USB SD flash card disappears.

[Martin Stein]

I have a internal USB MITSUMI FA-404 FLOPPY + 7 IN 1 CARD READER. When I
plug in SD cards they are read fine. I used one for readyboost (2 GB
Sandisk). But after a while the drive disappears. It is not shown in
'Computer' any more and the drive light does not come on any more. I can
remove the card and stick it back in and the drive reappears - for a while.
I looked in the event viewer and could not see anything suspicious.
Is there a problem with my card reader, with Vista?

Thanks!

 

[Cari \(MS-MVP\)]

You may find (in Device Manager) that the PC turns them off after a while to
save power.

 

[alexB]

Make sure there are such files in this folder:

Directory of C:\Windows\Inf
angelusb.inf angelusb.PNF
irstusb.inf irstusb.PNF
stusb2ir.inf stusb2ir.PNF
usb.inf usb.PNF
usbccid.inf usbccid.PNF
usbcir.inf usbcir.PNF
usbport.inf usbport.PNF
usbprint.inf usbprint.PNF
usbstor.inf usbstor.PNF
usbvideo.inf usbvideo.PNF
wceusbsh.inf wceusbsh.PNF
wdma_usb.inf wdma_usb.PNF
winusb.inf winusb.PNF
26 File(s) 1,113,306 bytes
3 Dir(s) 53,645,410,304 bytes free
[usbhub]

Make sure there are such drivers:
Directory Windows\System32\drivers\
usb8023.sys USBAUDIO.sys
USBCAMD.sys USBCAMD2.sys
usbccgp.sys usbcir.sys
usbd.sys usbehci.sys
usbhub.sys usbohci.sys
usbport.sys usbprint.sys
USBSTOR.SYS usbuhci.sys
14 File(s) 857,472 bytes

In one of my Vistas 6 files were missing in the first directory and one
driver in second.

Although I fixed that it did not resolve the story completely. I had this
problem for many years in XP and then in Vista.

What I ended up doing after a person from another forum suggested me to do
was to purchase a Belkin Internal 5-Port USB PCI card. He purchased
Belkin's. I did not quite trust the maker but went for his pointer. It
resolved the eissue completely. I removed a firewire PCI card in the back
that I never used and plugged in Belkin. It isntalled itself and I've never
had any problems since.

This card and similar cards by other makers allow for the 5-th USB port to
be engaged. It is not exposed to the elements. It faces the internals of the
computer. However, if you have a floppy you do not need you can buy another
External USB card (not PCI) and mount it up front ripping off the floppy
drive. Thus you will have 8 fully functional USB ports and they will all
work.

I did it on 2 machines so far. I do not need to use the 5th, internal port.
I now have plenty.