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    Card Reader

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by SailorV, Jan 10, 2007.

  1. SailorV

    SailorV Notebook Enthusiast

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    My Acer laptop AS5672 has a 5 in 1 card reader. It does not do anything
    when I insert a 4G SD card (Patriot 133X) but will read a 32MB & 2 other 1G SD cards properly.

    Also, if I want to read a SDHC card, what is your recommendation for a
    card reader, preferably small?

    Thx.
     
  2. chrisyano

    chrisyano Hall Monitor NBR Reviewer

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    Do you have any other lower-capacity SD cards to test? It's possible that your reader doesn't support higher capacity cards (I'm thinking over 2 GB). Some of the readers have that capacity ceiling.
     
  3. NetBrakr

    NetBrakr Notebook Deity

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    My PCMCIA card reader is limits to 1 GB.

    JC
     
  4. Nicolas41390

    Nicolas41390 Notebook Consultant

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    I have seen that some readers can read larger cards if you change from a FAT32 to a NTSF, or vise versa you can make it work.
     
  5. SailorV

    SailorV Notebook Enthusiast

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    Where can I find out what capacity limit my card reader has? (As I mentioned in my original post, the 32MB & the 1G card I tried had no problem to be read by my built-in card reader.)

    Nicholas: what are you refering to when you said "change from FAT32 to
    NTFS"? Did you mean for the card reader of for my computer? My file system in my laptop had already been changed from FAT32 to NTFS.

    I noticed some cards specifically mentioned they only support FAT32.
    Does it mean that my card reader will only read those card if I change my system back from NTFS to FAT32 (if I don't mind the trouble, of course.)?

    If the card manufacturer does not mention what system it support, what is the assumption/default?
     
  6. fastcarr

    fastcarr Notebook Enthusiast

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    My 5672 will read my 512mb and 1gb SD cards, but doesn't even recognize my 4gb. I've tried different versions of TI drivers and it's still the same outcome. It's a hardware issue, nothing you can do about it.

    I picked up a small USB SD card reader from CompUSA for $10, works great with all my SD cards and is faster than the internal reader also.
     
  7. chrisyano

    chrisyano Hall Monitor NBR Reviewer

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    I agree. It's more than likely a hardware limitation on your built-in reader. Go with an external.

    You could check with Acer to see if they can tell you what the max capacity for SD cards is (I'm guessing 2 GB, but it could even be 1 GB as NetBrakr posted).
     
  8. SailorV

    SailorV Notebook Enthusiast

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    Thx for all your response so far.

    Anybody has experience with SDHC card & any recommendations for it's
    card reader?

    The reason I ask is I want to go for SDHC since my camera supports it but
    I know the card is not backward compatible with SD only device like my built-in card reader in my laptop. I don't mind getting an add-on SDHC card reader
    if one is available.
     
  9. thecrevis

    thecrevis Newbie

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  10. TheChad

    TheChad Notebook Enthusiast

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    Is there any way to find out of a Built in Reader can read a 4GB card, other than to buy one and try?

    My Toshiba A135-S4427 also had a built in 5-in-1 reader, and I'd Like to get a 4GB SD card to use with ReadyBoost, But I can't find in any of the doc's about what size SD card it will support. I called Toshiba Tech Support, and The stupid rep said "its a new model laptop, so it should support it", I asked her to verify that it would or would not, and all she kept saying over and over is "It SHOULD support it".

    Thanks,

    -TheChad
     
  11. shinji257

    shinji257 Notebook Deity

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    That might be because they don't have the actual documentation to verify it. She is doing a CYA (Cover Your Ass) tactic in saying that it should but isn't going to say it will.