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17840
April 4th, 2008 20:00
Compact Flash sometimes not recognized
I have an Inspiron 530 with Vista. About 50% of the time when I insert the Compact Flash memory card (Mr.Flash) from the digital camera ( into the CF/MD slot) it is not recognized by either a message or being able to find the drive (via Windows Explorer) on the Directory tree.
It has given me the message that it found the driver for the CF drive a few times, but when I insert the CF card and it does not recognize it, then I get no messages at all.
I try rebooting and sometimes that works, but often it doesn't.
What should I try next please?
thanks.
PETER345
5.8K Posts
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April 4th, 2008 20:00
This is the Dell internal card reader? These seem to be a bit flakey. Did you try making sure the connector is securely attached at the motherboard?
Peter
jiowa
13 Posts
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April 4th, 2008 22:00
Interesting mechanical solution. I will try it and get back.
And yes it is the Dell internal card reader. Weird thing is I only
had this PC for 2 weeks and had to go to another state to work
and so I got the same PC to leave there. And the same problem
occurs there also. Not at first, but after maybe 5 to 10 times it started
happening. So if this works I will have 2 computers with this problem.
That tends to make me wonder if the memory card is funky, though it
has worked well for years on XP computer, but on these Vista systems.
PETER345
5.8K Posts
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April 4th, 2008 22:00
Many people have had problems with the Dell readers. I have too. Sometimes the drives disappear. Sometimes the card just isn't recognized. I found that the only way I could get it working was to pull the cable with the power on and then put it back. The drives were recognized and it worked. Of course, after a power cycle, they might not work again.
Dell sent me a new cable and that made the problem better but didn't fix it. I finally bought cheap drives from Newegg and haven't had a problem since.
Peter
jiowa
13 Posts
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April 5th, 2008 15:00
thanks Peter for taking the time to reply.
Being under warranty I decided to make the dreaded call to Dell technical....in India.I have talked to them with some frustration several times in the past.
This time after about a 15 minute wait on hold I got a knowledgeable tech with not much Indian accent. He cut right to the problem and didn't run me through all the computer scripts.
He took over the computer using GoTo Assist website. I was not paying close attention, suppose I should have being someone is nosing around my computer,
but he did the following as I remember:
He verified that the CF reader drive was not being recognized and not in the directory.
Attempted a download from MSoft Vista service update, didn't take.
Did a Regedit and messed around the registry for quite awhile...really should have been watching eh.
Driver download at Dell Support:
BIOS update for my computer....that came out about 3 weeks ago.
Rebooted, still had the problem, non recognition of the reader drive.
Downloaded Windows Vista Service Pack 1 ( my computer has been off for 4 months so MS updates not taking place)
434 MB download, so I told him I was going to bed..took about 3 hours with my
slow high speed connection.
The computer was on the morning, so checked the directory, no reader drive, so I rebooted and there it was...recognized, in the directory and was able to access the photos on the memory card.
So time will tell if this solved the problem, but so far it has been.
Jim