Hi all,

I want to add USB 2.0 and Firewire 400 capability to my ageing Vaio laptop. I found what looks to be the perfect solution - a Cardbus PCMCIA card that offers both (USBFWPCM - see http://www.byterunner.com/byterunner/produ...act_match=exact )

Now the question is where to find it. No luck yet at the computer malls here in Chiang Mai and I haven't seen it listed by any of the online suppliers I checked on the TV pinned list.

Any suggestions as to where I might find it to order in LOS? Thanks in advance.

Edited June 25, 200917 yr by Steve2UK

I have several Vaio's - even a Picturebook - dont believe that USB2 goes into one, if ya catch my drift?!

I have several PCMCIA cards, none, except the RF ones, are particularly good. USB1 should suffice for

most regular activities. One my big Vaio, I have 1&2 - have never seen any difference in performance.

BR>Jack

PS I have found that CPU & O/S types make a profound difference. Linux is say 5/10 faster than M$

I think I have one of these cards spare. I'll have a rummage tomorrow when I return to LoS (after reminding my wife she's married of course )

Cute!!

BR>Jack

@ Crossy - of course searching for a (possibly) surplus peripheral should wait until after......... ahem........ appropriate "meet and greet" procedures have taken their course . As and when you do turn it up, please let me know via PM.

@ jackdanielsesq - talking to a fairly knowledgeable CM computer store owner, I also started to get the notion (if I catch your drift) that my venerable Vaio might not produce full USB 2.0 speeds via the PCMCIA route to its innards. For the record, it's a Vaio VGN-S1XP (Pentium M735 1.70GHz) running XP Pro SP3.......... albeit slowly with just 512Mb RAM. Small form and intended for occasional travel use - not enough reason to splurge 30+k baht on a replacement yet.

I bought a WD My Book Home Edition external drive for use mainly with my desktop set-up. This My Book drive has e-Sata/USB2.0/Firewire400 ports - so it's fine using one or other of those ways with the desktop. The Vaio sees the My Book when I connect via USB (1.0) but not when I connect via the Vaio's firewire port - the small "M"-shaped verson (same as you see on many video cameras) as opposed to the larger "U"-shaped Firewire port that's more common on motherboards etc. Because the My Book-included Firewire cable is the "U" version at both ends, I bought a 3rd-party cable with 1 x "M" and 1 x "U" connectors - but the Vaio doesn't see the drive (although it does seem to spin up the drive). As my computer store friend commented, could be that the cable's just not up to it and I'd need a full-price Sony cable.

Overall, I recognise that there's a limit to what you can reasonably expect/hope legacy gear will manage when you try to add bits to achieve what wasn't even known when it was built. Incidentally, the reason for wanting the faster (than USB 1.0) throughput is mainly for video - possibly a fool's errand where this Vaio is concerned?

Bugger, just verified my flight details, arrive in LoS on Saturday AM not Friday PM

Bugger, just verified my flight details, arrive in LoS on Saturday AM not Friday PM

I'm sure both your wife and I will be patient............

BTW - pardon me for not thanking you for your thoughtfulness (towards me, that is ) in my first answer.