Why is Windows asking for a driver for my card reader

[Vince]

This is driving me crazy. For years I have been using a USB SD card reader with my Windows 2000 machine, and lately, when I plug it
in, I get the "New Hardware" wizard. I have confirmed with the manufacturer that no special drivers are needed for this card
reader, and it should be recognized by Windows and use the standard USB storage device drivers.

The first series of dialogs I get indicate that Windows cannot find a suitable driver for a USB Mass Storage Device. I tell it to
look on the Windows Update site, and I'm prompted to use a file C:\WINNT\inf\oem3.inf which I accept. The next series of dialogs
indicates that Windows cannot find a driver for a generic USB SD card reader. At this point I have no recourse but to cancel.,
because as far as I know, there is no such driver (and manufacturer states that no special driver is needed).

If I plug the card reader into a Windows XP machine, it works without any wizards, prompts or problems -- just the way it used to
work on W2K. It shows up as a mass storage device/external drive, and I can navigate the directories on the memory card.

Can anyone suggest things to try to get this working again on Windows 2000?

Thanks.

Vince

 

[Lars]

lately, when I plug it in, I get the "New Hardware" wizard.
Can anyone suggest things to try to get this working again on Windows 2000?

Point the wizard to the "inf" folder, under Windows. The driver is
already onboard but for some reason Windows has forgotten about it.

This happens to me occasionally, but not very often.

W2K, still the best!


Lars
Stockholm

 

[Vince]

Thanks, Lars. I just tried that again by specifying C:\WINNT\inf\ as the
path to search, but still no luck. The New Hardware wizard reports that
Windows was unable to locate a driver, and gives me the option to disable
the device, or skip driver installation.

What I find odd is that the New Hardware wizard says it is installing
"Generic USB SD Reader USB Device", when what I had expected to see was just
something like a "USB Mass Storage Device". And yes, I am certain that
there are no special drivers needed. I confirmed that with the manufacturer
and I know I never installed any drivers from the CD (the CD just contained
drivers for WIN 98).

Any other ideas?

Thanks.

Vince

 

[Lars]

Any other ideas?

Well, when I check properties for my USB drive it tells me that it
uses a driver by the name "disk.sys" which resides in
\system32\drivers

I have SP4 and my disk.sys is version 5.0.2195.6655
it is dated june 19 2003 and issued by Microsoft.

Check to make sure you have that file.

Lars
Stockholm