Gateway P-7805u FX notebook and MR15 - Dual Micro SD Cards to Mini PCIe adapter

This laptop comes with two internal mini PCIe ports, one of two ports comes with an OEM wireless LAN adapter from the factory. Some people have questioned on this web site what they might do with the open remaining mini PCI port. Well, I tried the MR15 - Dual Micro SD Cards to Mini PCIe adapter from MFactors Storage ( M-FACTORS Storage - Search Results for "MR15" ) on sale for $16 USD.

My Review of the MR15 when used in the Gateway P-7805u FX notebook / laptop

First, I installed this MR15 adapter in one of two internal mini-PCIe slots, the first slot already taken by a Wireless OEM LAN adapter, the open slot remaining is a half card slot.

Next, post-installation of the MR15, I tried using one Patriot 4GB Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC) micro SD card in slot 1 of the two SD card slots; this succeeded! In my estimate, adding another Patriot 4GB SDHC micro SD card in slot 2 should work. The total would then be 4GBx2 (=8GB) of total storage or cache using two drive letters.

I then moved to install two SanDisk 32GB micro SDHC cards formatted as FAT32, which will format up to 32GB. I preformatted these two micro SDHC cards in the external SD Card slot on the same laptop, each card acting as a removable disk in this external SD card slot. Each 32GB micro SDHC card was recognized by he Windows 7 Ultimate OS and operated successfully upon boot up. I moved to then install these two 32GB SanDisk micro SDHC Cards into the internal MR15 adapter. Upon reboot then system locks at the point where the Windows logo is displayed.

Given these facts, I guess that the problem could be one of the following:

1.) An interrupt conflict (unlikely)
2.) A lack of BIOS support; BIOS update could be required for this port for an SDHC Card 32GB in size or capacity (unlikely)
2.) A hardware or chipset supportability issue
3.) A standard Microsoft driver update may be necessary (unlikely)
4.) A missing OEM driver or one that needs updating for this adapter
5.) A firmware code supportability issue on the MR15 itself in supporting 32GB SD Cards under FAT32
6.) Some particular issue with 32GB micro SD Cards from SanDisk.

Still Untried:

1.) Reformat the 32GB micro SDHC cards to NTFS and retry; with luck maybe NTFS will be better supported than FAT32
2.) Try smaller SDHC micro SD cards ( ie. 8GB, 16GB )
3.) Test performance using the SD cards as BOOST program cache. My original goal was to use 2x32GB (=64GB) as extra storage space or for backup of critical files. At the time, I bought these cards, Secure Digital Extended Capacity (SDXC) 64GB micro SD cards where available, SDXC 128GB where not yet available, and I was more unsure of the compatibility or support of the P-7805u with SDXC micro SD cards. I do know that the Windows 7 OS or higher is required to support micro SDXC cards.

Notes:
1.) MFactors Storage advertises support for SDSC, SDHC, and SDXC micro SD cards.
2.) MFactors Storage advertises that you cannot boot from these cards. The BIOS does list an option to boot from these cards when recognized, but I excluded this MR15 adapter from the boot list in the BIOS.
3.) Since the Patriot 4GB micro SDHC works, I assume there is support at some level here. Secure Digital Standard Capacity (SDSC) cards typically range up to 2GB but sometimes compatibility exists up to 4GB; so maybe the Patriot 4GB micro SDHC card functions as a backward compatible micro SDSC card. One might assume that SDHC micro SD cards larger than 4GB might not operate or are not supported by the either the MR15, the mini-PCIe port on the motherboard, or lack the appropriate driver-level support somewhere. In any case, on this particular laptop, I have yet to find evidence that the MR15 supports micro SD cards over 4GB. If I find better results, or if I can resolve the problem with support for SDHC SD cards greater in size than 4GB, I will update this site.
5.) The same tested SanDisk 32GB micro SDHC cards in their up-scaled full size SanDisk SD Card adapters ***DO*** operate or function in the external SD card slot on the laptop fully formatted to 32GB under FAT32.
6.) On my laptop, two external USB ports on the left side of the laptop are filled with wireless Bluetooth and mouse adapter; and the external PCIe card slot is filled with a USB 3.0 two-port adapter. These devices all operated successfully when the single 4GB Patriot SD Card was installed.

My Detailed System Information

Component Details Subscore
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8400 @ 2.26GHz 5.9
Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB 5.9
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS 6.8
Gaming graphics 4095 MB Total available graphics memory 6.8
Primary hard disk 401GB Free (920GB Total) 5.9
Windows 7 Ultimate

Base score - 5.9 Determined by lowest subscore

System
Manufacturer Gateway
Model P-7805u
Total amount of system memory 8.00 GB RAM
System type 64-bit operating system
Number of processor cores 2

Storage
Total size of hard disk(s) 920 GB
Disk partition (C 401 GB Free (920 GB Total)
Media drive (D CD/DVD

Graphics
Display adapter type NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS
Total available graphics memory 4095 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 1024 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 3071 MB
Display adapter driver version 9.18.13.1422
Primary monitor resolution 1440x900
DirectX version DirectX 10

Network
Network Adapter Intel(R) WiFi Link 5100 AGN
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8071 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Network Adapter Bluetooth Device (Personal Area Network)
Network Adapter Microsoft Virtual WiFi Miniport Adapter

Notes:

The gaming graphics score is based on the primary graphics adapter. If this system has linked or multiple graphics adapters, some software applications may see additional performance benefits.

Caution: Based on the results of the WinSAT Disk assessment, your system drive may have slower response times under some workloads. Performance results will depend on the specific applications used and the amount of memory available. If your experience is satisfactory, no action is needed.

Summary / Suggestions

I would like to know if anyone has ideas I might try to validate use of SDHC micro SD cards above 4GB in capacity. Getting two micro SDHC 32GB cards to function on this computer would make me happy.

Thanks much! -- James

 

While it is supposedly backwards compatible SDXC is a new format...............

 

I went out to Radio Shack and bought a SanDisk 8GB Class 4 micro SDHC card, something greater than 4GB to test. This worked!!!

I loaded four image files for your review:
1.) MR15 using SanDisk 8GB Class 4 SD Card.Succeeded.jpg -- See that the driver "Generic MicroSD/M2 USB Device" is working properly.
2.) MR15 using SanDisk Ultra 1 32GB Class 10 SD Card.Failed.jpg -- See that the driver "Generic SD/MMC/MS/xD USB Device" fails and the device is disabled by the system. Note that this driver does not say Micro; so a proper driver for the SanDisk Ultra micro SDHC cards may not be loading right or the driver does not exist.
3.) MR15 using SanDisk Ultra 1 32GB Class 10 SD Card.Device Problems.jpg -- Additional information for item #2.
4.) MR15 and Device Manager using SanDisk 8GB Class 4 SD Card.jpg -- See all three SD cards loaded. Note that the "O2Micro SD" nomenclature when I inserted the SanDisk Ultra 1 32GB Class 10 SD Card into the external SD card slot on the laptop. This driver may be connected with Ultra SD cards specifically. I also believe this external SD Card slot supports USB 2.0. At some point in my testing of supported SD Cards with the internal mini-PCIe port I received a performance-based dialog window message that Boost is not support for this port, a USB 2.0 requirement. For better performance, I was advised to move these micro SD Cards to a different faster USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port. From that information, I take it that the internal mini-PCIe port only supports USB 1.1 specifications. If the Ultra SD Cards are not backward compatible to USB 1.1 specifications, that might explain the system lock up when I try to use the SanDisk Ultra 1 32GB Class 10 SD Cards internally. From my shopping, I also noted that SanDisk now has Ultra II micro SD cards available; I here from the store clerk that they offer some added security features like password protection of cell phones. Ultra II micro SD cards might even be tied to USB 3.0 technology; I will have to do more research to find out. The bottom line here is that SanDisk Ultra micro SD cards are likely not supported with the MR15 installed in the freely available mini-PCIe port internal to the Gateway P-7805u FX laptop. I have been able to locate SanDisk non-Ultra 16GB micro SD Cards at Radio Shack; I believe they will work. I would rather locate non-Ultra 32GB micro SD Cards which I believe will also work with the MR15. It is unclear to me whether non-Ultra micro SDXC Cards exist at the 64GB and 128GB level; I do not plan to test this; Windows 7 with NTFS formatted SD cards supports storage above 32GB, but I am worried that there might be some other limitation(s). If someone does test cards at 64GB or higher, please let me know.



In summary, the resolution appears to be to avoid Ultra I or Ultra II micro SD cards as driver support might not be available or exist. Some other limitation might also exist.

I have tested the following micro SD Cards now with successful results:
1.) Patriot 4GB micro SDHC card
2.) SanDisk (non-Ultra) 8GB Class 4 micro SDHC card

I tested the following micro SD Card with failed results:
SanDisk Ultra I 32GB Class 10 micro SDHC card


It is my expectation that SanDisk (non-Ultra) 16GB and 32GB micro SDHC cards will also work formatted with FAT32 or NTFS. Once installed, you should be able to enable write-back caching as you will not be using the micro SD cards with the MR15 in the internal mini-PCIe port as quickly removable media.

I hope that this makes someone happy as I have spent significant time on this.

James

 

Well if they only support 1.1 then it is false advertising. If on thde original link you click more it specifically states ready boost. as you mentioned usb 2.0 is a minimum there. Maybe there are some factory drivers or firmware?

this ad claims usb 2.0

http://www.amazon.com/MR15-Dual-Micro-Cards-adapter/dp/B00B2CZ4XI

 

Here is an alternate summarized review to my earlier findings.

I challenge, as one Amazon review suggests, whether the internal mini-PCI port is faster than an external SD Card specific port. On my computer, direct evidence provided in pop-ups indicated that the internal port was support at USB 1.1, not USB 2.0 or higher. I learned that if the internal port is only supported on a USB 1.1 bus, Ready Boost cannot be enabled. Also, advertising by the manufacturer indicates that the user cannot boot from this product. I have not tested this one-way or the other; however, the BIOS on my P-7805u FX does list the MR15 device ( or cards ) in the boot-up selection list. Initially installed in the open internal mini-PCIe port, the device manager disk drive removal policy is set to "Quick removable" as a removable drive; but you can change this to "Better Performance" enabling write caching as there is no expectation to remove this device unless the computer is shutdown.

Biggest factors I have found:
1.) SDXC cards allow capacities above 32GB require Windows 7 or higher OS with NTFS format.
2.) SDSC/SDHC cards allow FAT32 up to 32GB.
3.) Ultra I/II SDHC/SDXC cards might fail like the SanDisk Ultra I 32GB Class 10 micro SDHC card did on my system running Windows 7 Ultimate. With the higher capacity (>=32GB) Ultra micro SD cards from SanDisk being rather new, this could be a driver issue, something I am hoping to resolve. So compatibility might not be simply plug and play.
4.) Non-Ultra cards worked on my system such as the Patriot 4GB micro SDHC card and SanDisk (non-Ultra) 8GB Class 4 micro SDHC card.
5.) mSATA ports and mini-PCIe ports have the same form factor; in other words, they look the same with either adapter fitting in the same slot. But, my research found that these ports are wired differently.
6.) If your system supports mSATA, that is newer technology allowing a bootable drive with capacities now at least in the 250GB range with SATA III (300MBps or 6000Mbps); you will definitely be happy to go that route if your system supports it. Manufacturers like Crucial.com and MyDigitalDiscount.com make and sell these mSATA SSDs.
7.) If you have a mini-PCIe compliant port, in my opinion, mini-PCIe SSD storage is over priced. So the best way to go, as I see it, if you want the mini-PCIe port to be used for data storage, is to buy and use this product, the MR15 adapter.

I hope my mixed results add clarity to the compatibility and supportability issues with this product. If you stick with the non-ULTRA cards for a port supporting a mini-PCIe adapter, in my opinion, you should be fine. It is my hope that a driver can be located to support the ULTRA I/II variant micro SD Cards.

 

I think both the Full and half size slot are on the same bus. Since the wireless card is there I doubt it will only support USB 1.1.................

 

The USB 1.1 issue in my context refers to the P-7805u port on the motherboard. The MR15 adapter itself may support USB 2.0 or higher on other notebooks. And, most of the drivers may be USB 2.0 level drivers but not UHS-1 or UHS-2 compliant drivers. My assessment is determined by the dialog windows the system popped up advising me that I should move my micro SD card to a faster port. It also advised that the SD Cards in this port would not be Boost supported as USB 2.0 support is required. So, it appeared evident to me that this mini-PCIe port on the motherboard is only USB 1.1 supported.

You might also want to look at this SanDisk below.

Difference between Speed Class, UHS Speed Class, and Speed Ratings (performance) for SD/SDHC/SDXC cards
Difference between Speed Class, UHS Speed Class, and Speed Ratings (performance) for SD/SDHC/SDXC cards

The part important to me in this article is the following:

UHS Speed Class was introduced in 2009 by the SD Association and is designed for SDHC and SDXC memory cards. UHS utilizes a new data bus that will not work in non-UHS host devices. If you use a UHS memory card in a non-UHS host, it will default to the standard data bus and use the "Speed Class" rating instead of the "UHS Speed Class" rating. UHS memory cards have a full higher potential of recording real time broadcasts, capturing large-size HD videos and extremely high quality professional HD.

My SanDisk Ultra 1 Micro SDHC 32GB card is failing because the host port or host MR15 adapter is not UHS-1 compliant. Either this has to be the case, or I am missing the necessary driver to make an UHS-1 card work. Card sellers appear to indicate that the MR15 with UHS-1 SD cards should be plug and play with all the necessary drivers provided by the Windows 7 OS. I am giving up on the pursuit of an Ultra High Specification 1 (UHS-1) or Ultra High Specification 2 (UHS-2) card. I made Christmas gifts out of the Ultra cards to my parents for their tablets. I reordered non-Ultra SanDisk 32GB Mobile micro SDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card, item# SDSDQ-032G-AFFP. I am confident this will work in my particular system; but the downside is that I will be dropping the read/write performance from 30MBps to 4MBps. I could NOT find or locate any site offering downloadable drivers for Ultra High Specification 1 (UHS-1) or Ultra High Specification 2 (UHS-2) compliant SDHC/SDXC cards.

Other Sites I Examined
1.) SanDisk Expanded Storage and Fast Data Transfer Speeds - microSD Cards from SanDisk for Business and Consumer
2.) Get More from Your Mobile Device with SanDisk Flash Memory - Mobile Device Storage Solutions from SanDisk

I cannot speak to the wireless card in the other mini-PCIe port. In any case, if you are correct, I then cannot explain the messages provided to me by the OS. But, Microsoft software is not likely free from any bugs either.

Thanks for your comments.

 

I published the following as an Amazon review of the MR-15, a supplement to my initial posting on this site:
(see Amazon.com: MR15 (Dual Micro SD Cards to Mini PCIe adapter): Computers & Accessories)

I challenge, as one of the earlier reviews suggests, whether the internal mini-PCI port is faster than an external SD Card specific port. On my computer, direct evidence provided in pop-ups indicated that the internal port was support at USB 1.1, not USB 2.0 or higher. I learned that if the internal port is only supported on a USB 1.1 bus, Ready Boost cannot be enabled. Also, advertising by the manufacturer indicates that the user cannot boot from this product. I have not tested this one-way or the other; however, the BIOS on my P-7805u FX does list the MR15 device ( or cards ) in the boot-up selection list. Initially installed in the open internal mini-PCIe port the device manager disk drive removal policy is set to "Quick removable" as a removable drive, but you can change this to "Better Performance" enabling write caching as their is no expectation to remove this device unless the computer is shutdown.

Biggest factors I have found:
1.) SDXC cards allow capacities above 32GB require Windows 7 or higher OS with NTFS format.
2.) SDSC/SDHC cards allow FAT32 up to 32GB.
3.) Ultra I/II SDHC/SDXC cards might fail like the SanDisk Ultra I 32GB Class 10 micro SDHC card did on my system running Windows 7 Ultimate. With the higher capacity (>=32GB) Ultra micro SD cards from SanDisk being rather new, this could be a driver issue, something I am hoping to resolve. So compatibility might not be simply plug and play.
4.) Non-Ultra cards worked on my system such as the Patriot 4GB micro SDHC card and SanDisk (non-Ultra) 8GB Class 4 micro SDHC card.
5.) mSATA ports and mini-PCIe ports have the same form factor; in other words, they look the same with either adapter fitting in the same slot. But, my research found that these ports are wired differently.
6.) If your system supports mSATA, that is newer technology allowing a bootable drive with capacities now at least in the 250GB range with SATA III (300MBps or 6000Mbps); you will definitely be happy to go that route if your system supports it. Manufacturers like Crucial.com and MyDigitalDiscount.com make and sell these mSATA SSDs.
7.) If you have a mini-PCIe compliant port, in my opinion, mini-PCIe SSD storage is over priced. So the best way to go, as I see it, if you want the mini-PCIe port to be used for data storage, is to buy and use this product, the MR15.

I hope my mixed results add clarity to the compatibility and supportability issues with this product. If you stick with the non-ULTRA cards for a port supporting a mini-PCIe adapter, in my opinion, you should be fine.

This alternate discontinued product indicates the existence of a driver to transfer data at the speed up to the standard of Ultra High Speed (UHS-I) - See more at: Speed Dragon Multimedia Ltd.

Also, I saw this product which Amazon did not list as a supplemental product for the MR15.
Half mini-PCIe to Full mini-PCIe convertor
Speed Dragon Multimedia Ltd.

I sent the following message to M|Factors.com:

I installed this Mini PCIe adapter in a Gateway P-7805u FX laptop. I added two mirco 32GB SanDisk SD Cards purchased at Radio Shack which I also installed into the open remaining half-card mini-PCI Express Card slot. The laptop comes with two mini-PCI Express Card slots, one full-card slot and one half-card slot; the full-card slot is taken by an OEM wireless network card. The laptop does not recognize the mini or micro SD cards using this MR15 adapter. I am wondering if there is a driver issue of some kind, or if the adapter is not compatible with this system.

I got the following response:

From: M-Factors Storage - Amazon Marketplace [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2013 3:46 PM
To: James...
Subject: Re: Inquiry from Amazon customer...

Hi James,

MR15 is designed to work with Mini PCIe (MiniCard) slot. It is plug and play. No driver requires.
You can send it back for repair/replacement to the following address:
M-Factors Storage
1321 E. Edinger Ave
Santa Ana, CA 92705

Thanks,
Dan

I sent the following message to M|Factors.com:

From: James...
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2013 1:18 PM
To: '[email protected]'
Subject: RE: MR15 Failure with UHS-1 SD Cards on Gateway P-7805u FX

Dear Support:

I think you may want to take a look at my reviews. I did not get the results as expected according to the what is stated on SanDisk’s web site:

Take a look at this link from SanDisk…
Difference between Speed Class, UHS Speed Class, and Speed Ratings (performance) for SD/SDHC/SDXC cards
Difference between Speed Class, UHS Speed Class, and Speed Ratings (performance) for SD/SDHC/SDXC cards

The part important to me in this article is the following which you seem to want to agree with.

UHS Speed Class was introduced in 2009 by the SD Association and is designed for SDHC and SDXC memory cards. UHS utilizes a new data bus that will not work in non-UHS host devices. If you use a UHS memory card in a non-UHS host, it will default to the standard data bus and use the "Speed Class" rating instead of the "UHS Speed Class" rating. UHS memory cards have a full higher potential of recording real time broadcasts, capturing large-size HD videos and extremely high quality professional HD.

In my opinion, I have a non-UHS host. However, my system locks up on boot, does not load any valid driver. My system is not defaulting to the standard data bus using the “Speed Class” rating instead of the “UHS Speed Class” rating. Even if I am wrong, the driver attempting to load is not working. I am running Windows 7 Ultimate. Look at the drivers loading to my machine. I have problem description with screen shots on the Notebook Review site with additional information on the Amazon web site. See the links below.

Gateway P-7805u FX notebook and MR15 - Dual Micro SD Cards to Mini PCIe adapter
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...15-dual-micro-sd-cards-mini-pcie-adapter.html

MR15 (Dual Micro SD Cards to Mini PCIe adapter) – pushing product sold by your company
Amazon.com: MR15 (Dual Micro SD Cards to Mini PCIe adapter): Computers & Accessories

I have decided to abandon the two SanDisk UHS-1 SDHC 32GB Class 10 (30MBps) cards I purchased; they do not work as you suggest in the MR15, so I am disappointed, especially when SanDisk says that it was supposed to work or be supported or backward supported. I have just ordered the older technology non-Ultra cards shown below. I am confident they are compliant and will work. I will update you with my results when I have these new cards installed.
SanDisk 32 GB Mobile micro SDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDQ-032G-AFFP
Amazon.com : SanDisk 32 GB Mobile microSDHC Flash Memory Card SDSDQ-032G-AFFP : Secure Digital Cards : Electronics

Sincerely,

James...

I got the following response:

From: Support [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2013 11:18 AM
To: James...
Subject: MR15

Hi James
Update from the factory:

"MR15 should work with microSD 32GB, even UHS I and II which are backward compatible to generic SD card.

New driver is not necessary. MR15 will be recognized as generic USB mass storage. Windows or Mac inbox driver will be installed automatically."

Dan
--
M-Factors Storage Support | mfactors.com


On Mon, Dec 16, 2013 at 9:17 AM, Support <[email protected]> wrote:
Hi James
Update from the factory:

"MR15 should work with microSD 32GB, even UHS I and II which are backward compatible to generic SD card.

New driver is not necessary. MR15 will be recognized as generic USB mass storage. Windows or Mac inbox driver will be installed automatically."

Dan
--
M-Factors Storage Support | mfactors.com

From: Support [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, December 19, 2013 3:10 PM
To: james
Subject: Re: MR15

Here is the update from the factory.

We tried some microSD Card with MR15.
Here are results;
Toshiba 32GB (non-UHS I) : OK
SanDisk 32GB Ultra (UHS I) : OK
SanDisk 32GB Extreme Pro (UHS I) : OK

MR15 worked well even with 32GB and UHS I.

We strongly recommend to apply "SD Format" for the microSD Card.
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

--
M-Factors Storage Support | mfactors.com


My Final Summary:

Take a look at this link from SanDisk…
Difference between Speed Class, UHS Speed Class, and Speed Ratings (performance) for SD/SDHC/SDXC cards
Difference between Speed Class, UHS Speed Class, and Speed Ratings (performance) for SD/SDHC/SDXC cards

The part important to me in this article is the following from SanDisk:

"UHS Speed Class was introduced in 2009 by the SD Association and is designed for SDHC and SDXC memory cards. UHS utilizes a new data bus that will not work in non-UHS host devices. If you use a UHS memory card in a non-UHS host, it will default to the standard data bus and use the "Speed Class" rating instead of the "UHS Speed Class" rating. UHS memory cards have a full higher potential of recording real time broadcasts, capturing large-size HD videos and extremely high quality professional HD."

My Findings:
1. "UHS utilizes a new data bus that will not work in non-UHS host devices." -- I must have a non-UHS host device.
2. "If you use a UHS memory card in a non-UHS host, it will default to the standard data bus and use the "Speed Class" rating instead of the "UHS Speed Class" rating." -- In my opinion, this appears to indicate that the UHS memory will be backward compatible using a "Speed Class" rating versus the superior "UHS Speed Class" rating. -- This statement, in my opinion, appears to be inaccurate for my particular system, the Gateway P-7805u FX; my system locked up on boot-up using the SanDisk UHS-1 32GB Class 10 (30MB/sec) SDHC card. It is not clear to me what is needed to make a UHS-1 or UHS-2 device work; in other words, I cannot say if the problem on my system is the driver, chipset, BIOS, or some other hardware dependency. My first guess would be driver problem; however, Windows 7 is supposed to have all the generic drivers that are necessary; still the right driver may not be loading even if present. Second, maybe the chipset on my system does not support the UHS-1 specification.
3. I moved the two SanDisk UHS-1 32GB Class 10 (30MB/sec) SDHC cards to one Lenovo tablet with Microsoft 8 and one Android tablet and they both worked just fine. So, there appears to be no general fault in these cards with newer devices which appear to be UHS-1 compliant. M|Factors suggested that I try a special SD card format utility to see if that fixes the problem; they provided me a link to try reformatting the disks. M|Factors also suggested that I try using an NTFS format and see if that makes a difference; NTFS is only required for SDXC cards having a capacity larger than 32GB and my SDHC cards were 32GB, not larger than 32GB. Given the fact that my two UHS-1 cards worked in the external SD card slot of my same laptop as well as worked in two other tablets, I saw no point in trying these last two suggestions.

My Solution:
I moved to purchase two older technology SanDisk (non-Ultra) 32GB Class 4 (4MB/sec) SDHC cards from Amazon at the following link: "http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007KFXIDE/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1". -- BINGO... These two SDHC cards worked just fine in my system.




You will note from the images that ReadyBoost is not supported leading me to believe that this port is only USB 1.1 compliant and not USB 2.0 compliant, required for ReadyBoost to function. If this is the case, my bus transfer rate is 12mbps or 1.5MBps, the maximum USB 1.1 transfer rate. I guess this might mean that buying micro SD cards above Class 2 (2 MB/s) might be a waste of money for my system. I also considered the fact that the unsupported message on the ReadyBoost tab could also mean that Gateway does not support storage media from this port in general; but I tend to think that is not the case. I need to do a read/write drive test to measure performance.

I did find the following deal on a non-UHS 64GB Class 4 micro SD Card which I purchased:

Wholesale - 64GB 64G tf card memory card micro sd card with adapter retail packaging drop free shipping ($10.00)
http://www.dhgate.com/product/dhgat...rs|c|OSLNBL|&gclid=CJOy2bOCw7sCFTRo7Aod-SIAgQ

I also found a couple of deals on non-UHS 64GB Class 10 micro SD cards for those interested:

Lexar Media Mobile 64GB Class 10 microSDXC Flash Memory Card ($59.95)
http://www.adorama.com/ILXMCSD64G10.html?gclid=CPXWn92Ew7sCFaxr7Aod12IAag

PNY - Professional X 64GB MicroSDXC Class 10 Memory Card ($63.99)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-professional-x-64gb-microsdxc-class-10-memory-card/1420025.p?id=1219051764866&skuId=1420025&ref=06&loc=01&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=1420025&extensionType={adtype}:{network}&s_kwcid=PTC!pla!{keyword}!{matchtype}!{adwords_producttargetid}!{network}!{ifmobile:M}!{creative}&kpid=1420025&k_clickid=29622711-fe7d-7f09-d3ba-0000138f4b91

 

In reference to the WiFi cards. On the mini-PCIe port the original card can obtain 150 mbps. USB 1.1 is limited to 12 mbps. Logically then our mini-PCIe can not be limited to usb 1.1 spec speeds. Even PCIe 1x is well above the limitations. It seems there is a bug in the drivers as there should be no issue running usb 2.0.

What is PCI Express? A Layman's Guide to High Speed PCI-E Technology- Directron.com the Best Online Computer Store - Buy with Discount Prices from Houston Texas

 

By-the-way TANWare, I think you are quite possibly correct about a bug in one of the drivers or the wrong driver is loading for the micro SD Cards in the MR15 when the micro SD Cards are loaded. We know that with the Ultra SD Cards (UHS-1 and UHS-2) the system locks up where the mini-PCIe host device is assumed to not be UHS compliant and not backward compatible with the loaded driver. The standard (non-Ultra) speed rated micro SD Cards work but run with USB 1.l performance. So, your educated guess might very well be true. Still, I am not clear on the chipset support of the Intel PM45 on my system, nor do I know if some other BIOS limitation could exist. I did remove the SD Card devices from the BIOS boot-up list wondering if that could be a problem; something I read stated that you could not boot from the MR15. But, it might be only that this endeavor is not supported as booting from USB bus devices is not supported on all laptops.

Here are some of my Hard Drive Benchmarks using CrystalDiskMarkv3.0.3.

Here are the performance stats for the two non-Ultra SanDisk 32GB micro SDHC Cards showing USB 1.1 performance on the Gateway P-7805u FX on drives G and H.

Notes(s): This performance is so slow here that it is really only good for reliable disk or file storage space. I paid about 42 dollars for these two 32GB Class 4 cards; but today I found a deal for 20 dollars for two 64GB Class 4 cards as previously described above. I wished I had found the two 64GB cards first given the cost difference; but I have yet to test the two SDXC cards to make sure SDXC cards function in my system. I have two similar Gateway laptops; the other is a P-173XL FX, a slightly older system with a similar free mini-PCIe port. So, I can put all the micro SD cards to use eventually with the purchase of another MR15. I plan to use these cards for installation software, employee timesheets, software engineering project code, and possibly bills, anything which might be a critical document. I have been hoping to boot Linux from these cards. I do show the cards in my BIOS boot-up menu, but it is still not clear to me my system will boot to the cards from a Windows 7 dual boot configuration on my drive C. If it does work, it will be really slow.



Interestingly enough, here is the non-Ultra SanDisk 8GB micro SDHC Card showing USB 2.0 performance in the external SD Card slot on drive I.



Here is my HHD 500GB Seagate ST9320421AS(x2) @RAID 0 = 1TB on drive C:



Here is my 240GB MyDigitalSSD BP4 mSATA SSD in my External Integrated USB 2.0 Slot using on Drive E:



Here is my 240GB MyDigitalSSD BP4 mSATA SSD in my External PCI Express (USB 3.0 Card) Slot using on Drive E:

Data is limited as Write operations fail. Something is wrong here with the hard drive bench testing software.

 

all attachments come back as invalid?

Edit; I know a couple of users placed a wifi card in the second slot with a hard mod to cover one of the pins and had full bandwidth. So it is known for a fact the second slot is well above USB 1.1 specs. As an aside note the PM/GM45 express chipset in these machines id quite mature. So there should be no issue there at all..................

 

Try looking at the attachments again...

Thinking out-of-the-box... Could Gateway, in their infinite wisdom, have deliberately changed a jumper configuration on the motherboard, customized something that could downgrade the host mini-PCIe port-device to USB 1.1 or disable it on some level? On the other hand, could Gateway have customized the BIOS to downgrade or disable the host mini-PCIe port-device on some level? I have heard that some manufacturers do this to market different levels of a particular machine or product. Other times, OEM computer manufacturers or assemblers just want to make sure they do not have to support some feature on the system where the user could decide or attempt to upgrade the hardware on the system. I am just trying to consider other angles here besides a driver or chipset problem. If a driver is missing, a wrong driver is loading, or a driver has a bug, this could explain the problem. The drivers appear to be Microsoft generic drivers based on some industry standards for mini-PCIe ports and USB bus technology. I would not be surprised that Microsoft has created a driver which has a bug in this case. It would be nice if SanDisk had an OEM driver to try on these micro SD Cards which supported standard and ultra micro SD cards with the MR15.

 

Again it is proven by the fact in that 2nd slot users have installed wifi cards and got well over usb 1.1 bandwidth that the gateway system is not at fault. I do know with the express 54/34 the bandwidth is halved from what would be expected because of its implementation. This is either a driver issue or compatibility issue of the device and PM/GM45 implementation of the PCIe.

 

If we accept for the moment that Wi-Fi mini-PCIe cards work in the second open OEM slot at well over USB1.1 bandwidth, this would lead me to believe that the performance problem exists with the MR15 or SanDisk Ultra SD/SDHC/SDXC cards. Also, to say that some problem is tied to a compatibility issue using means something, on a broad basis, is not compliant where a bug exists somewhere in software, firmware, or hardware; there is also the chance that something is not configured right in software or hardware even it the capability exists for it to work.

But, In my case, we also know that we are dealing with storage media on a USB bus, not a Wireless LAN adapter. So, support may be different for various types of devices; and it is possible this could affect compatibility and performance. The MR15 and micro SD cards affect the display of information in the BIOS; the micro SD Card devices do appear in boot-up list, and the two micro SD Card devices can be configured to be excluded from the boot-up order list in my system. In using the mini-PCIe MR15 media storage adapter, technologically speaking, it is not clear to me how the USB bus interfaces with the mini-PCIe port or PCI bus, let alone how the MR15 interfaces with the dual slot micro SD cards. I believe that more than one driver here is functioning in this chain.

Each micro SD card on the MR15 maps strangely to a generic but differently named device, even when the two cards are identical. This suggests that the two SD cards are managed separately by different controllers or drivers. The use of Generic in the device names of the micro SD cards in Device Manager makes me think generic Microsoft driver(s) are functioning here. Although unlikely, I also wonder if a controller-driver conflict could exist with the external SD Card slot; the external SD Card slot looks like it is managed by O2Micro controllers, an OEM software controller for an O2Micro hardware device.

Abridged Device Manager Screenshot



I can see from my Device Manager review that the micro SD cards both map to a controller called "USB Mass Storage Device". This controller may be where the problems are in limiting performance to USB 1.1 and lack of support for Micro Ultra (UHS-1/UHS-2) SD Cards.

Maybe this information will be of some use to MFactors, SanDisk or Microsoft in addressing two issues here, one being the USB 1.1 limited performance and the lack of support for Micro Ultra (UHS-1/UHS-2) SD Cards.

 

If you right click on the devices and select properties you will most likely find the drivers related speeds. A generic one for compatibility may only be set to use 1.1 for backwards reasons.

Edit; also as an aside note slower SD cards may not allow USB 2.0 spec either...................

 

TANWare:

Thank you. Your advice has helped me to solve the problem in part. The system defaults to a 'Disk drive' driver as the only compatible driver available. That was simply wrong. I am not sure why O2Micro's drivers were not recognized.

Here is some screen shots of what I found in moving to update the driver for both SD Cards.



For my system, you must manually update the driver to 'O2Micro SD Disk Device' selecting O2Micro from the list of available manufacturers.

My performance is much better as you can see. I did not test the Ultra (UHS-1, UHS-1) which before caused my system to lock up on boot. I gave my Ultra cards away as Christmas gift, so I will have to try that new the end of the holidays and report back on my findings. For now, however, I can read at 20MB/s and write at about 5MB/s. That is a major difference and improvement from where I was recently.

If I select 'Generic' as manufacturer, I am offered two choices, one of which is 'SD Storage Card'. But this gives me an incompatible driver loading error.

Also, A driver reporting bug exists. When you select the 'O2Micro SD Disk Device' and it tells you it has loaded the correct driver, it reports as 'SD Storage Card', the generic O2Micro Driver. If you load the Generic 'SD Storage Card' driver, Device Manager reports the driver as 'O2Micro SD Disk Device' and uses the same name on the driver details tab. I believe this is more likely an O2Micro bug versus a Microsoft bug; either way it is a bug. I am just happy that my SD Cards are performing better.

 

I wanted to get a P7805 too.

 

Good to hear you have it now mostly resolved....................

 

TanWare, thanks for all your help. I got the chance to retry the UHS-1 micro SD Cards I had given away to my parents for Christmas; even with the driver issue resolved using the SanDisk 32GB micro SDHC Class 4 cards, I had no success retrying the SanDisk Ultra I micro SD cards on my Gateway P-7805u FX laptop. So, I assume my mini-PCIe port is not UHS host device compliant; otherwise, I must not have the appropriate driver that supports the UHS specification. My hardware seems to be tied to O2Micro; maybe I need to track that company down for an updated O2Micro SD or Storage Card driver. Recently, I have been copying some information from a thumb drive in a USB 2.0 port to the internal micro SD cards. I am writing across the external bus at approximately 500KB/s which is pretty slow. Still, I find it to be reliable storage. I will try to see if I can locate a newer driver that would allow UHS support. I will let you know if I succeed.

 

I would like to follow-up with testing of new micro SD cards. I just received 64GB micro SDHC Class 10 cards ( http://www.dhgate.com/myaccount/ord...rfxproductid=ff80808142fa65180143188a32362cbe). The DHGate item code for the product is 171867405. The unit price for this product is $10.00 which is great! These non-Ultra cards do work in the Gateway P-7805u as predicted. I performed a sequential read/write test and go about 18MB/s read and 4MB/s write which I am happy with. These appear to be USB 2.0 speeds. However, ReadyBoost still reports, "This device cannot be used for ReadyBoost. The device is plugged into an unsupported USB port. ReadyBoost requires USB 2.0 or above." I am not sure how to interpret this as USB 1.1 max speeds are 1.5MB/s, and I am getting faster performance according to CrystalDiskMark. Maybe there is a driver or chipset issue here.

 

Follow up to:

I did find the following deal on a non-UHS 64GB Class 4 micro SD Card which I purchased:

"Wholesale - 64GB 64G tf card memory card micro sd card with adapter retail packaging drop free shipping ($10.00)
http://www.dhgate.com/product/dhgate..."

I am experiencing some issues with these 64GB cards from China.

First, while the micro SD cards are 64GB, they are marked as SDHC cards, not SDXC cards. I am not sure what this means; but I am thinking, "Houston, we have a problem." Second, I have experienced problems in formatting the cards with ex64 and NTFS. I tried formatting the micro SD cards with Windows 7, from Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition., and SDFormatter from http://www.SDCard.org/. When I experienced loss of data using exFAT, I tried NTFS thinking it might be more stable. Sometimes the cards start off loading correctly, then the next time I boot they stop working. I tried switching MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition drivers from "Disk drive" to manufacturer "Generic and model "SD Storage Card, and last to Manufacturer "O2Micro" and model "O2Micro SD Disk Device". The system defaults to "Disk drive" as the only compatible driver. I am not sure which one I should be going with, if any. With the O2Micro driver in one session without rebooting, the cards are recognized, then they are not, then they are again recognized, then they are not. Right now, one of the cards finally gets the right volume name and the data seems okay. The other card appears to have lost the volume name I gave it and reverts to "Removable Disk"; and I am asked to format this disk.

Right now, my assessment could be that I have a bad card, or my system hardware does not support or is not compliant with micro SDHC/SDXC cards greater than 32GB on one partition, but does support SDHC which I validated as a working solution where the micro SD cards are less than or equal to 32GB. I am also wondering if the MR15 is supposed to only contain logical partitions versus primary partitions, or even one primary partition and one logical partition on the same card. I am going to try partitioning both cards where both cards have a primary 32GB partition and a logical 32GB partition and see if that allows me to use these 64GB cards. I may have to go back to the company I purchased the MR15 with further questions. Right now, I have both 64GB micro SD cards partitioned as both having one primary partition. Maybe one or both SD cards must be formatted with logical partitions. From what I know of hard disks, normally, the first partition on any disk is the primary partition and follow-on partitions on the same disk are logical (non-boot) partitions. The seller of the MR15 states that you cannot boot from the MR15. Whether some computers could, I do not know. But, could this statement provide insight into how I should partition and format these 64GB micro SD cards.

 

Final Answer and Solution for Gateway P-7805u FX

My Generic 2x64GB micro SDXC cards marked as SDHC have been removed from the laptop and the MR15 mini-PCIe host adapter. I decided to put these two cards into an IOGEAR SD/MMC/MicroSD SD/SDHC/SDXC compliant USB 2.0 Thumb Drive adapter for about $6 USD each. Similar USB 3.0 devices are priced near $20 USD each. In determining what Thumb drive adapter to get, you must first look at the performance of your SD flash memory cards.

I decided to look again for 32GB micro SDHC cards with a Class 10 rating which are not Ultra High Specification (Ultra I or Ultra II) compliant; I could get the Ultra cards to work in this unit. I found Polaroid micro SDHC 32GB Class 10 cards matching this specification at Micro Center.

I compared the Default driver installed by the system after micro SD cards have been installed in the MR15 against the O2Micro SD card driver. If other drivers are present, you may need to uninstall the drivers in Device Manager and reboot.



From the screen shots, you can see a major difference in performance; the O2Micro SD card driver is the way to go.

Interesting is the fact that when you try to upgrade the driver, only Manufacturer="(Standard Disk Drives)", Model="Disk Drive" appears as the only driver supported. The model name does not match the default driver model description, so I assume it is missing in the update driver model name list; this might be a Microsoft or Gateway bug. When I try Manufacturer="Generic", Model="SD Storage Cards", I get an error flag in Device Manager as if this driver is not supported. This problem might go away if you reboot the computer, but I did not try that. I do not know what drivers are OS supplied and which others are OEM specific. I did compare the list of drivers on the Gateway P-7805u FX with Windows 7 Ultimate to the drivers supplied on my Gateway P-173XL FX laptop running under the Microsoft Vista Ultimate OS. I noticed the only difference appeared to be the O2Micro drivers; therefore my guess is that these drivers are newer. If the O2Micro drivers come standard with Windows 7 Ultimate, I will be able to upgrade these drivers on my Gateway P-173XL FX laptop as well. One other possible issue: When you load the O2Micro SD card driver, the model name description appears as "SD Storage Card" normally found as a model under Manufacturer="Generic". If you load the O2Micro driver twice, the model displays correctly in device manager; again this could be a Microsoft or Gateway bug.

Summary

1.) Use 2 x micro SDHC 32GB Class 10 cards with a standard speed rating, not UHS I or UHS 2 Ultra cards in the MR15 mini-PCIe adapter which runs on a USB bus.
2.) Update to the O2Micro drivers over the default generic SD card drivers installed by the system for much greater performance. Ready Boost is enabled with the O2Micro driver but disabled by the system as unsupported with the default generic driver. In my estimate the O2Micro driver is USB 2.0 supported. The default generic driver appears to be only USB 1.1 supported; Ready Boost requires USB 2.0 support to enable its functionality.
3.) Host device is SDHC compliant as best I can tell; so stay away from SDXC cards. It is unclear to me whether partitioning the SD cards with one Windows partition and one Linux ex4 partition could get around the 32GB SDHC host device limitation. Note that Windows 7 only recognizes the first partition on an SD card.
4.) The mini-PCIe port does not appear to be UHS I or II compliant; I found that Ultra cards would not work in this system. You can try UHS with the O2Micro driver to verify this for yourself.
5.) Beware of micro SD cards greater than 32GB, marked as SDHC; this happened to me. This is a misprint as best I can tell.
6.) You may have to update each micro SD card driver twice to get the correct model description in device manager.
7.) See SDFormatter application at https://www.sdcard.org/home/.
8.) See also MiniTool® Partition Wizard Home Edition 8.1.1 at http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html.
9.) Your micro SD cards should be partitioned to FAT32, exFAT or NTFS; if you are running with a Microsoft Windows host OS, at least the first partition should be a Windows based partition. A Linux partition can exist on a second primary partition, but Windows 7 and earlier will not recognize it. I am not sure about Windows 8. My understanding is that up to four primary partitions can exist on an SD cards or flash drive. I am more unclear on extended and logical partitions. One source indicated that one extended partition can exist on the drive, in place of one of the primary partitions. An extended partition may have one-to-many logical partitions, the limit I am not sure of. The creation of an extended partition may be implicit with the creation of the first logical partition; in other words, you might not have to be concerned with this issue.
10.) FAT32 uses 32-bit addressing. exFAT uses 64-bit addressing. My assumption is the exFAT system would be slower, but it is more feature rich. exFAT is generally reserved for SDXC cards. It has performance benefits over NTFS. And, it can store file objects greater than 4GB which might interest you in the case of videos. exFAT supports larger partitions; but this is not an issue for this solution supporting only SDHC cards. exFAT is a licensed operating system, not widely supported; so you might want to consider that if you are also working on a non-Windows platform and file portability is an issue for you. NTFS offers security and uses journaling which taxes your SD card; FAT partitions are therefore more efficient, designed for external flash memory cards, absent of or without use of journaling and much less or non-existent security.

Any additional input is welcome. Please let me know if you are able to determine that any of my findings are inaccurate such as with UHS host device compliance or support for SDXC cards.