Hi! Got a bit of a problem … a few weeks ago, my husband’s Dell Inspiron 8500 notebook was knocked off the table onto the floor. There was a PCMCIA card in the slot at the time, and that got a little bent, but it still works (we tested it on 2 other laptops). The problem is, ever since then, the card slot on his laptop won’t recognize any PCMCIA cards. We tried 2 PCMCIA cards that we know work on other laptops – the one that was in it at the time (a Linksys wireless card) and an ethernet adapter card, but his laptop won’t recognize either.
After spending the past hour on the phone with various departments at Dell, I ended up with the answer from them that we have to replace the entire motherboard for $500 because the PCMCIA slot is soldered to the motherboard and is unable to be repaired. I figured before we spend that much money on a new motherboard, I’d ask here to find out if anyone knows any tricks to repair PCMCIA slots.
Any help is VERY much appreciated!
Thanx!
~Jennifer