W520 - Base System Device driver not working

[nicknormal]

Greetings.

This morning upon booting up my ThinkPad W520, the multi-card reader is no longer working. A look at the Device Manager (Windows 7, 64-bit) shows the "Base System Device", and reports "The drivers for this device are not installed." Attempting to get Windows to natively install the drivers does not work. Some googling shows others with similar troubles in the past; recommendations include installing a Ricoh card reader driver for Windows XP or Vista; this did not work. Other available drivers include 8ass82ww.exe and 8axv51ww.exe - these do not work. Installing Lenovo's own Support Center software shows the Base System Device driver is not installed. I can't find a way to install it. I've tried installing driver exe files and searching for those same files using the Windows browse-for-files window when installing drivers for Base System Device.

Seriously, **bleep**? I've wasted over two hours on a Sunday morning trying to fix this. It was working yesterday. I didn't install any crazy new software, or any software for that matter. Why does this happen and more importantly, how do I FIX this?

[dskw]

When I performed a clean install of Win 7 for the W520, the driver for "Base System Device" was installed from the folder C:\SWTOOLS\CARDREADER. I haven't encountered any problem with the card reader as of yet though.

[nicknormal]

If I attempt to install the driver from that folder (or the above folder and 'include subfolders') I get the error 'Windows was unable to install your Base System Device'.

Meh.

[ColonelONeill]

You probably need this one: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS014960
Not sure why it's not working though.

EDIT: My drivers for the Ricoh reader are these: http://i.imgur.com/1iKFH.png

[nicknormal]

thanks Colonel. I tried that specific driver - didn't work. I also tried Toshiba's tc00347400j.exe file which is their driver specifically for their RICOH card reader - didn't work.

My Driver Provider is "Unknown"; my Driver Date and Driver Version are "Not available"; my Driver Signer is "Not digitally signed" - and no matter how many ways & times I try and change the driver, it doesn't work.

I've given up.

[ColonelONeill]

Try an Ubuntu boot CD. Maybe the hardware up and died.

[nicknormal]

So, I actually have Ubuntu 12.04 in dual-boot, and the card reader works fine in Linux, as is. So it's obviously a Windows 7 conflict, or driver conflict in Windows, somehow. I can't pin it down. Thanks for the advice though!

[ColonelONeill]

Not too sure then. Maybe Event Viewer might have something insightful.

Try running SFC /SCANNOW from the command prompt though.

[christopherlang]

Are you using Lenovo's preload at all? I had this same issue. It popped up around cloning and installing a new drive. I had to remove/install the card reader drivers a few times before the problem finally went away knock on wood. A lot of funky issues with this preload and my w520, I hear you about the waste of time, things certainly feel that way sometimes with my own 520.

[nicknormal · Accepted solution]

This morning Windows ran an automatic update; I don't know if any of the updates were aimed at the card reader, but the driver is now installed and the device working. Too many updates to list them all, but thanks everyone for your help. Between the time I opened this thread and now, I probably rebooted my machine 30 times, and tried every combination of drivers + reboot. Then, poof, this morning it fixes itself.