USB Port works, but not for SD Card Reader

[magmike]

I can connect both my cell phone (using the PK2 software) and my PDA (using
palm pilots software) through my USB port, and they work fine. However, I
bought an SD Card and an SD Card Reader, and I get nothing.

First, I took the card back and exchanged it, thinking I got a bad card.
Nothing. Then I exchanged and got a different brand of card reader (the
first was San Disk, the second Lexar). Nothing.

I've searched help, done the driver troubleshooter (it doesn't think
anything is wrong), and sought help through the manufacturer. Haven't
figured out the problem yet. I assume, that putting the new card in the card
reader, and putting the card reader into the USB port, should result in my
computer thinking, "hey, we have a new device" and assigning it a drive
letter upon realizing it is a storage device. Right?

Please help!

Mike

 

[Guest]

Same thing happened to me recently. By complete fluke (was doing something
totally different) I noticed my laptop had the file usbstor.sys in
C:\Windows\System32\Drivers and my desktop didn't. I copied usbstor.inf from
C:\i386 on my laptop and pointed to this driver instead in Device Manager.

You might want to try it.

 

[magmike]

You were right, my desktop did not have the usbstor files in the
system32/drivers folder. I found them on my WindowsXP Cd and sent them to
the folder.

So how do I point my USB port to them? Do I point the Host Controller and
the Root Hub? And how do I do it? I tried Updating the Driver, but it
doesn't think it can find anything.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

It should be automatic.

 

[magmike]

"Yves Leclerc"

It should be automatic.

Well, it wasn't.

When I check the drivers under both USB Controller and USB Hub, the
usbstor.sys is not listed.

 

[Guest]

Bear with me, I'm trying to remember what I did. I seem to recall the Found
New Hardware Wiz popping up each time I connected my card reader, so when the
wiz searched for drivers I pointed it to usbstor.sys. If you don't get the
wiz, you should be able to see the reader in Device Manager and update the
driver from there.

As you can guess, I'm not an 'expert', just a fellow sufferer. Good luck.

 

[magmike]

When I plug the card reader into my system, I get nothing. Absolutely
nothing. Neither is it listed in the Device Manager anywhere, nor do I get a
hardware wizard when it is plugged in. Is there anything else that could be
wrong that Windows has no clue that I am plugging this thing in, yet knows
when I plug in other devices through the USB?

 

[Guest]

Do your other devices have manufacturer drivers instead of purely Windows
drivers? It really looks like a Windows problem because you've already said
the hardware works, therefore there's probably still some mileage in checking
the usb drivers installed.

I did a search on my pc for files named *usb*.* and found a particular one
usbport.inf in c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386. If you've got it, try right
clicking it then clicking Install. Hopefully that will give it a kick-start.

Also see if you've got usbd.sys usbehci.sys usbport.sys and usbuhci.sys
files in c:\windows\system32\drivers otherwise missing ones may stop the port
working (other manufacturer's drivers may take over for your phone etc so
they may still work).

 

[magmike]

I don't know if that will fix it or not, i'm currently searching for those
files. usbd.sys is not present. I'm not sure where to get it. However, I
just went out and bought a USB PCI card, installed it, plugged in my reader
into it, and now it works. The reader said it was compatible with USB 1.1,
but for some reason it wasn't working. At a cost, I guess I have the problem
solved. Unless you know where I can get these files you mentioned...

 

[Guest]

I found usb.inf in c:\i386 on my laptop running XP Pro although I think it
might be in c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386 on my desktop running XP Home.
It looks like installing usb.inf also copies usbd.sys to
c:\windows\system32\drivers so I'd give it a try. If you can't find usb.inf
anywhere on your pc, try searching for it on the web.

Let me know how you go.

 

[magmike]

I was able to find both of those and get them installed. To no avail,
however. Guess I am stuck with my new USB PCI card. Thanks for all your
help.

Mike