OT: USB adapters for PCMCIA slots

[roccit_53 at scirocco.cs.uoguelph.ca (C Boyko)]

Okay, I'm sure some of you have had one of these at some point. I thought
this would be the magic bullet for avoiding the motherboard issues with my
old Dell Latitude, and the cardslot adapter I got has two USB ports in it,
which would be really handy, as I only have one presently. So here's the
issue. I plugged it in, and read through the instructions, and there is a
cable to go into the existing USB port, to power little devices like my
externals and iPod charger. Both of these devices are a huge pain in the
ass because my USB port is so shaky in its power delivery. And to top it
off, the new cable is a "T" shape and with my vertically oriented USB port,
the cord needs more room than there is, unless I put the lappie up on a
book or something. But the new ports won't light anything up till I run
that cable into the old port.

So, finally my question, do ALL of these adapters need to be hooked back
into the stock USB port for power? I see that there is a cable (*not
provided*) that can be plugged into normal AC power instead of the old
port, and I may go that route if there isn't a USB adapter for my card
slot. Thanks, but this just really pisses me off. It's not like I can just
run back to the store to exchange it, it's an hour's drive to get anywhere
that sells this sort of stuff.

Thanks, you can reply off list if you like and tell me that I'm a hopeless
dumbass.
cathy