Powerbook 5300cs CF and wifi

[pistooli]

I gave new life to an old PowerBook 5300cs with a hard drive - CF card replacement, and a brand new Dell Truemobile pcmcia wifi card.

I purchased a simple cf-ide adapter for around 5 USD, and a 2 GB CF for another 15 USD. I copied OS 8.6 onto the CF with the help of my trusty PB Lombard. It was relatively easy to replace the hard drive, the only issue was properly mounting the CF and the adapter.

The PB 5300cs now boots and works silent, very nice indeed.

After installing the Orinoco 7.2 drivers the Dell Truemobile pcmcia wifi works like a charm.

So while this machine is slow by todays standards, it is still an absolut joy to use.

(just for the record, the PB 5300cs also boots from the pcmcia slot, when the CF is inserted with an adapter)

 

[bibilit]

I have also a 5300cs and managed to get it wireless with an Orinoco Silver card and the same driver.

Slow for today's standards but usable, nice to see an old laptop using new technology.

haven't tried to replace the HD by a CF yet.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

CF Cards/Adapters are wonderful in the PCMCIA 'Books, I've got one with a Universal Install of SomeOSorOther I set up about 11 years ago that I still use for testing PBs.

Back in the day, I got a pair of the ENTERASYS WiFi cards from Wegener that I'm looking forward to trying in the 5300ce Twins at some point.

Using one of those in "Beater" was how I got online here sporadically six or seven years ago. Once I got the Sonnet G3/466/1MB Card into my maxed out 1400c Beater really flew.

I was really surprised when I read about the 5300's big brother, the 3400 being PCI architecture recently. I'll have to try to get a WiFi PC Card (CardBus) in the 3400c and the Kanga . . .

. . . whenever I find the time . . . having a pair of NetBooks, even the PDQ and Pismo have rarely been used. :-/