What is a PCIC compatible PCI to PCMCIA Bridge?

[sazebac]

I have a very old laptop pentium made by some brand called TPI, it has 40 megs of ram 2 gig HD with Windows 98 SE on it. The laptop has to PCMCIA slots. I recently upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows 98. IN device manager under PCMCIA socket is listed Cirrus Logic PCIC compatible PCI to PCMCIA Bridge, and is showing that it is working fine, and I have a PCMCIA modem card that is showing to be working fine.
I tried to install a 3COM 10/100 Ethernet LAN CardBus and the computer will not recognize it. I insert the fax modem card and the computer recognizes it immedietly, insert the 3com card and nothing.
I tried installing Intel PCIC compatible PCMCIA controller in add hard ware wizard but once installed it shows it is not working properly.
What exactly is Cirrus Logic PCIC compatible PCI to PCMCIA Bridge? Any ideas? Thanks

 

[edfair]

A chip that interconnects parts of the computer together. In this case it appears the computer uses a Cirrus Logic chip to make the PCMCIA cards appear to the PCI bus.
Different chips require diffetent drivers.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[sazebac]

Helpful. I think the problem is that the computer is so old it does not support CardBus PC cards, which my 3com card is.

 

[Tiltontie]

Your laptop won't support cardbus (32 bit) cards, but 16 bit cards are still available to give you access to a network. I use a 3Com, model number 3cxe589et with an equally old and limited laptop made by a now defunct manufacturer. You may have to download a file from 3Com to set up the drivers. I downloaded from 3Com and executed file 3c589x_1.exe to set up the files for the installation. Works fine. Card is not very expensive but look around for best price.