS-based drivers only work if the PCMCIA chipset supplier was Intel).
That grim situation is much alleviated in Windows 95, for which the drivers for PCMCIA support are much more widespread.
That grim situation is much alleviated in Windows 95, for which the drivers for PCMCIA support are much more widespread.
But he's not asking for Windows 95.
Also, PCMCIA is layered. You have the manager and services, which must support the PCMCIA controller. The software for the actual card runs on top of that - it won't care about the underlying hardware. But of course, there is no guarantee that all cards with DOS drivers will work. In the early days, PCMCIA was still quite buggy anyway.
Also, PCMCIA is layered. You have the manager and services, which must support the PCMCIA controller. The software for the actual card runs on top of that - it won't care about the underlying hardware. But of course, there is no guarantee that all cards with DOS drivers will work. In the early days, PCMCIA was still quite buggy anyway.
DeltaDon
Veteran Member
How about a PCMCIA to CF card adapter. That way you don't need to use a floppy disk to add software. I've got a couple of them and a USB adapter on my PC that also reads/writes to CF cards. However, I can't remember if I've used in DOS or only with Windows, got'ta check I guess.
-For sound, lots of options, usually hard to find and expensive.
-For storage, CF adapters, pcmcia flashcards and hdd, generic SCSI or IDE adapters, dedicated pcmcia cd-rom, iomega zip100 for example
-faster serial port
-parallel port
-Fm radio
-Joystick adapters
-Graphic cards, but it's more a Windows 3.x thing
-GPS
-For storage, CF adapters, pcmcia flashcards and hdd, generic SCSI or IDE adapters, dedicated pcmcia cd-rom, iomega zip100 for example
-faster serial port
-parallel port
-Fm radio
-Joystick adapters
-Graphic cards, but it's more a Windows 3.x thing
-GPS
Last edited:
DeltaDon
Veteran Member
Don't know if a 486 could handle playing video, but if so then a Margi card for video decoding a dvd.