Why can’t you use your laptop expansion slots?

You want to add a FireWire port to your laptop, so you’ve selected a CardBus adapter that includes multiple ports on a single expansion card. When you slide the card into your laptop, however, the card will not insert completely into the slot. What’s the most likely cause of this problem?

A) The CardBus card is faulty

B) The laptop’s CardBus slot is disabled

C) The laptop slot is an ExpressCard slot

D) The FireWire adapter requires additional power

E) You need a big, big hammer

The answer: C) The laptop slot is an ExpressCard slot

Although there are similarities between the CardBus format and the ExpressCard format, the ExpressCard slot is not backwards compatible with CardBus. In these cases, a simple adapter can be purchased that allow a CardBus adapter to be used on a computer with ExpressCard slots.

Want to know more? Watch “Bus Architectures and Expansion Slots.” An important consideration of the very first IBM personal computer was including standardized expansion slots so the end-user could customize their system. In this video, you’ll learn about bus architectures and expansion slots, including PCI, PCI Express, AGP, and CardBus.