PCMCIA Cards won't work on a Wallstreet. Drivers anyone? - Macintosh Garden

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2013, June 15 - 4:04pm

#1

cassette

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Joined: 2013 Jun 15

PCMCIA Cards won't work on a Wallstreet. Drivers anyone?

Hi there Garden users,

I am a frequent lurker of the site and now i've decided to register, in part, because I am baffled at how complicated it has been for me to get 2 PCMCIA cards to work on my G3 Wallstreet running OS9.

Perhaps one of you might be more seasoned in terms of this, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask.

I have 2 PCMCIA cards:

1 Macally Cardbus USB with Dongle
1 VST Technologies Cardbus Firewire with Dongle

When I insert the cards in either slot (top or bottom) of the G3, the cards register on the desktop (as generic gray devices) but of course when i click on them, I receive a message saying they have no functionality (i dont recall the specific dialogue response, but it is something generic, I can repost this with more detail if need be).

Depending on the slot they are loaded in, sometimes they will be labelled with text, other times they simply show up as the grey 'chip' on the desktop (as described above) with no info.

None of the system utilities I have used, register any disks when they are hooked up to the dongle so i have no option of initialization or access to devices connected to the bus.

I have tested these cards in a lombard as well and the result is the same which leads me to believe this is a driver/extensions issue.

Both my Wallstreet and Lombard are running 9.2.2. The firewire extension is registering as 2.8.7 (if I remember correctly) so it seems like the generic support that apple provides is the most current.

Does anyone in these parts recall working with either of these cards in a similar system? are they generally just plug and play?I have scoured the internet trying to find any extensions or support for either card, but have found nothing. All information seems to indicate that they should 'just work' but without access to any original software/driver disks, this seems hard for me to determine.

Any assistance or advice on this would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks so much!

cassette

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2013, June 15 - 7:28pm

#2

macjames

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Joined: 2013 Apr 14

I found this regarding your USB card.

This may not help, i have a Wallstreet too, but in those days i was so furious about apple removing ADB and SCSI in favor of USB that i refused to buy anything that had to do with usb ports. However i remember that people buying those kind of cards to provide the support had to install software for those cards to work. When i installed OSX 10.3 on it, almost every usb or firewire card i inserted worked without messing with software. Even those cheap cards that read SD memory work.

2013, June 15 - 7:31pm

#3

Daxeria's picture

Daxeria

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

This might be all you need for the USB card ("USB Adapter Card Support is a set of software extensions that provide support for USB adapter cards installed in the PCI bus or CardBus slots in Macintosh computers.") The instructions warn G3 users to turn off system sleep and processor cycling in the Energy Saver control panel.

As for the FireWire card, I'm uploading the driver for it now.

EDIT: VST FireWire CardBus Installer

2013, June 16 - 6:46am

#4

cassette

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Joined: 2013 Jun 15

Thanks so much for the responses & help.

Daxeria, you are a lifesaver. The drivers work great with the VST firewire card. I'm really excited about this!

No such luck on the USB front. The card appears on the desktop as the grey chip with the USB label and symbol, however I cannot get any usb device to register (including the same drive used for the VST card, only hooked up via USB).

Maybe the USB card is a lost cause. There dont appear to be specifics about macally drivers mentioned, just the generic ones (1.4.1) you referenced. Installing these didnt make a difference (sleep and power cycling were already disabled).

2013, June 16 - 1:48pm

#5

Daxeria's picture

Daxeria

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

All sources agree that there were no drivers beyond Apple's USB Card Support, but everything's not lost. Someone else who had problems offered this:

Here is what needs to be done in order to retain USB functionality in laptops such as the WallStreet (USB only via the CardBus). The following has worked on my machine twice...and literally just last week after I had a processor card replacement upgrade from the wonderful repair folks at pbparts.com...who keep my WallStreet in working order.

First...download USB Adaptor Card Support 1.4.1 and install by double-clicking on the .smi icon.

Then, from within the Extensions Manager...

disable HID Library 1.5.9 (an extension)
disable USB Device Extension 1.5.9 (another extension)
disable USB Software Locator 1.5.9 (the third extension)
Restart...and you're off-and-running.

The folks who sold me my PCMCIA-USB card (MacAlly) are the source of this fix, which enables functionality of the card within system 9.2.

And if that isn't enough:

I even tried the suggestion about disabling several extensions but that did not work either.

What did was, I went into the extensions folder and deleted all USB extensions I could find, rebooted system and then install the USB Adaptor Card Support 1.4.1 from the link you had provided, rebooted again. Put the card into the slot and in a few seconds up popped the card's icon and then next was the flash drive icon. Yes, it can work on a Wally under OS 9.2.2. I just finished up doing this on mine.

2013, June 16 - 6:27pm

(Reply to #5) #6

cassette

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Joined: 2013 Jun 15

No such luck trying these methods. Perhaps I will try and source another PCMCIA card or just live without it.

Im happy with the firewire and my VST zip bay working for moving files between machines.

Thanks again for all of your help!

2013, August 5 - 6:24pm

#7

El Residente

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Joined: 2012 Dec 5

On my PDQ with 8.6, the USB 1.4.1 worked OK but I had endless difficulty with the FW. The system would recognise nothing until I finally found a Firewire2Go card. Even then the system would not mount the HD. This was because the disk did not have an 8.6 driver on it. A system 9.0 driver (installed using an OSX system) would not work. At that point I gave up and installed 9.2.2, and then the system worked OK. It turns out that the old-timers had to buy a special piece of software to format an 8.6 FW drive. I now have an FWB Disk Tools, but so far have been unwilling to re-install 8.6 to see if it works!

2013, August 6 - 1:17am

#8

bertyboy's picture

bertyboy

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Joined: 2009 Jun 14

Like El Residente, I have my USB mouse (and external 500GB drive) working on the MacAlly CardBus card after a clean OS9.2.2 install on my recent PDQ. I'll dig out what I installed with instructions, if the OP is still around. It might be that there is something else missing.
Works fine with the mouse, but the hard drive is Oh so slow.

2013, August 10 - 9:31pm

#9

El Residente

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Joined: 2012 Dec 5

My USB card was a Belkin rather than the MacAlly - I seem to remember having to use a Cypress driver to get it to read flash drives on 8.6, but this was unnecessary on 9.

2013, August 13 - 8:46pm

#10

El Residente

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Joined: 2012 Dec 5

I had a re-try at getting the PDQ's FW card to work under 8.6 - but no luck. There does not seem to be any kind of generic IDE driver that will enable a modern HD (in this case a LaCie Little Disk) to work with 8.6, at least on my set-up.
I've also had trouble trying to get an old version of OS X to install on my Kingspec SSD, after successfully installing OS8.6. (I believe this is a hoary old problem: it seems the early OSXs were a bit hit'n'miss in this respect)