PCMCIA suddenly not working?

I have a cf28 that has been working great for about 3 years now. I use a Verizon card for Internet access on the road and a link sys card at home. Yesterday neither card would work. No lights, nothing listed in the remove hardware list.
Device managers says everything is fine. There have been no changes to the system in quite some time, hardware or software.
Where should I start looking?

CF-28ptjazqm
XP
No mods (yet)

 

What happened between when it was used last and worked and when it was not used and then used again and it did not work? Do you have any other cards that you could try? Was there a power surge? If you try another card and it doesn't work, I would say hardware on the MB.....

 

I have tried both cards and get nothing. I used the Verizon card in another cf28 today without any trouble. the other machine recognized the linksys card but I didn't have the software installed. The cards appear to work.

 

Windows Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> PCMCIA adapters

Look to see if they show up, and if they do, check status.

CF-28PTJAZQM

P - Mk2 Pentium III 800Mhz
T - 13.3" XGA Touch Screen - w/Std Keyboard
J - 30GB HDD - 256MB RAM
A - Floppy Disk Drive - Modem
Z - No Integrated Options
Q - Dual OS (Windows XP - Windows 2000)
M - North America distribution

 

Remove the card; inspect the PCMCIA slot for bent/broken/shorted with crap pins. After that, I'd suspect faulty PCMCIA chipset drivers; try uninstalling them, then power down immediately. This SHOULD force it to reinstall them first thing when it reboots.

mnem
My MOOP makes me go meep!

 

After examining the pins, I found no problems. I uninstalled both instances of the card bus controller listed under PCMCIA adapters in device manager. Upon reboot, both controllers were reinstalled as before.
Still doesn't recognize any card in the slot.
What's next to try?
Is it possible that the internal wifi mod could be a workaround for this? I could upgrade to a Verizon myfi hotspot for Internet access on the road.
Thanks for the help and input.

 

Do the cards have any lights working on them? At all? EVER? If not, then possible fuse at PCMCIA slot. Do you have the schematics/inclination to do board-level troubleshooting?

The internal WiFi hack should work as you suggest; plus would give you greater connection flexibility overall.

mnem
We are the nuts who say "Wheee!"; not to be confused with "The Knights who say Nee!", a wholly owned subsidiary of Python(Monty) Enterprises, LLC.

 

The cards do have lights that worked on Monday and they work in my other cf28. But they don't do anything in this one. Some say I am inclined to do almost anything, but I don't think it would be beneficial to said tough book. I have been looking at the wifi mod but can't find an acceptable card. Could you point me to the right one? Most of the info here about the wifi mod is a couple of years old because anyone who wants it has already done it.
What makes this site great are the people who stay involved in it.

 

For the CF-28's I have I used this.

Panasonic Toughbook Laptop WIFI Wireless Card CF28 NEW! | eBay

TYCO Laptop Wireless Mini PCI PCI-E Internal Antenna | eBay

There are better cards out there but you get the basic idea.

 

OK. I got the card and antenna from the link above.
Removed modem card from slot closest to the battery. Put new card int the slot. Attached the antenna and closed everything back up.
On reboot nothing happened. Downloaded driver from the sellers link and ran setup. still nothing. Looked in bios and found nothing about wifi.
Removed and replaced card several times to make sure it was connected well.
What am I missing?
Not sure if I will shoot it or me, first!

 

This is not like gps, it won't show up in the bios. Go to device manager and look under your network connections to see if it recognizes the card. When you put it in and booted up it should of said "new hardware found" Also if it doesn't see the card, try it in the other CF-28 you mentioned to see if you unit sees the card. If it does you may have some major hardware issues going on.