Thinkpads Forum

I've been looking for an FRU for a dummy SD card to fill the 7 in 1 card reader slot on my T500.
I've looked at the HMM for the T500. Didn't find anything.
So far, no luck.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Thanks.

Great question! I was planning to order something from eBay. But this begs the question, why on EARTH doesn't Lenovo include one with their laptops? I'm sure they couldn't cost more than pennies each in bulk for a dummy plastic SD insert. Even my cheap Asus netbook came with one in the slot. Come on, Lenovo!

What is ironic is the SL500 comes from Lenovo with a dummy SD card.

Anyone??

Here's the one I ordered: http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... K:MEWAX:IT

You can probably get one off a floor model in some store if no one got it first.

Seriously though, SD cards below a gig are in dollar stores now. I think this may be the mfgr's reasoning for not including dummies these days. You can pop in any cheap one and use it for readyboost if nothing else. (what I do) Just swipe the edge with a black sharpie if you want the matching color effect of a dummy.

Radioguy wrote:Seriously though, SD cards below a gig are in dollar stores now. I think this may be the mfgr's reasoning for not including dummies these days. You can pop in any cheap one and use it for readyboost if nothing else. (what I do)

The only drawback to that is the card will be consuming [an admittedly small amount of] energy while it's plugged in, i.e. all the time. If you're not making use of the storage (and from what I've heard, Readyboost is pretty much useless most modern hardware), then there's no point in giving up even a few mins of battery span in order to keep the slot filled. The plastic dummies have the effect of limiting dust build-up in the port and improving the appearance of the laptop (fewer gaping holes in the side of the body) but with zero un-wanted power draw.

Plugging up the slot, no dust and dirt and current draw were the reasons I was looking for a dummy card.

I don't think the card reader consumes energy when idle?
I've got a 160GB SSD so I have plugged in a 32GB SD card for extra storage. As suggested this is probably a good idea.

I'd agree with using the SD card as a ReadyBoost device.

However, one setback which I can't confirm at the moment is that I think ReadyBoost will wipe the cache and rebuild after reboot/wake from standby/wake from hibernate because it can't confirm the integrity of the cached contents (kinda a waste of write cycles). This also causes Windows to try and rebuild the cache, which chews up power if you're on battery and sorta defeats the power conserved by using ReadyBoost.

You can look at MDO's eBoostr program, which is pretty much a third-party SuperFetch/ReadyBoost that is a lot more configurable. (Think SuperFetch with an actual interface, custom settings, and Intel Turbo Memory User Pinning options. Works even with Windows 2000! XD)

Personally I see very little power consumption difference with the SD card attached.

Very odd....I replied after Mutnat's last post in detail essentially stating what Toshe and Colonel O'Neill said subsequently, and the post is gone.

Ah well, what they said (short of leaving a card in a PDA!).

Theoretical: Wouldn't a SD to microSD adapter remain unpowered while plugged in? (Electrical contacts are there but open circuit) + Be useful if you have a cellphone with microSD cards?

I suspect you're correct, but then you have a smaller slot to gather dust, and not appear flush.