Mysterious Extra Card Slot

[Zaune]

I've had this laptop (an Asus EeePC 1001P) for over six months now, but it's only two weeks ago that I noticed something behind the battery compartment that looks very much like a port for a SIM or MicroSD card. It has no markings besides an arrow and a rectangle with one corner cut out.
I'm inclined to think it's a SIM card slot going by it's position, but nothing I can find in either the Device Manager or the laptop's original specs suggest the presence of an internal 3G modem, or more than one SD card slot for that matter. Is it an artefact of the same case being used for multiple models?

[AMX]

Is it an artefact of the same case being used for multiple models?

Almost certainly.
I've seen the same on a Dell once - the model without a 3G modem still has the SIM card slot in the case, it just doesn't do anything.

[Zaune]

Looks like you're right. There is an inexplicable duplicate entry under "modems" in the Network Connections folder, but that could be caused by something else entirely.

Oh, well, so much for saving the price of a new Internet stick.

[someone_else]

Sometimes hardware is not even detected as "unknown device" (or misinterpreted as some obscure device grouped in a long list of random stuff) unless the computer has a driver for it.

Happened with a modem on a lappy, the card reader and bluetooth on this netbook I'm using now.

Asus's driver page for your model does indeed show 3G modem drivers.

Try to install such drivers (choose your OS of course, I just picked the first) and see if the thing gets recognized.

You can also follow this a video of RAM/HDD upgrade to just open and have a look at the hardware.

Chances are that it's just a matter of soldering a component on it and find a way to give it power, since I doubt they made different motherboards for the 3G version, but if you're not into hacking hobby it's better if you just look at it.

[Zaune]

I installed it, and got a program that apparently acts as a generic driver and connection manager, which might have been immensely helpful back in Britain; the drivers bundled with my old Three stick were absolutely lousy, to the point where I got a noticeably stronger and more consistent connection when running Linux. It didn't detect any onboard 3G modems however, though I suppose it's possible it only shows up as one when the SIM card is inserted.

Thanks for the link to that video, though. I need to take this thing to bits and blow the dust out of it anyway.