Win 8.1 won't read any SD or Micro SD cards from three different card readers.

[Thewindsinger]

Hi all.

I have gone through the forums here and elsewhere and I can't find anything that has worked. I have posted this on the Microsoft question site and have had no avail in fixing it, so I thought that here would be the next place to try. I have tried two separate internal card readers now and neither of them have worked. I currently have the Dynamode Multifunction 3.5” Internal Card Reader Item code: USB-ALL-INT.

Its all plugged in correctly and the greyed out empty drives show on the my computer folder and on device manager, but when I put a card in it, it wont show up, it still shows as a greyed out empty drive. When you click on the drive it says 'Please insert a disk into drive x'.

I have also tried an external usb card reader which does exactly the same thing. Currently the only way I can get my PC to read a SD card is through my DSLR which is great for moving pictures off the card, but it will not let you write anything to it.

What I have tried:
•Three different card readers:
(1) Brand new Akasa card reader with 5 USB ports (Internal/Motherboard USB 3.0,2.0 and SATA internal connection, USB ports works on the Akasa)
(2) Brand new Dynamode with 1 USB port (Internal/Motherboard USB 2.0 internal connection, USB port works on the Dynamode)
(3) Generic USB card reader (External/USB 2.0)
•Four different working cards that read in other devices:
(1) Samsung SD 2gb(Confirmed as working)
(2) Sandisk SDHC 16gb (Brand new - tested in DSLR and is working)
(3) Sandisk SDXC 32gb (Working - constantly in use in DSLR)
(4) Sandisk Micro SDXC 64gb (Working - constantly in use in phone)
•Checked for driver updates for PC
•Checked for drivers for the card readers - there are none
•Checked Windows is up to date, and that there aren't any additional optional updates available
•Double checked that update KB2919355 is installed (Was suggested as a fix)
•Installed the latest chipset drivers
•Ran the Windows online Fix It tool
•Gone through the company's technical support
•Updated firmware for one of the readers
•Restarted the PC after putting in a card
•Formatted the cards in another device
•Checked the lock switches on the cards
•Troubleshooted hardware and devices
•Checked Disk Management - the drives show but not the cards that are inserted
•Changed the letter assigned to the drives
•Uninstalled the devices in device manager and let windows reinstall them
•Tried doing a start up without fast start to start all drivers with Windows
•Changed the USB slots that the readers were plugged into on the motherboard
•Also checked sfc /scannow for errors. It had some errors which it couldn't fix and I have the log file saved if anyone can make sense of it.

I do not have another tower PC to try the hardware in, but as it has done this with two different brands of internal card readers and an external USB card reader dongle, I would say that it's Windows and not the readers. No changes to the PC were made before plugging in the internal or external card readers, other than the card readers themselves. No SD/SDHC or Micro SD card will work on the PC. The USB slots on the internal card readers will work, and it has no problem reading USB data sticks, just not removable media cards.

Operating system: Win 8.1 64 bit fully updated.

PC: Water-cooled Intel core i7 4790k, 32gb RAM, Asus Maximus Hero vii Z97, EVGA GTX 980sc, 2x Samsung SSD's.

 

[MrTuRtLe03]

I've seen this problem before, some people have had luck going into device manager and uninstalling all of the generic USB/reader drivers then rebooting. I personally can't speak for that solution and I can't guarantee that something wouldn't go wrong and the drivers don't reinstall or something - but it IS something that you haven't tried. If you were to post your SFC errors to pastebin or something I could go through them and see what they were all about too. It could have something to do with your issue, but I think it would be unlikely.

 

[Thewindsinger]

I tried uninstalling the USB generic devices in device manager, every single USB on the PC in fact. They all reinstalled fine but didn't solve the problem. Grrr! It won't let me upload to paste bin as the text is larger than 512kb. I will try and find another way to get it to you. Thanks

 

[Thewindsinger]

https://paste.ee/p/Y1ndu

Threes the log. Its very long I'm afraid, but thanks for trying to help, your a diamond!

Thanks.

 

[MrTuRtLe03]

It looks like there is only two main issues that I see with your SFC scan, but I don't think that it has anything to do with your problem. Just in case I am wrong, there looks to be a corruption with the Windows Telemetry Client and another issue with AMD (possibly chipset drivers). As for the Telemetry Client, see if you have the update KB3022345 installed. If you do - uninstall it. The update is for "Update for customer experience and diagnostic telemetry" but is known to break SFC. It should have been replaced with update KB3068708, but maybe yours missed it or something.

As for the other corruption, try running this comamnd in an elevated command prompt: "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth".

After you do all of that, run SFC again.

BUT, as I said, I don't think those have much to do with your card reader problem. Are you sure you can't find another computer to test the reader(s) in? That would help eliminate a hardware issue with your motherboard, or (if you were really unlucky), three card readers in a row.

 

[Thewindsinger]

Hi. I will give all that a go when I have a spare half hour, it's worth a go.

I got a pound land USB card reader the other day and alas it works. Which says either its a hardware problem or some sort of driver problem with the internal card readers. The previous USB crad reader I had tried looks pretty rusty inside so that one can probably be written off as a dud, but the two internal drives were both brand new. The mobo is pretty much brand new too and other hardware that plugs into the mobo works fine, so I think that one can be ruled out, which leaves either the terrible luck with the card readers or a compatibility issue with win 8.1.

 

[MrTuRtLe03]

Hi. I will give all that a go when I have a spare half hour, it's worth a go.

I got a pound land USB card reader the other day and alas it works. Which says either its a hardware problem or some sort of driver problem with the internal card readers. The previous USB crad reader I had tried looks pretty rusty inside so that one can probably be written off as a dud, but the two internal drives were both brand new. The mobo is pretty much brand new too and other hardware that plugs into the mobo works fine, so I think that one can be ruled out, which leaves either the terrible luck with the card readers or a compatibility issue with win 8.1.

I'm glad that you finally got something working! If you do have a chance to test the others, let us know.

 

[Thewindsinger]

Just thought I'd let you know-

ALAS! The internal card reader works now with windows 10!

I KNEW IT WAS THE EVIL WINDOWS 8.1