A75-S231 ... won't acknowledge SD cards

Hi, I searched for this but couldn't find it covered.. thanks in advance for any help.

I bought my A75-S231 laptop new. Occasionally I'd try to load an SD card in the 5-in-1 reader and it's never worked. I blew it off but recently the problem has become more important as my new cell phone (Samsung Moment) uses an SD card for storing music and other files.

I've updated the driver from Toshiba's support page a few times over the years, including tonight; I've restarted the computer twice tonight since. I've never updated the BIOS. I've tested this with a couple of different 2gb SD cards.

When I insert an SD card (or micro SD card in an adapter) or plug in my phone it will usually mount and register (as E:\) in My Computer; sometimes it will not register until I pull it out at which time it registers. If I try to Safely Remove it, the Safely Remove function stalls and hangs. When it does register and I open E:\ and try to drop in a file, it says it cannot find the file.

I know (think) that it's because the computer first creates the new file and then fills it with the original's data.. so it's not able to write to the card in the first place. If I take some shots with my camer and then insert its SD card in the 5-in-1, it shows that the card is empty.

I have a Motorola Secure Digital - USB adapter that does nothing to help. When using it it tells me that E:\ refers to a location tht is unavailable. Sometimes that happens in lieu of opening an Explorer window for E:\

Any advice or diagnostic questions are welcome.. thanks!

 

Try this:
. uninstall the driver
. clean out all files related to the driver, you might have to search for the files yourself and delete them manually
. uninstall the card reader within device manager
. restart the comp
. see if Windows picks up the device, then reinstall the driver again