Laptops and ExpressCard

**Churchill** · 4 January 2011, 17:39

Originally posted by d000hg View Post

We're finding laptops of our target users don't have dedicated graphics, which are software needs. One potential approach is an external graphics card but it requires something called ExpressCard and I am clueless about laptop hardware... it seems to be a replacement for PCMCIA cards but I don't know when it became standard/common, or how to detect if it's present... I need to give the client a way to test sample laptops as compatible.

About ExpressCard

Anyone got experience here?

You don't need to detect if the PC-Express adapter is present, just query the capabilities of all devices present.

You can do this via OpenGL or DirectX if you're into windows.

**d000hg** · 4 January 2011, 17:42

You mean something like dxdiag.exe? I need to make sure I can tell if a machine has support for EC, regardless if anything's plugged in, just so that's clear.

**Churchill** · 4 January 2011, 17:50

Originally posted by d000hg View Post

You mean something like dxdiag.exe? I need to make sure I can tell if a machine has support for EC, regardless if anything's plugged in, just so that's clear.

Not dxdiag.exe itself but the relevant function call.

The return structure from the querydevcaps call is quite comprehensive so you should find something in there that gives you a clue as to what you're looking for.

**d000hg** · 4 January 2011, 20:28

We don't want to install our software (or write custom software if we can avoid it), merely get some potential users to tell us about their PCs with as little effort as possible given that

a)I'm not talking to them directly
b)They're not very techy

There must be existing tools which will simply spit out a log about CPU, graphics, DX version, and other hardware like ExpressCard support... then I can be sent a bunch of logs and chuck the data into a spreadsheet so I can prove their PCs are useless

**FarmerPalmer** · 4 January 2011, 21:17

My Vpdafone 3G card is Expresscard. It fits in a PCMCIA slot with an adaptor (supplied with it).

**Platypus** · 5 January 2011, 13:17

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think you can upgrade a laptop's graphics by plugging in an ExpressCard.
A quick Google around seems to confirms this.

There's a good article here on upgrading a laptop's graphics card, which means taking the whole thing to bits.
Upgrading Your Laptop's Graphics Card - PCWorld

And from this website, "Does a video accelerator ExpressCard module exist? "
ExpressCard Question and Answers

**d000hg** · 5 January 2011, 16:08

You can: Village Instruments : ViDock

By the way I found msinfo32.exe is a useful tool for gathering system info, it's part of Windows.

**Platypus** · 5 January 2011, 21:05

Originally posted by d000hg View Post

You can: Village Instruments : ViDock

That's a horrible docking chassis contraption

which takes a regular PCIe card

Still, if your customers will be satisfied that that solution, you're all set.

EDIT: and satisfied with the price

**d000hg** · 5 January 2011, 21:45

Of course it takes a regular card. If you could only use ExpressCard graphics cards you would be tied to a few specialist ones... this lets you use anything.

A docking station is hardly an unusual piece of kit, and this is a fire-fighting exercise. They forgot to check if their target users had decent graphics cards despite knowing they were required, and are now panicking that the software won't run on any of their target customers. This is one possible workaround. I don't like it either.

Laptops and ExpressCard