D600 PC Cardbus Controller / Chipset

Question

We were previously using a Dell Latitude C610 with an Allen-Bradley 1784 PCMK/B controller card. The card is 16-bit and required some sort of conversion driver to work in the 32-bit slot, but it worked. It DOES NOT WORK in the D600 however. I have heard that Dell changed the chipset for the single Cardbus Controller slot in the D600 to a new chipset that doesn't support the Texas Instruments driver/converter we were using before, and that they have no intention of doing anything or providing anything that would help us to be able to use this card in the D600. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Can anyone tell me what chipset the D600 Cardbus controller is using? Thanks.

speedstep · Answer

16 BIT cards dont work in NEWER dells because MICROSOFT disabled ISA TO PCI IRQ routing by default in WIN2000 OR WINXP with ANY service packs. AKA SP1,2,3,4

Enable ISA IRQ Routing.

Then plug in the card and Detect it etc.

Win2000 SP1 AND XP SP1 etc and up DISABLE ISA IRQ

This makes it so the card WILL NOT WORK.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=279491
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=327947

This symptom may occur with the Dell 1150 or
Lucent/Orinoco 802.1x wireless network adapter.
After you install this adapter, the network appears to be
available and the signal strength remains the same.
However, the network is unavailable, and
the network connection icon has a red "X" over it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Pcmcia\Parameters]
"SoundsEnabled"=dword:00000001
"IsaIrqRescanComplete"=dword:00000000
"DisableIsaToPciRouting"=dword:00000000

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb%3Ben-us%3B327947

16-Bit PC Card Devices Do Not Work After You Install Windows 2000 Service Pack 3
The information in this article applies to:
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP3
Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server SP3
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional SP3

This article was previously published under Q327947

Wizeson · Answer

Thank you for your suggestion. We used those tweaks on the C610 in order to use the card with Win2K SP3, but it seems that with the D600 that doesn't work anymore. According to Dell, it's because they chaged chipsets and the pcmcia is no longer the same Texas Instruments controller that it was on the C610. We really need these cards to work in the D600 or we will have to stop buying Dell and find another solution. Any other ideas on what to try?

speedstep · Answer

Specifically what is the cardbus controller? If its made by O2micro then theres another issue.

Wizeson · Answer

Yes it is the O2Micro controller. Do you know a workaround? I found out that the issue is this... the card is recognized fine in win2k w/ SP3, but the software only works right in DOS/Win98, so what we do is load a DOS or Win98 emultion/boot disk, but the O2Micro controller on the D600 won't run the 16-bit converter that we previously used on the C610 in the same situation. I probably just made it even more confusing but so far you seem to know a lot more than anyone else out ther. What do you think we can do?

speedstep · Answer

@Wizeson wrote:
Yes it is the O2Micro controller. Do you know a workaround? I found out that the issue is this... the card is recognized fine in win2k w/ SP3, but the software only works right in DOS/Win98, so what we do is load a DOS or Win98 emultion/boot disk, but the O2Micro controller on the D600 won't run the 16-bit converter that we previously used on the C610 in the same situation. I probably just made it even more confusing but so far you seem to know a lot more than anyone else out ther. What do you think we can do?

There is a patch for the O2Micro Controller.

SEE:

http://home.insightbb.com/~scottlandon/

The patch has worked for many but it does not survive hybernation. This means a patched machine will go to sleep and wake up stupid if it wakes up at all.

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D600 PC Cardbus Controller / Chipset

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