8510p - Safely Remove Hardware - RICOH SmartCard Reader

I have a brand-new HP Compaq 8510p (P/N: RM268UT#ABA).

I immediately noticed that the RICOH SmartCard Reader appears within the “Safely Remove Hardware” icon every time even though the SmartCard reader is an integral part of the notebook and, therefore, not removable.

Have you faced this issue?

 

I believe this is caused by the SmartCard Reader being on a mini-USB bus (therefore it is considered hardware that could, theoretically if not realistically, be hot-swapped). Just make sure you never actually use the "Safely Remove hardware" icon for it. My dad did that once on a workstation he leaves on for weeks at a time, and he thought he had a bad card reader until I walked in and rebooted his computer.

 

Do you mean that "it is a feature, not a bug"?

If this is a widespread occurrence rather than an isolated incident, HP engineers could have been more elegant in putting together this notebook.

 

The system I saw this on was a desktop built by cyberpower. I think the problem is just inherent in the Windows safely remove hardware prompt, which has trouble distinguishing the READER from the device being READ.

 

Yeah, I had the same thing happening. Since I'm probably never going to use it, I just disabled it and uninstalled the software.

 

Thank you for your reply. Although the less than elegant engineering that the issue implies is disappointing, the fact that it is a general issue --not particular to my unit-- is reassuring.

Would you mind telling me how to disable the RICOH SmartCard reader? Do I have to start Windows in Safe Mode and go to the Device Manager? I am working at a very busy law firm and it has been two years since I have had time to do anything "technical" on a PC.

 

It isn't HPs fault. It is how Windows deals with USB devices. If there's anybody to blame, it's Microsoft, and they're not to blame for this either.

It's simply not a brilliant idea by any means to custom engineer drivers for which device goes on which USB hub on the motherboard, just so that little icon disappears. This is especially true since there may be more than one manufacturer for that device.

Every computer will do this -- period. I have a 3.5" card reader device installed in all my 6 or so self built desktop systems, and this occurs up even though you don't need to safely remove devices with caching disabled (generally all USB Storage devices have this off by default). The same thing occurs with my external USB drive, and occured with my previous Lenovo T60.

It's a fact of Windows and Plug n' Play.
If you wish to remove it, go to the device manager and disable it there.
Right click My Computer, select Properties
select Hardware tab
select Device Manager
find the device under the Smart card readers portion of the tree
right click and disable

I'm trying to figure out the problem with it showing up there, as it is hardly an crux in the daily operation of a computer.
Of course, I've never really used that Safely remove hardware thing. All my USB devices I've ever had have had write caching disabled, so data is immediately written to them. I just unplug when I don't need them, and I've never lost a single bit of data yet.

 

Sordid: thank you for your reply. I wish that the several HP tech support representatives with whom I spoke had provided your clear answer.