Another 5-in-1 Media Card Reader Question, ZV6000 Series

[JasonON]

I have the Pavillion ZV61000 (PN494AV)  that has worked fantastically for the past 4 years.  I recently upgraded the RAM from 1gig to 2 and installed a new hard drive and thusly re-loaded XP Professional from the "recovery" disk shipped with the laptop.

I have been to HP Total Care and updated all the drivers through there and to update.microsoft.com to update even more drivers.

However, the only thing that doesn't seem to be working is the built in 5-in-1 media card reader.  On on SD (2gig) SD card it wants me to format it and when I try, it then refuses to format the card and my HP 4Gig SD card from my DSLR, will not even show in My Computer.   Device Manager shows everything working fine.

Today I went to HP.com and downloaded the suggested driver sp30714.exe   ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp30501-31000/sp30714.exe and installed it with no success.

I have read all over the internet where people are havng the same problems with their 5-in-1 meda readers from a varety of  Pavillion notebook lines.

All I know, for me, the reader worked fine until I re-loaded XP and  have to assume the driver is bad or outdated.  However, none of the ones from HP.com or Microsoft seem to be working either.  The cards (both the 2 and 4 gig) are readable on the laptop from USB external readers, so I can assume it's not a SD card recognition problem, but rather a physical or software card reading issue for the built in reader and since the reader was working fine under the original XP installation, I have to assume it's a software difficulty between Windows and the reader, hence a driver issue.

I performed a forum search and while some of the problems are simlar they were not with my particular HP model and I'm not sure if that's a factor in resolving the issue. 

Any other suggestions? 

[JasonON]

Really?  No one has an idea?  Could anyone please tell me the manufacturer of the internal card reader and the model number?  Maybe I need an updated driver from them.  Thanks, 

[Gangles]

If the card works in other machines/usb connector and does not work in the card reader, If you did a factory recovery and installed all the drivers applicable and you are still having the issues...the problem is with the card reader.

[JasonON]

Hi Gangles, 

Thanks for the reply but I seriously doubt that it's the reader as the reader is able to read 2Gig and below cards, but not my 4Gig SDHC which it was able to before the re-loading of WinXP.

I think I'm missing some driver update or something but no one seems to be know the answer.  I figured the HP support forums would ...  

[Gangles]

This board is filled with both hp employees speaking on their own behalf and not 'representing' hp and other consumers like you. Sometimes if the issue is not black and white it might take awhile to get a resolution. I understand your situation is frusterating and I will  assist you the best I can. can you please post your P/N so I can better assist you?

[JasonON]

According to HP Total Care and the bottom of my Pavillion it's PN494AV.

I know I've been able to read 4gig and higher cards before the HDD change as I'm a photographer and have used SDHC cards in the past (my dSLR will only take up to a 4gig).  I'm pretty sure I did some sort of fix in the past, but it's been years at the earliest and I cannot find what I did online anywhere.

Any help is appreciated.

Is the multi card reader a texas instruments pci 6xx1/7xx1 or a TI PCIxx21/x515 or do I have it wrong all together?

[Gangles]

I see that your unit is a custom built model so I cannot tell you the exact hardware that came with your unit unless you supply the serial number as well. I am not requesting that information at this time. Based on the information you have provided me I do not have a clear indication on what could be causing the problem. I am going to get you to install a few things. Some you may have done before.

here is your media card reader driver. I am assuming you have already attempted this:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-36022-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&...

reinstalling an operating system will not roll back a BIOS version, but flashing it will/should reset any settings that may be conflicting with hardware, or fix any communication issues on the chip. Please make sure that you have all applications closed and the notebook plugged in before applying this update

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-43144-1&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&...

In all honesty this may not resolve your issue but I would like you to follow these steps and post any applicable error messages with the installation of the driver. Once the driver is installed please go into device manager and tell me if there is any error messages on the driver or if it says that it is 'working correctly'. If there is a yellow ! on the driver right click and go to properties to give me the error code

My next question is after the recovery did you install any major software programs or anti virus programs? you said that you are a photographer. Did you install any photoshop or other applicable software programs after a recovery? did you notice this issue right after you re-installed the OS and no 3rd party software was installed?

[JasonON]

I've installed that driver a few times now, going so far as to uninstall the driver and reloading from scratch, but have had no success.  I went ahead and tried it agains since you asked, but it doesn't work.  I've read online that SP3 is supposed to allow me to read SDHC cards and I tried this card in two separate external USB readers and had no success, but it works fine in my dSLR (one of the external readers wanted me to format it, the other wouldn't even recognize the card).

I updated the BIOS to the .1C version as described on my product's page. 

I was searching the web for answers and something struck a memory from the first time I had this problem: I downloaded and installed a hotfix from Microsoft.com which gave me the ability to read SDHC cards.  However, when I tried that again, the computer tells me SP3 resolves that issue.  Apparently not on my machine.

Aside from FIREFOX, CHROME, Google Earth and Photoshop, this compuer does not have any 3rd party software yet, so I don't see how that would be an issue. Especially since all these programs were on the previous drive as well plus others.

Device Manager shows no errors.  For the PCIxx21 Flash Memory Reader it is reading version 2.0.0.1, if that is correct.

Thanks for working with me on this.

Jason

Message Edited by JasonON on 08-13-2009 04:03 PM

[Gangles]

Thank you for folowing my instructions. it gives me a better Idea on how to address the issue. You are correct. the software you installed is not appliable to the issue. I was not aware of the hotfix in regards to microsoft. I have found it on microsoft.com. I do understand that SP3 fixes the issue that  you are having and you have SP3 installed. What I do not have an answer to is if you attempted to install the hotfix anyway to see if it will install or tell you that you already have the update. This is our next step. please review this page and attempt to install the hotfix. it SHOULD be with Sp3 anyway. Install/attempt this and report back the result or if your issue is resolved

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/934428

[JasonON]

Wento site, verified my Windows OS and downloaded the Hotfix.  Whn I tried to install it I window pops up telling me

"Setup has detected that the Service Pack version of this systems is newer than the update you are applying.  There is no need to install this update."

...and it does not give me the opporunity to install it anyway.