Internal Card reader not recognised

[paulhodson]

I have a combined card reader and floppy disk drive which did work but the card reader has stopped working and indeed is not visible on the system at all.

I have a feeling I was used the "safely remove hardware" icon in the system tray (for some reason - don't ask!!!) which caused this.

Any ideas how to rectify it?

I am uncertain of the exact model and cannot with certainty therefore download drivers - in any case it appears that with XP (SP2 installed) drivers are not required.

Additionally I find that my external Sandisk Card reader which plugs into a USB2 port on the front of the computer has to be plugged in several times before it is recognized. Again Sandisk say no special drivers are needed for this device

Any (clearly explained!) help gratefully received

Thanks

 

[Techy]

Is the card reader visible in device manager? (it maybe listed as a "mass storage device")

The safely remove hardware will only cause hardware to be unavailable until it is disconnected and reconnected. (or the machine is rebooted)

All hardware requires a device driver to operate, Windows XP has thousands of drivers built it, so though you may not need to source the driver yourself you can be certain that XP has installed some sort of driver.

As good as XP is with drivers it sometimes get's it wrong, but if the card reader has worked ok before that there shouldn't be anything to worry about on that front.

The sandisk card reader intermittant connection issue is likely to be dirty connectors. Vacuum the ports and try again.

 

[paulhodson]

Thanks for reply. Can't see the card reader in device mananger (it used to appear in "my computer" though as far as I can remember).

I don't think the external one is dust related as it can eventually be got to work either by plugging in to the USB port several tiomes OR by connecting and re-connecting the cable at the reader end!

 

[muckshifter]

Try this ...

Start/Run and type in ... %windir%\system32\RUNDLL32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll ... copy and paste the line would be easer.

An alternative is to ...
1. Right-Click on the Task Bar
2. Select Properties
3. Under the taskbar tab, tick Hide Inactive Icons, if un-ticked, then click the Customize button
4. Select the program you wish to hide or un-hide.
5. Under the drop down box, select Always Hide, Always Show, or Hide when inactive.
6. Click OK

 

[muckshifter]

I don't think the external one is dust related as it can eventually be got to work either by plugging in to the USB port several tiomes OR by connecting and re-connecting the cable at the reader end!

Plugging in and out, in and out of a USB device is detrimental to the health of that device ... in other words ... you can break it.

You have had problems before with USB on your system ... I would get an external HySpeed powered USB hub if I were you ... in fact, I have.

 

[paulhodson]

Try this ...

Start/Run and type in ... %windir%\system32\RUNDLL32 shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL hotplug.dll ... copy and paste the line would be easer.

An alternative is to ...
1. Right-Click on the Task Bar
2. Select Properties
3. Under the taskbar tab, tick Hide Inactive Icons, if un-ticked, then click the Customize button
4. Select the program you wish to hide or un-hide.
5. Under the drop down box, select Always Hide, Always Show, or Hide when inactive.
6. Click OK

was this for me?

 

[muckshifter]

... err, no ... it's for Paul

was this for me?

Well, I sat here and looked at this thread ... and I said to myself ... "Self, we better go and have a drink".

 

[ChristopherP]

should work if you unplug it and plug it in again i did that once...

 

[paulhodson]

I did explain that this was the case in the first post ( "Additionally I find that my external Sandisk Card reader which plugs into a USB2 port on the front of the computer has to be plugged in several times before it is recognized."). However - why is this? I left the device functional when I switched off last night but when I booted up again this morning it was not recognised again and it was not until I had reconnected it three tmes that it was picked up.