After looking at my laptop's driver issues again, it turns out the reason my cardbus isn't working is likely because of the dysfunctional cardbus drivers or PCI drivers? On some installations, plugging in a cardbus during boot will hang Windows ME into a black screen with a movable cursor, when Windows boots with a cardbus inside and works, Windows wouldn't find the proper files for the cardbus, its likely because of something wrong in drivers. In a similar case, Windows 98SE didn't install the audio driver without all updates and kept nagging me to have a file search which would fail.
I got this reply from MSFN forums
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i too worked with the dell latitude d600 on 98SE, i got all drivers to work, except for the pci cardbus bridge "PCI\VEN_1217&DEV_7112" or 7113 and cardbus controller "O2Micro-SmartCardBus_Reader-2E10", i tried like the oldest drivers for both, 2-26-02 or somewhere around there for the cardbus bridge and the other one was 10/06/2000,1.03.00.00, but i may have not properly installed the drivers, at least for the cardbus controller portion, i believe that for the "O2Micro-SmartCardBus_Reader-2E10" portion, you have to first install scbase.exe, then smclib.exe, then other steps to get it working. for the cardbus bridge, probably have to run o2update.exe to get it work, but i don't know for sure on the process, maybe the drivers arent compatible. here is some information i got below from the "O2Micro-SmartCardBus_Reader-2E10" scrreadme portion, although it is meant for the O2Micro SmartCardBus Reader (OZ711E1) reader -
O2Micro SmartCardBus Reader (OZ711E1)
Installation Readme.txt
Win2000 Installation ( V 1,0,0,0 )
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- Insert the Reader and follow Plug/Play Procedure on the screen.
Win98/Win98SE Installation ( V 1,0 ,0 ,1 )
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NOte: Since SmartCard is not a standard component of Win98/Win98SE.
please follow the procedure below befor installation.
By the way, the OZ711E1 is not included in the PCMCIA.INF
of Win98/Win98SE, so we need to execute the " O2setup.exe "
in " O2 Cardbus " directory.
- Run SCBASE.EXE FIRST, AND THEN SMCLIB.EXE on scbase directory.
- Insert the Reader and follow Plug/Play Procedure on the screen.
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ALSO from the "readme"-
Installing SmartCard driver procedure on Microsoft Windows 9x :
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Note: The Smart Card driver is only for Notebook PC models with support for Smart Cards.
If your Notebook PC does not support Smart Cards, do not install the Smart Card driver.
1. Run CDROM Driver:\SmartCard\Path\Win9XME\SCBASE.EXE
2. Run CDROM Driver:\SmartCard\Path\Win9XME\SMCLIB.EXE
3. Insert Smartcard after install above program.
4 Double-click the System icon in the Control Panel.
5. Click on "Device Manager" tab in System Properties.
6. Double-click on "O2Micro-SmartCardBus Reader"
7. Click on "Driver" tab, and click on "Update Driver" icon.
8. Click on "Next" twice.
9. Select "Specify a location:" only and click on "Browse..."
10. Please Select the Driver location. (example CDROM Drive:\SmartCard\711Driver\WIN98SE)
11. Click on "OK" button and click "Next" twice to start driver install.
12. Click on "Finish" and Reboot system to finish driver installation."
-cov3rt
I'm gonna try this tomorrow