PC Card compatibility list (current limiting issue)

[diem]

Okay folks, here's the deal.

Whilst the stated truth is that the motherboard of the Series 7 and the netBook are the same, the (values of) some of the components may not be the same.

Thus the Series 7 has a lower current limit than the netBook, set by resistors on the motherboard. It is therefore possible that the capacity was increased between earlier and later production runs, tying in with the differing results people have obtained with the same card, recently posted in this and the netBook forum.

Obviously what's needed is a list of PC Cards that each 'age' of Series 7 supports.

Could everyone who has a 7book and an ethernet PC Card please post on this thread, stating the OS revision that your Series 7 came with plus the make/model and FCC ID of your card, and let us know how well it works?


Thanks all


P.S. I'm going to ask for a new forum just for the new hybrid :)

Unless anyone protests, I think 7Book seems to be the consensus name yes?

[wanman]

Great. Name is fine.

Si

[netBookBabe]

I have seconded Yan's request for a separate forum for the 7book, I think it makes sense.

I also happen to think the name is very cool! :cool:

Julie

[diem]

Okay folks, I've finally got a compatibility list published on my site - URL below - in the CF & PC Card section.

There are MANY gaps in my info - if anybody has anything to add, please post on this thread, stating the OS revision your 7 originally came with, the card make/model/FCC ID, and let us know how you got on.

Thanks all.

[sdhip]

My S7 reports the same UID on the machine with both the S7 and netbook personality modules -- the machine type is also identified as a Series 7.

Is this true for you too? (another way of telling about the UID is if psiwin doesn't think that your 7book is a new machine...)

If so, then this has two consequences.
1) S7 motherboards are identifiable as such -- they are _not_
the same.
2) We can keep track of motherboard versions for compatibility
issues via the UID -- unless there is a good reason not to
disclose them!

My S7 is a 754 personality module one. I have taken it to bits and photographed the motherboard (and seen the gubbins of a genuine netbook).
The S7 motherboard version number is A7030-0001-06 with sticker 16Mb RAM MAIN PCB, the netbook A7030-0001-07 with the same sticker .
Photos are available for those interested.

Cheers

[wanman]

Hi Yan,

I have just got hold of a Psion 56K +10/100LAN CombineIT Card. Not able to test the Ethernet port until I get home but the modem works fine. I will let you know the Ethernet results when I get home (or after get back from hols).

One thing I did note was that on your website, you confirm that some of the early cards need a hardware patch. How will I know if my card is one of these early cards? On the box there is a Rev.number which says 89834.UPG. Having checked the Psion website I note that the upgrade is to version 8.34. I assume that mine is therefore already upgraded?

Second thing was that although I managed to dial in first time no problems and all my internet apps worked fine. I then disconnected in email and then started closing apps. All closed ok until I got to Messenger Force. On ctrl+e my machine triple beep reset. When it came back up, I tried to launch Messenger Force again and the machine reset again. After it started back up again, I removed the Messenger.ini file and restarted the app and all worked fine. I have since gone back online fine, all other apps working and my attempts to recreate the reset have failed.

Can I assume this is one of those bizarre bugs which may or may not ever arise again and is not that important if it does or could this be to do with the modem/LAN Card (even though it was disconnecting/already disconnected at the time). If it could be related to the card, is there a way of definitely recreating the problem so that I can prove possible compatibility problems with my 7Book

7 Series was 756 build.

Hope you can shed some light.

Regards

Si

[diem]

Regarding the CombineIT card, I'm afraid I don't have any identification info to tell which cards cause a reset.

The reset will occur at apparently random intervals (not necessarily when using the card), but usually within 30 seconds or so of switching on. If you get this odd behaviour, but only when the card is plugged in, then it needs patching.

Looking forward to your ethernet results :)

[wanman]

Hi Yan,

Great news. Got home last night and connected my Psion to my Router. Opened Opera and connected to LAN immediately. No problems what so ever. Full 100mb connection and Opera was as quick as you like. Also tried Email (both FreeUK & Tiscali POP3 accounts), RMR News & Messenger Force and all worked fine.

Disconnected and tried modem and that worked fine aswell. No additional triple reset.....so far.

Just a quick summary then. Have got a 7book upgraded from build 756 personality module. Card is a Psion CombineIT v90 56K modem and 10/100 LAN.

I only wish now that Psiwin was updated to allow for LAN connection. Come on Psion Teklogix. If you could fiddle with PsiWin to enable other forms of connection instead of slow Serial then we would have a fantastic product !!

Si

[frog]

Hi all,

First of all- great forum & excellent source of info. I've upgraded my s7 & purchased a wi-fi card from Expansys; it's working fine with good connection speeds. The details:

Series 7 version 1.05(254) build 756
Avaya Silver World card fcc id IMRWLPCE24H

I bought the machine second hand, so there is a chance the machine has an earlier motherboard- but I think that's probably a slim chance.

Cheers,

F.

[stumac]

More information for the mill...

I have an early (751) S7 upgraded with the NetBook personality module.

I can confirm the the earlier SMC WLAN (SMC2632) card *does not* work with this series of 7book, though it briefly looks like it's trying as the lights come on when you insert it.

[wanman]

Hi Stumac,

Now I don't want this to sound too stupid (nobody say a word) but how did you try and connect to your wireless LAN. I am a little confused as you said it seemed to try and connect when you inserted the card (lights flashed briefly). I know you probably did this but just to be on the safe side, you did set up the wireless LAN settings for the card and when in Opera / Internet App and the connection settings appeared, you selected the wireless connection option (rather than modem, lan, irlan, etc).

The only reason I ask is that I read your post to mean that you expected it to connect on inserting the card.

Apologies again if its just me being thick.

Regards

Si

[frog]

Hi,

I had no reponse from my card until it was set up in the control panel. It looks like the 7book does not send any power to the pc card slot until a valid network request is sent (connection to email, or opening a web page in Opera).

Cheers,

F.

[nclark]

I have just connected to the Internet using my 7book (751) and a Dell TrueMobile WLAN card! In fact I'm entering this reply through this route. I'm using the built-in Lucent driver, and all that was required was to attempt a connection, rather than expect it to find the access point as soon as I put the card in.

I have tried the Cisco 340 but this doesn't work.

Unfortunaetly, other than browsing the web this doesn't achieve my aims as Opera doesn't support M$ NT authentication methods or secure browsing.

Oh well, one step at least.

[spegru]

Great to hear that nclark!

Could you remind us *exactly* what the card is and confirm that yours was a 751 (like mine). Do you know what the specified current for the card is?

thanks

spegru

PS Opera *does* support secure browsing using SSL encryption.

[nclark]

Hi spegru

Mine was definitely a 751 model Series 7.

The Card is a Dell badged TrueMobile card with the following information on the back:

Lucent Technologies
Encryption: 128RC4
(part no): PC24E-H-FC
FCC ID: IMRWLPCE24H
PC Card 5V 16bit

The antenna bit obscures the stylus hole, but apart from that it's OK.

Regarding the secure browsing, for the sites I want to get at it doesn't seem to work. For the Intranet using http and Microsoft NT authentication I get a unsupported authentication mehod message (I'm sure this worked OK on the 7 with Opera 3.62?). For the Outlook Web Access using https It can't import the certificate and just gives a blank screen. Is there a way to set-up https without a certificate?

[stumac]

Wanman,

DUH!

As you had guessed, the issue was me rather than the machine - once I initiated a connection there was no problem whatsover with connection to my home proxy server.

I've had to disable WEP (for the moment) but I'm sure that I can sort something out on that!

So, to confirm (and refute all my earlier comments!), I'm using an Avaya gold card (Lucent PC24E-H-ET) on a build 751 machine and I'm working ok.

Thanks to all who've helped a numptyheid!

[nclark]

2 Numptyheads!

I'm afraid I got seduced by the darkside and thought the WLAN card would work in the same way as it does in the Ipaq and Laptops. I must now go on an intensive refresher course "Just because evryone else does it that way doesn't make it right".

The EPOC method is of course much more efficient!

Thanks to Frog for helping me to see the light.

[spegru]

Great news nclark and stumac!

nclark: A pity about the stylus hole. Can you see what the card current requirement is?
On secure access Opera definitely has SSL and so did v3.62. If it worked before, the problem might be if you are using a LAN to connect instead of a dial up. This would be a network thing, not a Psion thing. Sorry I don't really understand certificates but anyway I don't think opera for Symbian supports them.

stumac: Glad you got it working. Do you know what the current demand of that cards is?
What is WEP?

rgds

spegru

[nclark]

The current requirement is not shown, but I think this card is a badged version of the Avaya Gold card, based on the encryption setting.

[diem]

Originally posted by nclark
Regarding the secure browsing, for the sites I want to get at it doesn't seem to work. For the Intranet using http and Microsoft NT authentication I get a unsupported authentication mehod message (I'm sure this worked OK on the 7 with Opera 3.62?). For the Outlook Web Access using https It can't import the certificate and just gives a blank screen. Is there a way to set-up https without a certificate?

AFAIK Microsoft's NT authentication is only supported by their own Internet Explorer - I'd be surprised if Opera ever worked.

Outlook Web Access uses a self-signed certificate, which are very unfortunately not supported by Opera 5 on EPOC. There is no way to do HTTPS without a certificate, so I'm afraid you're out of luck with that :( If you want to explore this issue further, please post a new thread on the subject in the Software forum.


Thanks LOADS for the info about your WLAN card though - congratulations on being the first to make it happen on a 7Book :D

[nclark]

Do I get a badge? :D

[diem]

LOL!!!

You deserve one, for sure :cool:

[stumac]

I've just checked, and I can also now confirm that the SMC WLAN card (original, not V2) works with the 751 build machine too.

Which is good as the antenna on the SMC card is flat and I can access the stylus when I need to, without taking the WLAN card in and out!

This (again) refutes my earlier allegations about this card and the 751 build.

I don't know the current requirements of the SMC card, but I *do* know from the Avaya website that the gold card has a peak draw of 285mA.

[tornado]

Hey, yet another card to add to the compatibility list for 7books :

Netgear MA401 Wireless PC Card
(FCC ID : PD5LMWP100)

Operates with the Lucent driver and the card does not block the stylus holder!!

My 7book started as Series 7 build 754, upgraded by Teklogix to build 756 (when I had a screen problem), then upgraded again to a 7book.

No problems at all (so far!) and very quick.

David

[fladda]

Thanks for posting the FCC ID: for your card. A quick search on that excellent Google for 'PDSLMWP100' reveals only one hit :-

http://www.geocities.com/lincomatic/usr2410.html

This site is primarily concerned in attaching an external aerial socket to your card. However, also reveals that all of the following Prism II based cards are effectively the same card, and therefore should work in the Netbook :-

USR 240
SMC-2632
WL110000
Zoomair 4100
Plus others

I guess that these cards are preferable to the original Lucent Orinoco type cards, as they do not block access to the Psion's stylus. However, the Orinoco card card might well have better RF performance.

Ralph

[fladda]

Quick correction and clarification.

In my previous post WL110000 should read WL11000

Pervious posters have pointed out that the SMC-2632 needs to be the original Prism II chipset version of this card. SMC-2632 will not work (wrong internal chipset).

Just stolen a list of Prism II cards from :-

http://resin.csoft.net/cgi-bin/man.cgi?section=4&topic=wi

Posting list here for your confusion. I suggest that all the cards using the Hermes shipset (Lucent Orinoco) and the Prism II chipset should/might work on the Netbook ? Don't blame me if they don't, I am certainly no expert in these matters.


Card Chip Bus
----------------------------------------------------------
3Com AirConnect 3CRWE737A Spectrum24 PCMCIA
3Com AirConnect 3CRWE777A Prism-II PCI
ACTIONTEC HWC01170 Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
Addtron AWP-100 Prism-II PCMCIA
Agere Orinoco Hermes PCMCIA
Apple Airport Hermes macobio
Buffalo AirStation Prism-II PCMCIA
Buffalo AirStation Prism-II CF
Cabletron RoamAbout Hermes PCMCIA
Compaq Agency NC5004 Prism-II PCMCIA
Contec FLEXLAN/FX-DS110-PCC Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega PCC-11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega PCCA-11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega PCCB-11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Corega CGWLPCIA11 Prism-II PCI
ELSA XI300 Prism-II PCMCIA
ELSA XI800 Prism-II CF
EMTAC A2424i Prism-II PCMCIA
Ericsson Wireless LAN CARD C11 Spectrum24 PCMCIA
Gemtek WL-311 Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
Hawking Technology WE110P Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
I-O DATA WN-B11/PCM Prism-II PCMCIA
Intel PRO/Wireless 2011 Prism-II PCMCIA
Intersil Prism II Prism-II PCMCIA
Intersil Mini-PCI Prism-2.5 PCI
Linksys Instant Wireless WPC11 Prism-II PCMCIA
Linksys Instant Wireless WPC11 2.5 Prism-2.5 PCMCIA
Lucent WaveLAN Hermes PCMCIA
NANOSPEED ROOT-RZ2000 Prism-II PCMCIA
NDC/Sohoware NCP130 Prism-II PCI
NEC CMZ-RT-WP Prism-II PCMCIA
Netgear MA401 Prism-II PCMCIA
NTT-ME 11Mbps Wireless LAN Prism-II PCMCIA
Proxim RangeLAN-DS Prism-II PCMCIA
Samsung MagicLAN SWL-2000N Prism-II PCMCIA
Symbol Spectrum24 Spectrum24 PCMCIA
SMC 2632 EZ Connect Prism-II PCMCIA
TDK LAK-CD011WL Prism-II PCMCIA

Note that some of the PRISM-II adapters only work at 3.3V, hence card-bus(4) support is required for those cards to set VCC correctly, even though they are really 16bit cards.

Now my note - Do 3.3Volt WLAN cards work on the Netbook/Series 7 ? Certainly CardBus 32bit cards WILL NOT WORK.

Wonder if the Prism II based CF WiFi cards will work ?

Ralph

ps. Note to moderators - why can't we have a proportionally based font ;-)

[ias]

Quite an impressive list!

However, I've not managed to get my Linksys WPC11 2.5 card to work in my NetBook, although the Avaya Gold card works just fine, so I guess it's not quite as simple as that :(

Ian

[diem]

WOW!

I don't know where to start - Fladda you're a star!

To respond to your questions:

I'll see if I can get an answer about that 3.3V question. All I know is that both 3.3V and dual-voltage cards should work, but the fact that the note mentions CardBus is of course worrying.

CF WiFi cards will not work.

And I think if you choose 'Courier' from the font drop-down on the message composition window, you'll get the layout you were looking for in your table ;)

Who would have thought it - 3 months ago I thought that there were literally only 4 ethernet cards we could choose from, and now look at the list of possibilities!

[fladda]

Had a quick look through the newsgroups (using Google) for the MA401 netgear 802.11b card.

Appears that the older MA401 uses the Prism2 chipset, whereas the newer MA401s use the Prism2.5 chipset. I would expect the Prism2.5 based MA401 cards would have a new FCC ID:. We know that the (presumably) old MA401 FCC ID PD5LMWP100 works OK in the Netbook.

There are lots of new MA401 cards available on Ebay, which I suspect will be the newer MA401 cards. Beware these new cards might not work with the Psion drivers.

On the strength of the information that the MA401 works, and does not block the stylus hole, I purchased an MA401 on Ebay last night. This was before I read that there were two different sorts of MA401 card. Doh !

I'll let you know if my new MA401 card works in the Netbook, when I receive it in about 7 days.

Ralph

[tornado]

Hi Fladda,

If it helps I have had my Netgear MA401 card for about 1 year, I did not know there were 2 versions kicking around!

Still no problems on my card with the 7Book, even closing the lid and switching the 7Book on again mid session, just reply to the reconnect message and off you go again. The NetStatRF program (included with Netbook rel 158) works fine too and shows a transfer rate with my PC of 2Mbps - that should be fine for a little while yet :D. I run the connection through the free AnalogX Proxy on the PC.

Hope the card you ordered works OK too.

David

[fladda]

I feel that I need to post some clarification for the list of 802.11b cards posted above. As I have not been able to test out the following, it almost certainly contains errors - do not treat the following as gospel...

Believe that the cards in this list that should work on the Netbook are those PCMCIA cards fitted with the Hermes chipset, plus those fitted with the Prism II chipset. I am by no means certain that all these cards will work, but I suspect that most/all will. Lucent Orinoco uses the Hermes chipset. Prism II chipset was a design by Intersil, and was originally based upon the Orinoco <I think>.

Most of the major vendors of 802.11b cards simply buy-in their cards from little known manufacturers in the far east. Same base card using the same chipset is supplied to lots of different vendors. This explains why the one Psion driver is able to work with (apparently) so many different types of 802.11b card.

Seems that many of the major vendors of 802.11b cards, sold cards based upon the Prism II chipset 1-2 years ago. However many now sell the same cards BUT fitted with the Prism 2.5 chipset. Vendors have not changed their part numbers or styling. However the FCC ID numbers should have changed, when vendor went from the Prism II chipset to the Prism 2.5 chipset.
I think that this is why the older (Prism II) SMC-2632 cards work in the Netbook whereas the newer (Prism 2.5?) SMC-2632 cards do not work in the Netbook. At least SMC mark the new cards as V2 so we are able to tell which SMC cards are which.

Netbook is *much* more likely to work with an older 802.11b card than a new card. If possible, try and purchase a card that you know that works using reports of successful 802.11b cards, from this group. Ask the seller for the FCC ID number, and check that card with that FCC ID number is known to work on the Netbook.

In the old days you could usually use the FCC ID: number to identify which vendors cards were based upon the same hardware reference design. However the marketing 'droids finally got wise to this, and they now routinely change the FCC ID numbers to make the identification by their customers more difficult. That said, if one 802.11b card of FCC ID XYZ works OK on the Netbook, then all cards with this FCC number should work.

FCC web site has a vast library of information and includes most of the submissions from manufacturers for their 802.11b cards. Search engine on the FCC site is very poor though. However if you spend long enough you can usually find specific information about particular card types - including parts lists and schematics for some cards ! Also photos of the internals are very useful for comparing which cards use the same PWBs and chipsets.

Sorry, this is getting a little too deep...

Ralph

[Crazed_Monkfish]

I've got a netgear ma401 arriving in the post tommorrow for my 7book (751) so I hope it works!!

I will report of course when it arrives

[Crazed_Monkfish]

Well I got one of the newer netgear wireless cards : fcc: pd5lmwp200 , and have had no luck getting it too work :(

It seems to power up ok, and the link light comes on for a sec when I try and connect but then it fails with a network error (opera). I'm pretty sure I've got all the settings correct but may well be wrong...

[spegru]

Does the netstat rf do anything with it?

S

[fladda]

What type of label does your MA401 802.11b card have Mr Monkfish ?

I've been looking at various piccies of MA401 on Ebay. There appear to be two types of label on the card, and again on the box. Appears that the earlier MA401 cards have an art deco piccy of a figure standing on a load of cogs, holding the Netgear logo. Newer cards have a label that is predominantly yellow. There are lots of new boxed MA401s on Ebay, most of these have the yellow retail box. MA401 that I purchased was one of the yellow box variety:-(

Intesting that your FCC ID number (pd5lmwp200) is only digit different from the FCC ID for the card that we know works -
PD5LMWP100. Can you confirm your FCC ID: ? The ID that you quote gets no hits on Google, so you might have simply 'typoed'.
If so, then your card should work !

From the symptoms that you describe it does sound like your MA401 might just be configured incorrectly ??

Ralph

[tornado]

Hi all,

I can confirm that the Netgear MA401 Wireless PC Card
(FCC ID : PD5LMWP100) that I have working does indeed have an art deco piccy of a figure standing on a load of cogs, holding the Netgear logo - so it is the older version.

David

[fladda]

Apologies to Mr Monkfish. There is indeed an 802.11b WiFi card with the FCC ID: of PD5LMWP200.

Finally managed to find out how to use the FCC search engine for finding the information about 802.11b cards (not the one on the FCC home page which is useless) !

Point your browser at :-

http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/ws.exe/prod/oet/forms/reports/Search_Form.hts?form=Generic_Search

Use the 'grantee code' search option. First three digits of the FCC ID number are the grantee code. So for the PD5LMWP100 the grantee code is PD5, this is a Chinese company called Delta who are the OEM for Netgear.

More later...

Ralph

[Crazed_Monkfish]

This card (netgear ma401 (new)) is in a predominantely yellow / orange box (as is the card itself) and does have the aforementioned FCC number.

Nothing comes up in netstat

I've got a friend who will bring over his old smc card in a day or two - hopefully that will work and we can do a swap! It's a shame as the netgear card only cost £45 so seemed to be a pretty good deal...

[fladda]

New style MA401 card is FCC ID PD5LMWP200. I checked on the FCC website, and this is a Prism 2.5 based card. Whereas the older MA401 card with FCC ID: PD5LMWP100 is a Prism II based card. On the FCC site, the manual usually identifies the chipset.

I suspect that the old style (working) MA401 has picture of a figure standing on a pile of cogs, whereas the new-style MA401 card (not working) has a predominantly yellow label. However, not 100% sure that the label changed at exactly the same time of the chipset change, so caveat emptor.

So it is starting to appear that the Prism II based 802.11b cards work in the Netbook/7Book, whereas the Prism 2.5 802.11b range of cards appear not to work with the Netbook's Lucent drivers. Seems also that most rebadgers of the Prism II cards have switched to rebadging the 2.5 cards often using the same product number.

I suspect that the SMC V2 card is also a Prism 2.5 based 802.11b card, which is why it doesn't work in the Netbook.

Ralph

[fladda]

SMC-2632W V2 card appears to use the Amtel chipset, which means that it will not work with the Lucent Netbook driver. Lots of stuff on various useful Linux sites about this. Indeed these Linux sites are a goldmine for anybody trying to get details about hardware, or indeed trying to write device drivers for other obscure platforms like Epoc32 or RiscOS.

Reason that most of the Prism II based 802.11b cards work in the Netbook, is that the Prism II chipset apparently uses a very similar network interface for the host as the Lucent Orinoco card. Prism II uses different radio modem ICs to the Lucent, but the Netbook driver is not interested too much in that stuff I guess.

Ralph

[wanman]

Hi Yan,

Re my triple reset problems with the Psion Combine IT 56k/Lan card, I have continued experiencing this (even to the extent of forcing me to install SysBack !!).

I decided to try the card patch you mentioned. After trying to get the card to install on three laptops (without success) I eventually got it to install on a mates laptop yesterday (why can't they be as easy to install as a Psion machine??).

I ran the upgrade app and it confirmed (my worse fears) that the card was already running version 8.34. I decided to upgrade anyway, reinstalling the same firmware version again. All seems to be ok at the moment and I have been switching on and off without a reset occuring and can still connect via modem or 100mb Lan without problem. Having said that, now I have posted this my machine will probably start resetting again but if it does I will post it here.

Thanks for help, anyway.

Regards

Si

[diem]

Si,

Your post is all news to me! AFAIK the patch was in hardware, involving adding a pullup resistor onto one of the interface lines.

If your system appears stable over the next few days (proving that the software upgrade you've done is successful) could you post a new thread in the Modem/Mobile phone/Internet Issues forum listing what you did to patch the card (including where you got the update patch from)?

cheers

[wanman]

Yan,

Mmm, I have just re-read your previous comments on this and I remembered just assuming your reference to a patch was the Psion CombineIT firmware upgrade. Must ask more questions in future !! If I need to start tinkering with the hardware then may need some additional help on that. I will follow your advice and see how things go over the next few days (big fingers crossed !!).

If I can go a week without a reset then I will post that message on the other forum as suggested.

Cheers

Si

[scropp]

Hi everyone,

I have just upgraded my series 7 with the netbook personality module.

I must admit, I am very impressed with the speedup, but what I really want to do is get the thing networked, as I have not been able to use the machine propperly since I went DSL a few months back.

Anyway, the only PCMCIA network card I have in the house is an SMC8040TX, and this quite blatantly refuses to work. I suspect this is because it is drawing too much current, as the machine soft resets before I get very far with playing with the settings.

My next step is to try out a few other cards, but I really do not know what to try next. I have not managed to track down a friendly local store owner with any of the cards listed on the silvester.org.uk site yet, but I will see if I can persuade the people at the local store to let me try what cards they have, at the weekend, anyway... :)

Is it going to be possible for me to test a card and get a good idea that it will work without actually hooking it up to a network? (ie standing in the shop) What should I look for (other than the reset which appars to be a bit of a give away :) )

Playing with google the other day, I stumbled upon the following http://www.socketcom.com/product/EA0911-336.asp

This card look like just the sort of thing we need for the 7, but someone is probably going to point out that psion have not got drivers for NE2000 or something equally as irritating.

[diem]

Originally posted by scropp
This card look like just the sort of thing we need for the 7, but someone is probably going to point out that psion have not got drivers for NE2000 or something equally as irritating.

You guess correctly - no NE2000 driver :mad:

[scropp]

You guess correctly - no NE2000 driver

Typical! :(

One of the biggest standards for network cards, and they have not supported it.

Oh well, if its only big, high powered cards that Psion is going to support, then I am going to be out of luck.

The big problem is, that I do not want to have to buy a card mail order in case it does not work, but buying across the counter is going to limit me to a very small selection of linksys, d-link and SMC cards. That is all that is on offer round here :( I havent seen a single card on this list of tested cards yet.

[wanman]

Hi Scropp,

For wired LAN cards your best bet is to stick with Psion as the compatibility is best. You may find another card with similar chipset that will work but not without a lot of expenditure and time.

Get onto ebay and hunt out a Psion Gold Lan Card or CombineIT Modem/Lan card. All are comaptible with the netbook and seem to be with the 7book aswell. I have now bought three PCMCIA cards on ebay and have had no problems with them being faulty. PCMCIA cards (especially Psion) are pretty reliable.

Firstly can you confirm what build your 7 personality board. It will be written on a white sticker on the old module you removed (751, 754 or 756). If you have a 756 module then you have the best chance with them.

My 7 had the 756 module and I have now fitted a Psion CombineIT 56k - 10/100 LAN card (6months old on ebay) and works brilliantly at 100mbs (Opera on my Psion is actually quicker than IE6 on my PC !!). I did have a couple of problems with my machine triple resetting but I upgraded the firmware yesterday (on the card) and have had none over 24hr period (still got my fingers crossed Yan !!)

Ask yourself what you need it to do. Do you need a combined modem and LAN or just a LAN card. Just a LAN will be cheaper and probably lower power consumption (Try and keep within 300mA for full 7 compatibility). Either way, I would try and locate the newest Psion card you can on ebay as the older cards were a bit power hungry so if you have an older MB (751/754) then you may find more problems. Also once you have the card make sure you upgrade the firmware. To do this go on the Psion web site and you will find all the firmware upgrades there. Only trouble here is that you will need a laptop to upgrade the card. There will be a seperate thread on Modems forum if my upgrade has worked.

Kind Regards

Si

[wanman]

Just a thought, if you are looking for a Psion card, try and aim for a second hand WAN or LAN Global Series cards (usually have CombineIT logo in red on front og the card). These operate at 3v and tend to have a lower power consumption making them more comaptible with the good old 7book.

The Older Psion Cards were labled Psion Dacom and came in either the Global (modem) or NetGlobal (LAN) range. These are easily idendified by the lack of red CombineIT logo. Although these run at 5v, the seperate 56k modem and 10/100 Lan cards definitely work with a 756 - 7book. You may need to check the power consumption on the NetGlobal 56k + 10/100 LAN card as this could exceed the 300mA and may not work (I have not tried this one although the new CombineIT multifunction card definitely does).

Regards

Si

[scropp]

Hi Wanman,

Thanks for the advice, I will keep a look out for the cards you mention. All I want it for is to hook my 7 up to my 10Mb/s home network, so Im not trying to do anything cutting edge.

My 7 is 3 years old next month, and its served really well over the years. The original personality module was of the 751 variety, so I am almost certain that it will be from the early underpowered batches :(

As people keep reminding me, these problems are the peril of being first in with anything. Oh well, such is life...

[wanman]

Hi scropp.

I am sure you will find something. Best place as already confirmed is ebay although if you have a local computer fair nearby you will almost definitely find a second hand one there. Infact I enclose a link for an ebay item up for sale at the mo. £10 current asking price is a bargin. Only thing to watch out for is the card type. Psion offer two types of CombineIT card. PC Card (16bit) and Cardbus (32bit).

I know for definite that the PC Card variety works with a 756 board but not sure if the Cardbus variety as I am think the pcmcia slot only supports 16bit cards (can someone confirm this for definite). It may be worth checking with the seller to confirm which card they have as the picture is not that clear.

Just email them and ask if it has LAN Global PC Card written above the CombineIT logo. If it has then go for it. If you do and your motherboard does not support the card you can always resell it on ebay and it will go quite easily for at least what you paid (I wouldn't pay over £90 for it though).

If you do get it then check out a seperate thread on the modems forum as I have put instructions on how to upgrade the cards firmware to ensure full compatibility (but not definite with 751MB).

Regards

Si

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2060687048

[Crazed_Monkfish]

Great news!
I found a friend with the original SMC wireless network card, did a swap for my new revision netgear card, and am now typing this from my netbook with a very nice internet connection!!

Info:psion7 v751 upgraded to netbook
network card: SMC 2632w v1
success: complete!! (Writing this from netbook)

Hope this helps other people in the same situation...

Oh and thanks for everyones efforts documenting cards on the forum

[fladda]

Well my MA-401 from the USA (via Ebay) finally arrived today. And...

... it does not work in the Netbook. As expected. This is the later Prism2.5 card FCC ID: PD5LMWP200. Label is predominently yellow.

Earlier MA-401 card FCC ID: PD5LMWP100 does work OK in the Netbook. See earlier in this thread, or was it another thread, I forget.

Netgear are bringing out a combined ADSL modem with router and 802.11b access point functionality built in. Model is something like a DWL-814W and requires an MA-401 to work. So I'll hang onto my MA-401 just on the offchance that I get one of these wee beasties. Should allow you to use your Netbook without having to have a power hungry PC switched on all day long.

Ralph

[ifor.evans]

Hi,

New member posting for the first time :-D ...

Always been a PSIOn freak 3, 3c, 5 and now a 7. My 7 is had a 756 ROM which i replaced with the netBook upgrade from Expansys (all nice and easy).

Now I want an Ethernet/Modem card. waniman I ote your setup is IDENTICAL to mine and the card mentioned in the subject line is the one you have working.

BUT on the Expansys website they explicitly say that card will NOT work with a netBook.

Are they wrong?

Ifor

PS

This message posted from my 7Book :-) using Opera and PSION GoldCard 56k Modem ....

[diem]

yes, they are wrong. I did contact them about this 4 months ago but it didn't filter through to the web content people I guess.

The card that does NOT work is the older Psion Dacom ethernet-only card.

[wanman]

Hi Ifor,

Glad to see you have found your way to PDAStreet and hope you years of experience across most Psion machines will be of great use to us all !!

Yes it does sound as if our machines are similarly spec'd and I too currently run a Psion Dacom Gold Card 56k+Fax which all seems to run quite happily since upgrading to 7book status !!

My problems started when I purchased a second hand Psion CombineIT 56k -10/100 LAN Global PC Card (not Cardbus which is definitely not compatible) - 6 months old. Although the card worked quite happily under both modem and LAN settings, my machine started triple beep resetting (very annoying) at random times after power up. These problems have since stopped after reverting back to my trusty old 56k Dacom (Phew !!).

Luckily Yan (aka Diem), advised that some Combine IT cards were not compatible with the netbook unless they had a hardware upgrade (to be carried out by Psion under the lifetime warranty). This is not a firmware upgrade as I initially thought. I have today posted my card off to Psion to get them to upgrade the card. I will let you all know how I get on and if it resolves the triple beep reset when the card is returned. This may take a couple of weeks according to their web site. I am hoping this will work or I will have to think about moving over to a wireless LAN as I enjoy the benefits of Broadband speed at home. There is currently no way of knowing whether your CombineIT card has been upgraded so if you get the triple beep resets on either the 7book or netbook, then it probably hasn't (Well that is what I am hoping anyway:-))

Regarding general compatibility with cards the important factors are drivers and power consumption. Unfortunately the 7 PCMCIA slot has a restricted power output of 300mA (the netbook is set to 750mA). This should not be a problem with the newer power friendly cards although the Psion CombineIT (56k/Ethernet) comes in at 330mA but it did work on mine, apart from the resets, of course. Apparently if the card you insert is of the power hungry variety, the machine will issue a 'Not Supported' message when you try and use the card. Drivers are the other factor and you should check out Yan's website linked to below for a better list of compatible cards.

We are not sure exactly how strict the power consumption limiter is on the later 7's as a more generic board was created to be fitted in both the 7 and netbook. If the limiter does still exist, then our current thinking is that this is a hardware setting rather than software and not changeable.

Please note that there are two ranges in the Psion Gold Card range. Psion's older range of cards are likely to be less compatible on the 7book than the newer cards. They are easily identifiable by the following:

OLD

Psion Dacom Global Gold Cards - Modems only - Should all be compatible

Psion Dacom NetGlobal Gold Cards - LAN and LAN/Modem Combined - Will have compatibility problems with the 7book but should be ok with the netbook as power consumptions exceed the 300mA level. There has been reported problems with the NetGlobal LAN and 56k 10mbs LAN cards with the netbook but the 56k - 10/100LAN Netglobal is supposed to work (but not with the 7book). There has been reported problems with the NetGlobal LAN and 56k 10mbs LAN cards with the netbook but the 56k - 10/100LAN Netglobal is supposed to work (but not with the 7book).

NEW

Psion CombineIT WAN Gold Cards - Modems only - Should all be compatible

Psion CombineIT LAN Gold Cards - LAN and LAN/Modem combined - should all work with the netbook (subject to hardware upgrade) and should mostly be compatible with the 7book subject to original build (751 & 754 not tested 756 worked with mine ok)

Watch out for any card which displays CardBus rather than PCCard as the CardBus type cards will only work in a 32bit PCMCIA/Cardbus slot which is not fitted to either the 7 or netbook (although not sure about the brand new netbooks now being issued as they have had their slots upgraded in some way....anyone know for definite here?) The current slot on the 7 and older netbooks can only work with 16bit PCMCIA devices.

Final point re the warning on the Expansys site, I assume this was displayed as the original netbook OS had no ethernet drivers. This has since been resolved on the latest release (158) so this message is now obsolete.

Hope this information helps but post again if you want clarification on anything else. Best place to sorce Psion Gold cards is on ebay but make sure you go for the newer CombineIT variety (always ask as the pictures aren't always of the actual card). CombineIT cards have the red CombineIT logo where as the older cards are just gold.

Kind Regards

Simon

Yan's great site - http://www.silvester.org.uk/

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by ifor.evans
This message posted from my 7Book :-) using Opera and PSION GoldCard 56k Modem ....
Pretty cool, Ifor! :D

To echo wanman's sentiments, welcome to PDA Street - I hope you find you've come to the right place and will have plenty to contribute and to learn in equal measure. :)

Julie

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by wanman
Final point re the warning on the Expansys site, I assume this was displayed as the original netbook OS had no ethernet drivers. This has since been resolved on the latest release (158) so this message is now obsolete.This message on the Expansys site has caused no end of confusion for quite a while. I think I will try an e-mail to them on this topic, though I guess we shouldn't hold our breath!

Julie

[ifor.evans]

diem, netBookBabe, wanman,

Thanks for your responses. They helped. I'll be ordering the Psion Dacom Gold Card 56k+Fax muy rapido ;-)

Who came up with the 7Book name? Pretty cool idea :)

...Ifor

[wanman]

Who came up with the 7Book name? Pretty cool idea

Bit of a joint effort there.

If you are going for the Psion card, make sure it is the CombineIT version (PCCard not Cardbus). If you are buying a new one then hopefully it will have the hardware upgrade, but not 100%.

Regards

Si

[ifor.evans]

Thanks for the advice. I'll make sure before handing over the readies ;-)

...Ifor

[_JJ_]

I've just bought a Linksys WPC11 card and can confirm that it works fine with my 7Book. The stylus hole is not blocked :D, and the colour of the arial is quite a good match for the grey plastic of the Psion.

The FCC number on the back of the card is 07J-GL2411010700. Power consumption for the card is listed as 230mA Rx, 350mA Tx, 20mA standby. My 7Book was originally an OS 756 machine.

If anyone's interested, there are currently 4-5 of these cards at PC World in Selly Oak. They've also got a couple of Linksys WPC11 ver.3 cards (which I'm quuite sure would not work in a Psion). Full marks to Linksys for indicating the version number on the box! The PC World store in Highgate (off the roundabout by Lea Bank Middleway) only has the version 3 cards in stock.


Cheers,

JJ

[diem]

Hi JJ,

What price did you pay for the Linksys card if you don't mind me asking? Selly Oak is just down the road for me y'see...

[_JJ_]

Originally posted by diem
Hi JJ,

What price did you pay for the Linksys card if you don't mind me asking? Selly Oak is just down the road for me y'see...

It was £79.99 - I know that's a bit pricey, but I wanted to go somewhere local just in case it didn't work (didn't fancy trying to get a refund / guarantee from eBay...).

Cheers,

JJ

[fladda]

Thanks for posting the FCC ID: for the Linksys card.

A quick check on the FCC site reveals that this card uses the HFA3841 chip, which makes this a Prism 2 based card.

https://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=114374&native_or_pdf=pdf

FCC site even has the schamatics for this card, which was made by Global Sun Technologies in Taiwan.

I think[1] that the Belkin card is also a Prism 2 based 802.11b card. PC world also sell the Belkin card.

Ralph

[1] I've bought one on Ebay - I'll let you know if it works...

[netBookBabe]

Originally posted by netBookBabe
This message on the Expansys site has caused no end of confusion for quite a while. I think I will try an e-mail to them on this topic, though I guess we shouldn't hold our breath!
I forgot to say earlier, I did send an e-mail to Expansys a few days ago about their obsolete message, which was still there despite the fact that they were showing the card itself as discontinued.

They didn't bother to reply to me, but the message did disappear the following day, so maybe someone DID actually take notice. :eek:

Julie

[fladda]

My Belkin F5D6020 arrived today. FCC ID : K7SF5D6020.

I can confirm that this card appears to work OK in my Netbook, and does not obscure the stylus hole ! I am connecting via an access point.

Card appears to be the same basic Prism 2 based card as the SMC2632 (version 1) and many other similar cards from lots of different manufactuers.

However, neither the 40-bit or 128-bit WEP (encryption) appears to be working. Also noted that NetStatRF shows about 3% received FCS (Frame CheckSum) errors when the card is otherwise working OK without WEP. I will investigate further and report whether this is a problem with the Belkin card, the Netbook drivers or somethig else.

Is anybody else having similar problems using WEP with other Prism2 based cards (SMC, Linksys WPC11 etc) ?

Ralph

[diem]

I'm going to buy a Linksys WPC11 this evening, and I'll be testing it against a D-Link home gateway on the weekend, so I'll report what I find.

BTW, I have had it confirmed that the netBook definitely supports both 3.3V and 5V PC Cards - I'm trying to confirm whether this applies to Series 7 too.

[wanman]

Yan,

Yes the 7 does support both the 3.3 & 5v cards as all the original Dacom cards ran at 5v. The new Psion LAN & WAN Global cards run at 3.3v. It also confirms this compliance on the technical spec sheet for the unit aswell.

Regards

Si

[diem]

Sorry its taken me so long to report back, but I've been doing a LOT of playing :D

As Fladda says, the Linksys WPC11 does NOT work with WEP enabled, although it is rock solid without WEP. It seems that the Intersil Prism II chipset 'simplifies' the setup of WEP, and thus expects a different set of paramters from the drivers than a Lucent-based card. Thus the Lucent driver in the netBook OS, which uses 'raw' WEP settings, cannot configure WEP for the Prism II chipset.

The upshot? If you want really want WEP, get a card with Lucent Hermes chipset, not Intersil Prism. That said, WEP is such an awful, easily breakable protocol, I wouldn't let this stop you buying one of the myriad Prism II-based cards out there.

I've done loads of updating of my WLAN card compatibility list BTW - check it out at http://www.isbg00598.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/faqCF&PCCards.htm