Dell's built-in Smartcard Reader - I didn't know it was there

I'm a muppet! I've been using a Dell 820 laptop (other machines are available) as my main machine for six months and yet hadn't realised that it had a built-in smartcard reader. I've been using a PCMCIA smartcard reader instead. While I helped James debug his machine sleep problem he asked me "what's that in your PCMCIA slot?".

In my defence the built-in reader isn't labelled and it is located right underneath PCMCIA slot. It's worth taking a quick look at your machine if you are using an alternative smartcard reader as your system may have one too. You probably have more sense that I and found it soon after powering your machine up for the first time...

The image below shows the PCMCIA reader that I no longer need and just above it you can see my smartcard in the built-in reader.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Tademos> Err no. Does that boost the screen brightness according to the background conditions?

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  Luxury.  All I 've got is machine that generates more noise than mips!

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  August 09, 2007
  Did you see the ambient light sensor, also? I've got the D420 and this one has got the smartcard reader, too. Recognized him weeks after I got this fabulous machine :-)

• Anonymous
  August 10, 2007
  You can always take a look in device manager to see if you have a SmartCard reader installed (apart from any extra one that may have been added). I'm running a D820 too and its fab machine but my PCMCIA slot is filled up with a memory card reader as Dell don't build one of those in like most other manufacturers do - unless I've missed it somewhere :)