internal memory card reader won't work DIMENSION 3100/E310

Many (including me) have had problems with the Dell media card readers. I have two of them and both have had problems. Luckily, the problem can "solved" fairly easily, as least some of the time.

Check to make sure the cable from the card reader at the motherboard (you might as well check both ends) is secure. What I needed to do was to pull the cable off the motherboard and put it back with the power on. It is a USB device and hot pluggable. When I plugged it back in, it started working. Dell sent me a new cable, which seems to help but not completely fix the problem.

In my case, the green light did not come on when inserting cards and the drives did not show up in my computer.

Of course, be careful when operating inside the computer with the power on. Make sure you don't short anything out. There are no high voltages that can cause damage to you, but if you drop a ring or short something with your watch, you might damage the computer.

Peter

Message Edited by PETER345 on 07-06-2007 01:11 PM

Thanks for the quick response!

I just finished checking the cable and unplugging and then reattaching, it didn't help.

I did find that the drive was loose and it appeared that the two screws holding it were loose HOWEVER they were only crooked and stripped! I didn't have any new ones so I left it as is for now.

I did go into the bios setup and make sure that it was turned on and it was. If you can think of anything else I would certainly try it. It's a shame that a computer as new as this has such a devilish problem, that's what I get for not trying everything out when it was still under warranty.

Thanks!
John

If it is enabled in the BIOS and the cable is ok, then you might have a bad reader (or cable). If you have a bootable USB memory card, you could see if it is detected during boot (that would rule out Windows problems). You could also try another card reader to see if that works (again to rule out Windows issues).

Peter

I have tried rebooting with both the cf and xd cards in the reader and it is as if they weren't there. I'm not sure if they're bootable or not but both had data (pictures) on them. I don't have another reader but I am probably going to have to get one.When left in the camera and connected by usb they download fine into elements which I would expect them to.

I went ahead and sent dell support an email but I don't expect much.

Thanks!
John