Women in Technology

Article:		The Penny-Pinching PowerBook 1400 Goes Wireless
Subject:		can't get it to work on my PB 1400c
Date:		2003-10-14 20:15:52
From:		powell789
hi-- I saw the article, purchased an Alvarion Breezenet PC-DS.11b WIFI card, supposedly identical to the one mentioned in the article (and yes the Orinoco Driver web site says its driver supports that specific card), but I can't get the Orinoco Driver to recognize the card. According to the Orinoco web site, "The IOXperts driver currently requires PC Card Manager 3.0, which is included in the following PowerBook models: * PowerBook 2400 * PowerBook 3400 * PowerBook G3 (all models) * PowerBook G4 (all models) PC Card Manager is not a file on the disk and cannot be updated." So apparently the PB1400 is not supported by teh Orinoco driver. So my question is, how did you get this driver to work on YOUR PB1400? Any suggestions?

Showing messages 1 through 6 of 6.

• can't get it to work on my PB 1400c
  2003-10-15 07:16:15  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  This driver won't work because it is for a 32-bit card bus. The 1400 had a 16-bit card bus. The Powerbooks you listed all have this. Try the driver link I posted. That is an Orinoco driver.
  
  My Orinoco is a 1150 series TrueMobile wireless. Sold under the Dell label.
  
  Mike
  
• can't get it to work on my PB 1400c
  2003-10-15 11:16:31  powell789 [View]
  
  
  another thought-- the powerbook 1400 you describe in the article has a G3 upgrade I think.... whereas my 1400c is a standard model. Does the G3 upgrade also provide the PC Card Manager 3.0 that Orinoco says is required for its driver?
  
  If so, how about another driver, such as an older version of Orinoco's driver (if so where can I get it), or some other driver?
• can't get it to work on my PB 1400c
  2003-10-15 15:18:52  anonymous2 [View]
  
  
  Nope.
  
  This was a vanilla 1400. I mentioned that I opted not to upgrade because of the unrealistic price of the G3 upgrades. And a G4 makes no sense whasoever since it can't run OS X.
  
  You are also physically limited to a 16-bit card bus. Only way to get a 32-bit card bus is to buy a Powerbook that has 32-bit card bus architecture.
  
  Mike
  
• can't get it to work on my PB 1400c
  2003-10-16 10:44:31  powell789 [View]
  
  
  I called a friend who's a sort of I.T. guy, and he brought his Windoze laptop with the objective to try to update the firmware on the WiFi PC card. After a few hours, he was still unable to do so, although he did manage to communicate with the card and gets its lights to flash. Finally he gave me another similar Lucent "Silver" card to try... voila! it works!
  
  SO: the moral to this story seems to be, that the Lucent card MAY work with a PB 1400, and the Orinico 7.2 driver DOES work with the PB 1400 (despite assurances by Orinoco that it can't because it requires PC Card Manager 3), but for some reasons SOME Lucent cards just don't work, or require a firmware update, perhaps, to get them to work.
  
  Is it now clear as mud??
• can't get it to work on my PB 1400c
  2003-10-15 11:10:38  powell789 [View]
  
  
  I went back to the link you posted, and it takes me to the Proxim download page to download the Orinoco version 7.2 driver. That IS the version of driver that I installed. I double checked the Readme file--it says version 7.2.
  
  Any other suggestions?
  
  

• can't get it to work on my PB 1400c
  2003-10-14 20:36:58  powell789 [View]
  
  
  More info from original poster:
  
  1. I'm running OS 9.1. and the PB1400c has 48 MB of RAM.
  
  2. I received the following e-mail from Orinoco regarding their driver on PB1400's:
  
  "Our 802.11b driver doesn't work with your model PowerBook because it requires an internal application called PC Card Manager 3. Unfortunately, this isn't a file on the hard drive that you can upgrade.
  
  If and when we extend support to older PowerBooks, we'll announce it first on our mailing lists. Details on joining are at <www.ioxperts.com/contact.html>."