T430s Media Card Reader Question

Hello!

I recently upgraded from a 6 year old Dell E1405 (running Windows XP) to a Lenovo T430s. Overall, I'm quite happy with my purchase.

However, turns out that I cannot read, as I thought the media card reader came standard on the T430s when it did not. I was upset about this, until I talked to the nice folks in the support chat, who confirmed I could order the part from Lenovo and install it myself.

Here's where it gets complicated. I'm a college student, and I'm leaving to study abroad in Ireland in 10 days. I'm wary of ordering a part from Lenovo, as I'm afraid it might not arrive in time. In my search to find the part online, I noticed other posts on this forum referencing the part in question as a 34mm express card media reader. Does this mean that ordering any 34mm media card reader should work once installed in the T430s? I found a Sandisk model on eBay (link here), but I'm sure I could find that or something similar in a local electronics store and avoid the problem of shipping all together should such a part work.

 

The T430s is typically configured with a Ricoh 5-in-1 MultiCard Reader.





In any event, an external USB multicard reader may be purchased at any local electronics store for about $10~15. Super easy.

 

Media Card Reader Driver for Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad

Ricoh Media Card Reader Driver for Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit) - ThinkPad

Sometimes, updating or re-installing the Ricoh device driver helps. Also, the device does not show up in Device Manager list until a card (such as SanDisk SDHC from a camera) is inserted -- anyway, the card should show up as a storage drive (below C: ) in Windows Explorer.