t400s card reader actually an express card card reader!

i apologise in advance if this is a well know secret, but i was reading the hmm and came across this







just unscrew the screw pointed by the red arrow in picture #4 and #5 and voila!

came across this in the hmm...and i believe it applies to the t410s and t410si as well

now i'm gonna get a express card 34 card reader that actually supports sdhc to replace this (i think it's supposed to support sdhc? but it doesn't recognise mine for some reason)

 

the T400s multicard reader does support SDHC, are you running XP pro?

 

win 7 ultimate

i know its supposed to work, it just doesn't. (but read/writes sd cards fine)

 

was the win 7 installed on your laptop when it came to you, or was it aftermarket?

 

aftermarket, but all the official drivers are installed (i.e. not window's card reader drivers but lenovo's card reader drivers....ricoh multi card reader driver for windows 7 2.06.02.02 to be specific - that was installed 31/1, but previous version didn't work either...i never managed to get it to read sdhc's since i got my t400s in late september)

 

Errr... aren't you given the option between a 5 in 1 reader or the express card 34 slot when you order your system? I mean, this kinda makes sense doesn't it? Though I suppose Lenovo could have been more clear about the reader being removable.

 

well, yes, but most built-in card readers run on usb, not pci express

 

Well not to ruin the party but the express card specification includes access to both the usb and pci-express bus. So this card fitting in a expresscard slot could run via usb.

 

a couple clarifying questions:

so when you take the lenovo card reader out, you're left with a fully functional expresscard slot?

also, will the card reader stay put if you don't have that internal screw in place?

the reason i ask is because i ordered a t410s with the expresscard option, and then was going to pick up an expresscard media reader that i can leave in most of the time, but easily pull out when i need to use the expresscard slot. i'd much rather have the lenovo reader if it works that way because it has a perfectly matching exterior finish.

 

i don't have any other express cards to play with but mechanically it's definitely a real express card slot (i.e. you push in and the express card pops out). unless i've misread the HMM, it also seems to say all t400s/t410s's have an express card 34 slot, and after more hunting in the software side, the device manager does report a "Ricoh PCIe Memory Stick Host Controller", so i'm guessing it really is a proper express card slot

it's currently working fine without the screw.

i haven't figured out what i can use in the express card slot yet, since i don't need firewire, i have esata, i would add an hsdpa modem via the mini pci-e (i.e. no need express card-based hsdpa), and i'd probably change the harddisk to ssd (i.e. no need express card-based ssd), but at least its there if i managed to find a new express card 34 to play with

 

fair enough...

i actually meant the "only 4 wires, +/- data, power, ground" kind of usb, but good point

 

Nice, I have a T410s with the 5 in 1 media card reader. How do I eject it?

 

sorry photo hosting is currently offline

just take the keyboard out, and there's a screw roughly under the left shift. unscrew that and you should be able to push the card reader out

 

For the record, it is definitely connected over PCI and not over USB (on my T410s):

Code:

[user@localhost ~]$ lspci -v -k -d 1180:
05:00.0 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e822 (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 2133
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 19
	Memory at f1f00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: sdhci-pci
	Kernel modules: sdhci-pci

05:00.1 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e230 (rev 01)
	Subsystem: Lenovo Device 2134
	Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
	Memory at f1f00400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
	Capabilities: <access denied>