Installing Windows 95: PCMCIA drivers

Standard PCMCIA driver

The basic Windows 95 PCMCIA socket driver does not cope well with the fact that the PC110 uses point enablers to configure devices such as hard drives and modems - the machine hangs at boot. Click here for more discussion of this point.

Repackaged IBM driver

IBM Japan has a set of PCMCIA utilities on their FTP site for a device called SmartPC. I think this is a PCMCIA infrared card. These drivers have been used with success on the PC110, but the diskette contains many unnecessary files for our purposes, and the documentation and installation is in Japanese. I have therefore taken the bare PCMCIA socket driver from this package, and modified the original .INF file so that the device is identified in English during the installation process and within Device Manager. Please note that I have done nothing to the driver code itself, and I am not attempting an infringement of copyright. I have simply repacked the installation for a non-Japanese PC110 user. The software is still the property of IBM, and must be used in accordance with the original software license conditions, which are probably outlined in the included (Japanese) README files.

My driver package can be downloaded by clicking here or by following the link on the driver matrix. Unzip the file to a suitable location, and begin the installation as follows.

Installing the driver

(These instructions are also included in the file README.TXT within the driver package.)

1. From Control Panel, select Add/Remove Hardware, click Next
2. Select No, click Next
3. Scroll down the list of hardware types, select PCMCIA socket, click Next
4. Click Have Disk...
5. Enter the location of the driver files, and select OK
6. Ensure that IBM PC110 PCMCIA Controller is highlighted, and click Next
7. You will be warned that the I/O range has been set to 03E0-03E1 - this is fine; click Next
8. You will be asked to insert your original Windows 95 media, and files will be copied to the hard drive
9. Click Finish
10. You will now be taken through the PCMCIA Wizard, which will help you configure 32-bit PCMCIA support. You may be prompted to allow a removal of previous drivers you have tried to install - this is OK.

Once complete, shut down and power off, as advised. At reboot, you will have PCMCIA support.

If you have any comments on this driver package, please let me know.

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Written by Daniel Basterfield. Images found on the internet. Enjoy!