TP 770z - 802.11n PCMCIA for Windows XP

[Edward Mendelson]

Thanks to Tom Lightbody, I now have a very nice ThinkPad 770z which runs Windows XP. This model has Type II PCMCIA slots. If I remember correctly, there is NO Type II PCMCIA wireless card that supports 802.11n. There are Cardbus-type cards that support 802.11n, but not Type II cards. I'm hoping someone will tell me I'm wrong about this, and that there IS a wireless card that I can use with the TP 770z and XP - but I'll be almost as grateful to anyone who tells me that there's no hope of finding one, and saves me the trouble of trying to find and buy something that doesn't exist.

[RealBlackStuff]

They do exist but are very rare: https://www.ebay.ie/itm/164756301713
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001E ... re-ever-20
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/dp/B004EHUVHW

There are 2 PC Card standards, the older 16-bit PCMCIA card standard using 5 volts, which is effectively an ISA based card (it uses the ISA bus as well), and then there is the newer CardBus standard, which is a 32-bit interface operating at 3.3 volts (a PCI device using the PCI bus as well).

Type I, Type II and Type III refer only to the size (the height) of the PC Cards. You can find Type I, Type II and Type III cards for both PCMCIA and CardBus. A Type III card is double the height of a Type II card.

32-bit CardBus cards have metal notches on the end to prevent insertion into 16-bit PCMCIA slots. PCMCIA cards can be inserted into CardBus slots.

CardBus slots are found on late mobile Pentium MMXs....all mobile Pentium II systems should be using CardBus slots.

[Edward Mendelson]

As we say in the USA, "Who knew??" The answer is, "You knew." Thank you - I'll keep looking for one of these on US eBay, but I don't have high hopes.

I really did not think anything like this existed!

[m11k]

I don't know of any 16-bit PCMCIA, but if 32-bit cardbus works on your machine, then there are options as RBS states. I have used a D-Link DWA-645 on my TP 600X with Win2K, and can confirm that it connects to my 802.11N router with WPA2. These cards can be found pretty cheaply on eBay.

Also worth mentioning that the DWA-645 works great under Linux with the ath9k driver built in to the kernel. No special configuration, 3rdparty driver, or firmware needed. This is part of the reason I bought it. Getting it to work on W2K was a bonus (not that you should be connecting W2K to the internet).

[Edward Mendelson]

I'm fairly certain that the ThinkPad 770z uses 16-bit PCMCIA, but of course I could be wrong. It's an ISA machine, with no PCI anywhere, as far as I can tell.

And of course I forgot that Type I, II, etc. refer to size, not interface! One more confusion that wasted bandwidth. Apologies to all...

[GMGolds]

According to TWBOOK # 214, the 770Z actually is CardBus.

Hope this helps. Good luck in your search!

Greg

[Edward Mendelson]

Thank you! I wouldn't have guessed! A thousand thanks...

[RealBlackStuff]

Available in USA: https://www.ebay.com/itm/111253852211

[Edward Mendelson]

Available in USA: https://www.ebay.com/itm/111253852211

Bought! Thank you again.

[m11k]

Available in USA: https://www.ebay.com/itm/111253852211

Bought! Thank you again.

Just an FYI, that card has a broadcom chipset, and is not so Linux friendly. Not sure if this is a concern for you. It has Linux drivers, but needs a proprietary firmware, so you'd need to jump through some hoops to get it to work. See https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx. If you want something that works with Linux AND Windows, I'd recommend a DWA-645, also available cheaply on ebay. It's the only cardbus form-factor card supported by ath9k, according to https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/use ... 9k/devices. As I said earlier, I have one, and it works well.