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Put in a PCMCIA card incorrectly.. Help needed

KawaiiAurora

KawaiiAurora

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 16, 2016
307
190
Europa
Yes, I feel very stupid but I honestly don't know why..

So, today, I received my NEC AKE BC168 USB 2.0 card, put it in and this happened... Can't yank it out because the ejector stays out. Computer doesn't detect it either. Tried pulling it out with tweezers but I didn't try tooo hard..

Thanks.
image.jpeg
 
daflake said:
Two ways that I can think of are finding a pair of small needle nose pliers or taking the back cover off and see if you can access the sled from there to slide the card out.
Click to expand...

Taking the back cover as in the RAM access door?
 
daflake said:
If that is the case, I would find a pair of needle nose pliers and pull it out. Tweezers just won't have the grip needed to get the job done.
Click to expand...

Took it out by yanking it out with some tweezers :3 Put it back in and it's still not detected...

Thanks for the help ;o

@eyoungren Any clues as to why?
 
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Yeah, that's the ONE problem with this card. It fits it so flush that it gets behind the metal and it's hard to extract it.

I've used needle nose pliers to do that as well. The first laptop I ended up bending the metal above the slot and actually had to take the top case off.

The second Mac was a little easier, but still difficult.

I'd be concerned if you just yanked it out like that. I worked mine out slowly with needle nose pliers.

You may have, as has been suggested, bent the pins inside the slot.

If you get it working again, you will have to train yourself to not put your fingers anywhere near that ejector.

As I mentioned when you ordered this, it's more or less a permanent upgrade. You don't want to press that ejector button accidentally once you have it in there (as you have discovered).
 
Hmm, pins look ok and all point up in the same direction. I took the card out by putting a pair of small tweezers to an end and pushing up and it slowly came out. Not by literally brute forcing it out. Put it in again and I'll hope for the best :/
 
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When you put it in the very first time, was it detected then?

If so, have you tried restarting the Mac?

Are you running Tiger or Leopard?
 
eyoungren said:
When you put it in the very first time, was it detected then?

If so, have you tried restarting the Mac?

Are you running Tiger or Leopard?
Click to expand...

Nope, that's why I yanked it out in the first place; thought I hadn't put it in correctly. As for restarts, I did quite a few. Are PC card cards supposed to be hot swappable after all?

I tried the card on both Tiger and Leopard

LEDs on my mouse and pendrive don't even light up, EVEN with the cable in the lil charging port connected to my Nexus 7's charger. It's like completely dead
 
KawaiiAurora said:
Nope, that's why I yanked it out in the first place; thought I hadn't put it in correctly. As for restarts, I did quite a few. Are PC card cards supposed to be hot swappable after all?

I tried the card on both Tiger and Leopard

LEDs on my mouse and pendrive don't even light up, EVEN with the cable in the lil charging port connected to my Nexus 7's charger. It's like completely dead
Click to expand...
Maybe they sent you a defective card?

Or the wrong card?

Mine was detected right away and it's hot swappable.
 
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eyoungren said:
Maybe they sent you a defective card?

Or the wrong card?

Mine was detected right away and it's hot swappable.
Click to expand...

Hmm, who knows.. It looks the right card. (And I can't really do a buyer complaint since I don't have another computer with a PCMCIA card as the oldest laptop I have is a ~3GHz C2D). I have some pics here

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image.jpeg

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image.jpeg
 
That looks right. It should work.

Assuming it is not defective, assuming your PC slot is working as well.

I don't know why it's not.
 
eyoungren said:
That looks right. It should work.

Assuming it is not defective, assuming your PC slot is working as well.

I don't know why it's not.
Click to expand...

Hmm, my PowerBook knows it has a CardBus slot as per the PCI slots page in the system profiler. I might try Ubuntu 10.04 for good measure :) Yeah, maybe the PC card slot itself is borked

Decided to contact the seller about the issue. I find it very odd how it was never detected and nothing came on. My PowerBook knows it has a PC Card slot so the card may simply be defective. I suppose it's gotta wait a bit more in USB 1.1 land ;)

Thanks for the help!
 
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Thanks to the hints from @eyoungren I've also got the same PCMCIA-USB2.0 card as you for my 15"PB-DLSD,
but with mine there is a 1mm part of the card protruding from the slot so there's no way it can get wedged behind the aluminium frame...
Maybe your card-slot is defective or something is bend inside so that the card can be inserted too deep into the slot.
 
bobesch said:
Thanks to the hints from @eyoungren I've also got the same PCMCIA-USB2.0 card as you for my 15"PB-DLSD,
but with mine there is a 1mm part of the card protruding from the slot so there's no way it can get wedged behind the aluminium frame...
Maybe your card-slot is defective or something is bend inside so that the card can be inserted too deep into the slot.
Click to expand...
Your card IS working then?
 
eyoungren said:
Your card IS working then?
Click to expand...
Oh, yes - "works like a charm".
Thanks for the inspiration!
I think I'm gonna go for a PCMCIA CF-Card-reader for CompactFlash-Type1 plus CF1-To-SD adapter too for some extra-space - maybe TM-Backups.
I do owe a PCMCIA-CF1 card-reader which is working properly, but SD or mini-SD are much cheaper now and offer more Gigs...
 
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