DuelAdapter: Don’t waste your money.

I just received a DuelAdapter for use with my splendid new Lenovo S10 IdeaPad.

The DuelAdapter (http://www.duel-systemsadapters.com/) is a device that is supposed to allow you to use older PCMCIA cards in the newer ExpressCard slots featured on new laptops such as the Lenovo S10. I have an AT&T cellular modem card that I use on my Lenovo T61p, and wanted to use the same card on my S10.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that the DuelAdapter is incompatible with the Lenovo S10 Ideapad. After I installed the driver software, I plugged the adapter into the S10′s ExpressCard slot and got… a Windows Code 12 error, meaning that either the Windows OS, the BIOS or some combination of both was unable to come up with the resources (memory, interrupts, I/O, etc). necessary to make the damn thing work.

After many hours of upgrading drivers, my BIOS, and googling around and trying everything I could find, I finally gave up. One thing I did learn from googling was that there were many other people who experienced similar problems, on a variety of different hardware platforms, and that the DuelSystems folks were mostly unhelpful. This leads me to believe that the DuelAdapter just isn’t ready for primetime. Unless the DuelSystem’s website explictly states that your computer and PC Card are supported by this product, I’d save myself the trouble and expense.