The wireless card in a friend's laptop has a weak signal while other laptops in the same location get Good to Excellent. I am thinking that his wireless card is of a poor quality and that purchasing a USB or PCMCIA replacement is in order. However, I am not sure which to recommend. Is there a reason to choose one over the other or are the results going to be the same.
There is no Express Card slot so PCMCIA is the only option.
well, using a usb port means you have one less port ). In general in real world conditions, the performance difference isn't that huge, so i don't think there's a huge advantage between the two
Have you tried updating the drivers first? If it's an older laptop (which it has to be to have PCMCIA) there are probably updates available that will improve performance.
first, configure the WLAN adapter and disable Power Save Mode (PSM), then check your connection again.
then i don't know which make and model we're talking about, but a decent aftermarket n-draft wlan mini-PCIe controller as a replacement might be the better solution. personally i don't like usb wlan adapter in laptops, too exposed and bound to get damaged (and causing damage to the USB port in the process).
another option would be a wireless range extender (repeater)
If the laptop has a PCMCIA slot (some have PCMCIA Express instead) then getting one of those has the advantage of being harder to knock out of the laptop than a USB adapter.
I guess you're not wanting to open the laptop up?
