Upgraded sys board in m9600t solves much--EXCEPT card reader continues to fail. Any ideas?

[woxofog]

I have an HP m9600t desktop with a recently installed new system board. It now performs much better than before. (Old sys board caused BSODS, freezes, hangs, etc, etc.  Replacement installed under 3 year warranty. Old board fault Issues also covered under class action lawsuit settled by HP. See other posts on this forum. )

My one remaining issue with the m9600t is with the card reader. It never worked before with old sys board and continues not to work with new board. I have run tests with formatted xD and SD cards that my HP laptop, model dv6000, recognizes under "My Computer" icon and reads fine, no difficulties with recognition or reading. Unlike the laptop, the m9600t card reader cannot "see" either the SAME xD or SD card in the "My Computer" icon--no recognition and no reading occurs. Only the small green read light comes on.

Advice from HP Advanced support is that the two cards need to be pre-formatted, else they will not show under "My Computer" and that pre-formatting needs  to be done in the associated camera device. This seems somewhat contradictory to me, especially with regard to the xD card used in an Olympus camera. It has been camera pre-formatted and is loaded with pix that the dv6000 laptop sees with no difficulty at all--the laptop even runs a slideshow. Why cannot also the m9600t at least recognize the card, even if it does not like the formatting that the laptop has no problem with?

Am I missing something here? Should not the m9600t card reader "see" even an unformatted xD card under the "My Computer" icon and issue a warning accordingly?  For example "preformat with the camera" or something similar?

Same question about the SD card. Even if unformatted (and the laptop thinks it IS formatted), should not the desktop "see" it in "My Computer" and issue advice to preformat?

  woxofog

[CherylG]

Sounds like a bad card reader, imo.

[woxofog]

Yeah, I agree, but I have no luck  convincing HP advanced support. They insist that preformatting is the answer, which strikes me as totally irrelevant for known "to be readable" cards--totally unhelpful advice. My next move, to at least get their attention, will be to file a claim under my three year warranty. So it goes with HP . . .   

woxofog   

[Hanspuppa]

---

woxofog wrote: Yeah, I agree, but I have no luck  convincing HP advanced support. They insist that preformatting is the answer, which strikes me as totally irrelevant for known "to be readable" cards--totally unhelpful advice. My next move, to at least get their attention, will be to file a claim under my three year warranty. So it goes with HP . . .    woxofog   

---

Hello woxofog, You might try calling the Case Manager that you talked with about your original issue regarding the defective motherboard. Just mention you have formated the SD cards and still they are not usable.

I also agree with you and CherylG, that the Card Raeder is faulty.

[woxofog]

Hello Hanspuppa,

Nice to hear from you again!

Re case manager X at HP, I did report the issue with him, as part of an overall report he inquired about, re the sys board repair. We had a minimal discussion about the m9600t's "good news" re stability, etc.  and a very poor discussion about the card reader, his repetitious "you must preformat" advice becoming ever more abrupt when I kept asking questions about what I pereceived to be an unhelpful suggestion, mainly because the dv6000 laptop DID recognize the two cards, an xD and an SD

His advice boiled down to this; HP card readers will NOT recognize an unformatted card--no "card image" will appear under "My Computer" and no formatting is thus possible with the computer. A user must preformat with the camera or similar device. I said my xD card was loaded with pix and so must have been preformatted with the Olympus digital camera, but still the m9600t card reader would not recognize it. He pointed out that all digital cameras have a preformat option. So, I said, I must offload the pix onto the laptop, put the xD card in the camera and format it again? Answer yes.  Frankly at this point I did not believe it and no longer had any confidence in X

This desktop card reader failure is not a big issue with me, as  the laptop reader works fine, and HP apparently has no solution if I did invoke the warranty, other than to send them the machine for repair. That is not going to happen, as for the first time ever, the present configuration is truly stable. (I include a dead card reader as also a stable device!   Who knows what mucking around with a dead reader would do to present stability?)

After the sys board replacement a week ago today (last Friday), I did post an addendum report (last Saturday, to get  proper closure to our ongoing dialog at the time) re the "good news"--machine now stable. If you have not read it, you might wish to do so, as I describe interesting RAM anomalies Belarc discovered and reported, pre and post sys board replacement.

woxofog

[Hanspuppa]

Hello woxofog, From what I know about media not being accessable, the Case Manager X may be correct when he advised that the HP Card Reader will not access an unformated SD card. This is the same as with any unformated device, be it a hard drive or CD\DVD disk.

That is not what you are dealing with as I understand it. You have a SD card that has images on it stored on the SD card from the camera. In order for these images to be stored on the SD card, the card would need to be formated by the camera before any images could be stored on the SD card.

The Card Reader is just not recognizing a properly formated SD card.

You might try contacting another Case Manager and try to convience the new Case Manager of the issue.

HP should send a Technician out to your location, just as they did with the motherboard replacement.

You just have to get a Case Manager that will listen. Believe me, I have dealt with maybe 50 or more HP Case Managers, and none of them have the same expertise or willingness to help, as the some of the others I have had interaction with.

[woxofog]

Hello Hanspuppa,

Good advice as usual. I especially like the notion of in-house repair, no packing, mailing or hauling to the nearest HP repair facility.

Minor point--it is an xD card, not SD, that is formatted with pix that the laptop recognizes. xD is the smallest card, SD is the next size larger (I think, anyway the SD is bigger). The SD is a SanDisk 4 GB Ultra card that the laptop also recognized at once, when inserted directly from its plastic display protection, NO preformatting.

I use an SD Ultra for its ReadyBoost properties, which indirectly increase the laptop's 1 GB installed DIMM stick. Both cards, as is, work just fine in the laptop. Neither card is recognized by the Desktop m9600t.

I will meditate on the idea of further hassling with HP and decide upon a "minimal stress" course of action.

Woxofog,

[Hanspuppa]

Hello woxofog, I checked on the HP Card Reader specifications just to make sure it supported your xD Flash card, and I found the below information.

Supports the following cards:

CompactFlash I

CompactFlash II

IBM Microdrive

SecureDigital (SD)

mini-SD

MultiMediaCard (MMC)

Reduced size MultiMediaCard (RS-MMC)

MultiMediaCard Plus (MMC plus)

MultiMediaCard Mobile (MMC mobile)

Memory Stick

Memory Stick Pro

Memory Stick Duo

Memory Stick Pro Duo

SmartMedia

xD-Picture Card (xD = extreme digital)

Just wanted to make sure your xD card was suported.

[woxofog]

Hello Hanspuppa,

Good information to know. I seem to recall that HP describes the m9600t as having a "15 in 1" card reader, and I count fifteen items on your listing--Good Grief!!  (as Charley Brown might say). Why do we need so many?

Anyway it was very nice to find the xD highlight-listed. Thanks for the research. You get a Kudo.

Woxofog