Make PCMCIA card usable

[Mircea541]

Hello, I have bought a PCMCIA card and I cannot make it work. Brand is GM Tech, 32M. Even though this format is obsolette, I need it specifically for a project. 

 

To connect it to the computer, I have a new PCI board specific for this. It has already come with its own drivers, however Windows asks for the card driver itself. I have managed and installed CardWare from APsoft which came with drivers so that now Windows recognizes the card as a storage unit(it does now appear in Disk Management though!). 

 

When I try to format it with basic Windows tool, it says card is write protected and cannot do it, same with other software too. There is no physical switch on the card to deactivate that, like SD cards have. 

There are only some connectors on the circuit that look like they can be soldered and switched. 

 

What should I do to remove the write protection? Solder certain connectors? Find better drivers? Other tips? 

[Needfuldoer]

Well there's a blast from the past! I haven't seen one of those in the wild in years.

 

13 minutes ago, Mircea541 said:

There is no physical switch on the card to deactivate that, like SD cards have. 

Are there any solder pads that look like they could be switch contacts on the other side of the board in this general area?

 

 

It could also be these solder pads; the middle and right need to be bridged instead of the middle and left:

 

 

(The arrow on the label could mean "move the switch this way" instead of "the switch is here".)

[Mircea541]

On 8/6/2025 at 12:51 PM, Needfuldoer said:

could also be these solder pads; the middle and right need to be bridged instead of the middle and left

Yup, I've soldered them and now it works. First try was unsuccessful, second one worked, for some reason.

 

Now I can access the card using both MCE and Cardware. However, only raw read and write data would work. Still not posibile to format it using Windows. 

 

It's not ideal to have it in this state, writing multiple files on it or other types than .bin might be an issue and would not work for the console I need the card for.