P-Series Drives - Technical Information and Product Specifications Index.

If you have a problem with your PCI adapter and it was not made by Elan, the information in these pages may be useful to you but we cannot offer you technical support;  however, we are confident that our products are the very best available, so why not contact us to try one of our own models?

We have been producing and using this product range for several years now so have accumulated a lot of experience and information which we have tried to present as clearly as possible on these pages.  If you have any comments or suggestions about our web site please let us know.

• Technical Specifications
• Installation procedure for Windows O/S.
• Troubleshooting P-Series adapters in Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP
• Using the P-series in LINUX
• Connecting the cables for the external / front bay adapters.
• Front bay adaptors for 5 1/2" drive bays
• Can I use my CardBus PCMCIA card in my front-bay or external P-Series adapter?
• System Soft CardWizard - third party Card and Socket Services drivers for NT4
• Current driver software version
• Models, Selection Guide and Ordering Information

Installation Procedure 

YOU MUST INSTALL THE DRIVER SOFTWARE FOR THE P-SERIES DRIVE TO WORK!

Before you install the P-Series hardware, you should install the software drivers. This is so that Windows does not recognize the hardware and install it's own drivers that do not work with the P-Series hardware. 

Once you have installed the P-Series drivers, you should power down and insert the hardware, then re-start your PC.

As Windows re-starts, you should see the "New hardware Wizard" detect the hardware and may be prompted for the Windows disks, just follow the on-screen instructions. At the end of this process, you should be asked to re-boot the machine. If Windows boots straight to the normal desktop, and you have not been instructed to re-boot your PC, you should do so now.

Once you have re-booted the PC, you can check the PC-Card adapter is installed correctly by double clicking on the "PC-Card (PCMCIA)" icon in the control panel (not Windows 2000). The number of PC-Card slots you have should be displayed, you should then be able to insert a PC-Card and information about the card should be displayed in this dialog box. In Windows 2000, Windows Me and Windows 9x, when you insert a PC-Card, an icon should appear next to the clock in the task bar, you can double click on this icon to see the same details about the PC-Card etc.

Windows XP:
The current version of the P-Series Windows 2000 driver also works with Windows XP. Just install it in the normal way and ignore the message indicating you should install Service Pack 1.

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Front Bay Adaptors

To use the P113 (designed for 3 1/2 inch front bay) in a 5 1/2 inch bay you can buy an adaptor that fits around the P113 so that it fits into the larger slot.  These are available from "all good computer stores" as well as PC peripheral catalog stores.

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Can I use my CardBus PCMCIA card in my front-bay or external PSeries adapter?

Not on any of Elan's quality designed adapters - and we would not recommend any other manufacturer's adapter if they suggest that you can.

More information
Our range of CardBus adapters are carefully designed to meet the PCI Bus and PC-Card standards. The CardBus specification defines: "The maximum trace lengths for all interface signals are limited to 1.5 inches (38.1mm)"  between the CardBus controller and the socket.  (This is so that the propagation delays and transmission line effects of the signals down the PCB tracks do not become significant enough to cause data corruption. A similar specification also exists for the PCI Bus.)
For this reason it is not possible to manufacture an CardBus adapter that supports CardBus cards on a socket at the end of a ribbon cable (which is required to physically get from the PCI socket to the front, or outside, of the PC's case). To use CardBus cards you will need either a P111 or a P222. 

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How do I connect the cables on my P223/224/P423/P424 Adaptor?

The ribbon cables are paired for each socket, so you should have been supplied with four ribbon cables. Notice that each of the ribbon cables is marked with a red conductor which indicates pin one, and that two of the ribbon cables have polarizing inserts so that it is not possible to cross-connect the ribbon cables. A pair of cables for one socket is made up of one ribbon cable with polarizing inserts and one without.

Now, look carefully at the PCB markings on the PCI plug in board and the socket board PCB. On the PCI board, there are markings (a small triangle) indicating which end of the connectors are pin 1, and which group of connectors form socket #1 (PLA1 & PLA2) and which socket #2 (PLB1 & PLB2).
You will also notice that one of the pairs of connectors for each socket has a pin missing (PLA2 & PLB2). 
Now look at the socket board, you will notice similar markings.

Connect the cables so that:
1) PLA1 on the socket board is connected to PLA1 on the PCI board.
2) PLA2 on the socket board is connected to PLA2 on the PCI board.
3) PLB1 on the socket board is connected to PLB1 on the PCI board.
4) PLB2 on the socket board is connected to PLB2 on the PCI board.

Make sure you line up each ribbon cable so that the red conductor lines up with pin 1 on each connector and the ribbon cable with the polarizing insert is connected to a connector with a pin missing.

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Current Driver Version

The current P-series driver version is 5.05; you can download new drivers but note that these will only work with a genuine Elan manufactured product purchased from Team Solutions, Inc. or Ines GmbH.  If you have any questions, contact your supplier for assistance.

Models using these drivers:

P111 - P222 - P423 - P424 - P113 - P114 - P115 - P116 - P117 - P118 - P119 - P122 - P223 - P224 - P228.

Downloading Software Drivers for PCI-to-PCMCIA Adapters:

IMPORTANT:  Please read this information carefully before trying to install these drivers....

Downloadable from this page is the latest version of the P-Series drivers, supporting Windows9x, Me, NT4.0 & 2000 and XP.
To install, you should firstly uninstall any previous revision of the driver (via the Control Panel Add/Remove Programs). It is not necessary to remove the hardware, just any PC-Cards you have inserted. Copy the attached zip file to a temporary directory and extract all the files using WinZip or other zip file utility (go to http://www.winzip.com/ for the latest copy if required), then run setup.exe and follow the on-screen instructions.

These drivers are only for use with the range of PC-Card/Card Bus adapters for the PCI bus products sold by Team Solutions, Inc. and Ines GmbH. They can NOT be used with adapters made by other manufacturers. If your adapter has an "Elan Technology License" label attached to it, or your original driver floppy disk has such a label, then your hardware is not manufactured by Elan and these drivers will not work, so do not install them. You should go to your supplier for a driver that is compatible with your hardware.

You will need a password as the zip file is password protected.  The password can be found by looking in the licence.txt file on your original driver disk. The password is the last word in the section headed "Reverse Engineering"

Please contact Team Solutions, Inc. or Elan Digital Systems for assistance if you have any questions.

Download the driver at our new website: www.TeamPCTechnology.com

Search For: P-Series Driver

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