A600 and PCMCIA cards - A Tight Fit

[paul1981]

In the near future I'd like to use a wireless pcmcia card such as the Netgear MA401 with my A600, and also maybe a CF adaptor such as the NTT DoCoMo.
I've been using those two brands of cards in my 1200 for some years now, and although they fit into the pcmcia slot on the A600, they are very tight indeed.
I'm not one for case hacking, but it seems that in order to make the cards fit as easily as they do on the 1200 then the hole for the slot needs to be made slightly taller than the standard A600 specification - this being due to the fact the the A600 motherboard/pcmcia connector seems to sit too high in relation to the actual cut out (slot) in the case.

Many of you I'm sure are happy to use these cards despite the tight fit, but what bothers me is is just how tight it is.  To get my cards to fit you have to apply a significant downward force to get them into the slot.... this has the affect of bending the motherboard at the pcmcia connector significantly.  Yes it fits, but in the long run I would fear motherboard damage and a happy circuit board is one that is not bending.
I plan on upgrading the hard drive in my A600 soon, so I will be able to have a closer look at this, and maybe I can lower the motherboard so it sits lower at the card slot end.

My queston is, what solutions have you employed to combat this (if any)?
Also, does anyone know of any A600 horror stories relating to this feature of the A600 card slot such as dry solder joints or cracked traces etc?
Thanks, Paul.

[Matt_H]

It sounds like it could just be your machine - maybe the board isn't mounted correctly inside the case? My 600 handles PCMCIA cards just fine.

[amigakit]

It could be that the ground pins on the side of the PCMCIA port have bent.  Shine a light into the PCMCIA port to see if there are any obstructions.

[paul1981]

I have two A600's... I've just now tried plugging the cards into my 2nd A600 and it doesn't fit at all!  Can't even get the cards into this one more than 1/8th inch.  Also just realised that this A600 has a different shaped slot cut out.
They're both unmodified 600's, and the slots haven't been used before, nor have they been modified, and I've checked the pins and there's no damage.  It's simply a matter of the A600's case.
Surely other people have had problems with getting their cards to fit?  Do I have two unique A600's?  (actually the 2nd A600 is actually labelled A300 on the motherboard).

[runequester]

Is the card flush against the case surrounding the slot?
It might just be a case of trimming the opening a little bit. (please don't take that out of context without buying me a beer first)

[Cammy]

My A600's PCMCIA slot was so tight nothing would fit in it, so I took the motherboard out and refitted it in the bottom half of the case with a card in the slot and screwed it back in, and now it's fine, a little tight but firm, not impossible.

[arttu80]

Actually I had similar fitment issues myself in A600 when I inserted CF card adapter in it. It surprised me, because as already mentioned A1200 doesn't have this problem. I would try rescrewing motherboard as Cammy suggested in hope it will align it better.

[paul1981]

Thank you everyone for all of your feedback.  I'd buy you all a few beers if I could!
When I upgrade the hard drive I'll make sure to take the motherboard out and see if I can get it to sit a little bit lower.  I noticed also that on both of my A600's the motherboard seems to slope downwards towards the back (you can see it on the photo's I attach if you look closely).
The A300 (which is actually an early A600HD model with 37.300 ROM) seems to be much worse in this respect, and no card will even fit into it at all.  It even has a weird slot cut out as you can see in the photo's.

[Snoozy]

"A tight fit is always a good fit" Am quoting you directly there as to when i was having trouble installing my aca1230 October last year..

So thus a very tight fit should always be a very good fit?!! Or is this a case of too tight

When i had my tight fit i used some industrial strength fiskar scissors to modify the internals of the 1200 case, but this wouldn't be possible with the 600 pcmcia slot. But you could always use a soldering iron to melt the pcmcia hole larger :roflmao:

[bbond007]

My A600's PCMCIA slot was so tight nothing would fit in it, so I took the motherboard out and refitted it in the bottom half of the case with a card in the slot and screwed it back in, and now it's fine, a little tight but firm, not impossible.

Actually, its good to do that same procedure on the A1200 with the accelerator before I did that my accelerator was sitting at an angle to the MB.

Never noticed any issues with the PCMCIA fitment other than the fact that I have always found it odd how far the cards stick out. I just tell people it is because Commodore engineers were trying to achieve better wireless signal strength