XP Pro computer does not recognize the card reader ports

[BobS]

I have a HP Media Center PC (Pavilion a1250n) which is only a few months old
and ran fine until recently. Now it will not recognize a Memory Card Reader
slot. I do not have the proper sized cards to fit into all of the slots,
but when I put my SD card in, nothing happens. Can someone here help me?

Thank you in advance.
Bob

 

[Malke]

I have a HP Media Center PC (Pavilion a1250n) which is only a few
months old
and ran fine until recently. Now it will not recognize a Memory Card
Reader
slot. I do not have the proper sized cards to fit into all of the
slots,
but when I put my SD card in, nothing happens. Can someone here help
me?

Thank you in advance.
Bob

Does your SD card work in any other SD slot?

Malke

 

[BobS]

It does not fit in any of the other slots on the face of the computer.
However, I also have a Dell 942 with memory Card reader. And it works fine
there.

 

[Malke]

It does not fit in any of the other slots on the face of the computer.
However, I also have a Dell 942 with memory Card reader. And it works
fine there.

The point was to determine if it was your card or your reader at fault.
Apparently it is the reader. Try a different SD card in the slot. If it
doesn't read, call HP tech support because that is a hardware problem
and you have a *new* computer.

Malke

 

[Ron Sommer]

Did you use Safely Remove Hardware to remove a card from the reader?
Have you rebooted the computer?

 

[BobS]

Thanks for responding Ron.
I have rebooted several times.
However, I doubt that I did use Safely Remove Hardware to remove the card
from the reader. Now, I do not even see the safely remove hardware show up
in the system tray while the card is in the reader. What should I do now?
Bob

 

[Ron Sommer]

If you go to My Computer, are there 4 removable drives listed for the card
reader?

 

[BobS]

No there are not. Initially, when I did that I found NO removable drives
for the card reader. The only removable drives were my DVD-rom and my DVDRW
drive. After I did a power Off/On, I now see one more removable drive
(Drive K). What next?
Bob

 

[Ron Sommer]

The DVD-rom and my DVDRW icons should show a drive with a CD.
The removable drive has a different icon.
See if the drive will read a card.
You will not get a card read without a removable drive being listed in My
Computer.

 

[BobS]

Yes, the two DVD icons have a CD in them. The icons for the removable
drives look like the icons for the Harddrives. I am not sure how to "see if
the drive will read a card". Here is what I have for drive letters.
C & D are hard drives (D being HP_Recovery).
E & F are the DVD drives.
G, H, I, & J are reserved for the USB ports (3 on the front and 1 left empty
in the back). If I plug a thumbdrive into any one of these empty USBs, it
will become G. The next one filled will become H ...
None of these (G, H, I, J) are listed in the My Computer until I stick in a
drive into the port.
Whenever I do a cold boot, there is a letter K next to a removable disk in
"My Computer".
It seems like this "K" must be either the firewire port or the Card Reader.

What now?
Bob

 

[Ron Sommer]

My Computer, right click on a drive, Properties, Hardware tab, is there a
USB Card Reader USB Device?
That should be K.
Put a SD card in the slot.
Does the light come on?

Go to My Computer with a card in the slot.
Right click on K, Format, is anything shown under volume label?
If not label it SD Card.
Now when you insert the SD card, Removable Disk should change to SD Card.

 

[BobS]

This was helpful.
When I put the SD card in the slot (on my computer's card reader), the light
does NOT come on. However, it does if I put the SD card into the card
reader on my printer.

I put the card in the slot, right-clicked K, Format and put SD card in the
label. However, it said it could not format that drive.

What next?

 

[Ron Sommer]

If K is the SD slot on the printer and the light nevers comes on with the
computer SD slot, then I question if the computer SD slot is connected or
installed.

After you put SD card in the Volume label, do not have anything checked
under Format.

 

[BobS]

The SD card slot has operated in the past. How can I reinstall the SD drive
(or the card reader)?

When I tried to format K this time I added the Volume label and did not
check anything. But still it gave me the error message
"Windows cannot format this drive. Quit any disk utilities or other
programs that are using this drive, and make sure that no window is
displaying the contents of the drive. Then try formatting again."

What do I do about this? Thanks again for your help.

Bob