Problem with my memory card reader on my laptop

Tommy Boy

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So one time when I popped my sdhc card from my phone into the card reader on my laptop it started installing some driver that I didn't catch the name of. It never did this before and it worked before as well. I also have used the sdhc card from my fs200 camcorder many many times without a problem.

Here's the problem. After installing that driver or update or whatever it was, when I insert one (doesn't matter which one) of my sdhc cards the led on the card reader blinks like it's reading, and stopping, then reading, then stopping, like once a second. The little "safely remove hardware" icon shows up and disappears at the same time as well and the pc keeps making that "ding dong" sound when you plug something in. It does it in both Vista and Windows 7 because it installed that piece of software in both. I've tried downloading the drivers from HP for my laptop and that hasn't worked. I uninstalled the drivers and reinstalled a couple times and nothing has worked.

It's a Ricoh 5 in 1 media card reader, laptop is an HP DV9700T, C2D T7500, 4gb ram, Nvidia 8400M GS GPU, running Vista home premium.

Anybody have any ideas?
 
When you installed Windows 7, was it still working in Vista? In another words, did this problem only appear after you started dual-booting? I don't think this should be happening, but if you have the drivers installed for both OS's they could be contradicting each other. Again, this shouldn't even matter because once you boot into one of the OS the other shouldn't have any effect.

Try some of the solutions here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01564223&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3650971

Try this driver one more time (but only install on Vista): http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&os=2093&product=3650971
 
When you installed Windows 7, was it still working in Vista? In another words, did this problem only appear after you started dual-booting? I don't think this should be happening, but if you have the drivers installed for both OS's they could be contradicting each other. Again, this shouldn't even matter because once you boot into one of the OS the other shouldn't have any effect.

Try some of the solutions here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01564223&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3650971

Try this driver one more time (but only install on Vista): http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&os=2093&product=3650971
Thanks for those links Joga I'll try some of those solutions in the first link and the driver in the second link is the one I downloaded and have tried with no avail.

The dual boot doesn't have anything to do with it, I've been dual booting Vista and W7 for quite a while now. To be honest, I think that was the first time I've used the memory card reader in W7 since I have all the software and my video folders and such set up in Vista because I had the camcorder before I started dual booting the 2 os's. You're right though, there is no reason it should be doing this......maybe there is something wrong with the interface on the motherboard? I've also noticed lately that my fingerprint reader isn't working at all.

Maybe there is something wrong with the actual card reader?
 
It could well be a hardware problem. After all, they're not meant to last forever. By the way, where did you find W7 drivers for that card reader? The website didn't list any. Try cleaning your registry and running it on Vista. Again, I don't know if it would make any differences, but there might be software conflict as you said that was the first time you used it in W7 and you also had the camcorder before you installed W7. I would say try uninstalling W7, but that's too much of a hassle, especially if you have programs and files saved to that OS. Ultimately, this really is a curious case. Although hardware could be the culprit, it seems too coincidental that both the fingerprint reader and the card readers would stop working at the same time (or close to the same time).
 
It could well be a hardware problem. After all, they're not meant to last forever. By the way, where did you find W7 drivers for that card reader? The website didn't list any. Try cleaning your registry and running it on Vista. Again, I don't know if it would make any differences, but there might be software conflict as you said that was the first time you used it in W7 and you also had the camcorder before you installed W7. I would say try uninstalling W7, but that's too much of a hassle, especially if you have programs and files saved to that OS. Ultimately, this really is a curious case. Although hardware could be the culprit, it seems too coincidental that both the fingerprint reader and the card readers would stop working at the same time (or close to the same time).
well, I used the Vista 64-bit drivers for all my hardware in W7, everything seems to work okay...cept for the media card reader, and the fingerprint reader works again.

I think you're on the right track with a conflict in W7, I'm going to uninstall the memory card reader from W7 and see if that helps. It does seem coincidental that the first time I used it in W7 it screws it up in Vista......
 
Well I got it fixed, sorry I forgot to post.

I spent $9 on an SD card reader from Walmart....problem solved.

I was tired of pissing around with it.
 
Boot to safe mode menu. Select "Last known good configuration". See if that fixes it. If not use system restore to roll back to just past when the problem started and use a virgin sd card to test.
I'd bet real money it loaded a driver that is not compatible with HP and the built in reader. Might want to contact HP to see about getting the right w7/vista drivers.
 
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