Internal SD Card Reader not recognised after update to Windows 10 on HP nw8240 workstation

[George1157]

Hi,

I upgraded my Compaq nw8240 workstation laptop back in 2015 and after the usual initial teething problems it has been working reasonably smoothly. However, it is now running out of hdd space so I bought a 128Gb SD card. Unfortunately, Windows doesn't recognise the SD card and doesn't even recognise that an SD card reader is installed. This same card reader worked fine on Win7 prior to upgrade but I haven't used it since the upgrade.

1. The SD card is recognised and works fine in other laptops and desktops.
2. I've downloaded and installed the most current SD Card Reader driver directly from Realtek but it still does not show up in Device Manager under any category.
3. It does not show up in Disk Management so I cannot manually assign it a drive letter (as suggested elsewhere) - only the 2 physical hdds and one partition show up.
4. I ran the Hardware & Devices Troubleshooter - it finds some devices but not the Realtek SD Card Reader. Irrespective of that I checked status of the devices Troubleshooter found and updated all their drivers (actually, all installed drivers turned out to be the latest available anyway).

I am truly at my wits end with this issue so any additional pointers would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, George:

Your mobile workstation does not have the Realtek card reader.

The card reader is a TI device.

The is the latest driver available for the TI card reader, so hopefully it will work on W10.

2.0.0.9

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp43501-44000/sp43509.exe

It worked for my nc6400 with the same card reader on W10.

The only other thing I can write is that I very highly doubt any SD card greater than 4 GB will work in that model.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the amazingly quick response and the info of course.

I'm flabergasted about the card reader being TI not Realtek, I'm sure I got that from the specs on the HP Product support site a few weeks ago (it's not showing in System Info unless I'm not looking in the right place).

In any case I've installed the TI driver but it still isn't showing up in File Explorer, nor Device Manager, nor Disk Management.

Can you think of anything else I might do to troubleshoot further?

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, George.

If you look at the support page for your model, it has an older Vista TI card reader driver than the one I gave you.

There is no Realtek hardware of any kind in your notebook...ethernet, audio or card reader.

I just fired up my nc6400 notebook and when I look at this model's device manager, the only SD related device is a SD host adapter.

So then I inserted a 16 MB (not a typo) SD card and Windows made the connection sound and a new device manager category popped up called Portable Devices.  I clicked on that, and it showed my SD card.

In Windows Explorer (This PC), it shows up as Drive E:.

So, that is the right driver I gave you and it works on W10 even though it was originally written for Vista.

Try a smaller SD card <than 4 GB and see what happens.

Also check your PC's BIOS>System Configuration>Port Options>Flash Media Reader>Enable

If nothing happens, then the read head on your SD card reader is bad.

[George1157]

Hi Paul.

Thanks again. Finding a small SD card took some doing I can tell you but finally found one which was 2Gb. I checked it in another laptop and it works and has readable files on it. Tried it in the nw8240 but it still doesn't get seen by File Explorer, Device Manager nor Disk Management so it rather looks like the read head on the reader might be goosed after all as you suspect.

I looked in BIOS but don't appear to have anything called "Port Opions" anywhere in the menus. The closest I've found is Boot Options which show 7 types in order of booting; Notebook Hard Drive, Notebook Multibay, USB Floppy, USB SuperDisk,

USB CD-ROM, USB Harddisk and Notebook Ethernet but nothing resembling Flash Media Reader. Am I looking in the right place?

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, George:

My nc6400 has the following BIOS menus on the top gray bar:

File      Security     Diagnostics     System Configuration

Under the System Configuration menu, there is a Port Options section.

Under the Port Options section, there are the following options:  All of these options are Enabled

Serial Port

Infrared Port

Parallel Port

Flash Media Reader (this is the SD card slot)

USB Port

Cardbus Slot

Express Card Slot

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

Mine has File, Security, Tools and Advanced.

File is just info, restore defaults, ignore or save changes.

Security is all about passwords and system IDs

Tools has HDD self test, Memory test and Battery info.

Advanced has Language, Boot options (as in previous reply) and Device Options has control keys, lan, wlan etc but nothing about Ports and in any case all options are enabled.

Do you think it's worth updating the BIOS to see if the port options appear or is that a step too far?

Also, do you know of another way to test the reader head?

Cheers.

George

PS Not sure where you are but it's midnight in UK so that's my lot for today. Thanks for your patience

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi, George:

I don't think that updating the BIOS would make a difference, and you would have to do it in DOS, because a BIOS update probably won't work in W10.

Unfortunately, I don't know how to test the hardware for operability.

I just assume that if it is not working, then as you folks in the UK would say, it is knackered.

Sorry that I wasn't able to help you get the card reader to work.

Paul

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

Apology not accepted, you've been an amazing help in moving this forward for me already and got further in a few hours than I managed in over a week of frustration on my own. I should have turned to the forum much sooner.

I won't bother with the BIOS update, DOS doesn't frighten me much (yes, I am of that era ), but I've never updated BIOS before so don't really want to end up with even more surprises on my plate. I'll see if I can get a replacement card reader on eBay instead, should only be a couple of pounds if there are any.

Thanks again for your help and have a great day.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, George.

Hopefully you can find a replacement.

I don't see anything listed in the manual for one.

http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c00970003

You have a great day too!

Cheers,

Paul