BSOD occurs when SD card inserted. FASTFAT.SYS crashes.

[tripplec]

I this will happen almost everytime if the machine has been in use for some time. Inserting an SD card (4GB Canon format) a BSOD is virtually guaranteed. After a new boot up it works fine but catastrophic if not since all info is lost and nothing is closed.

I looked at the dump file and the FASTFAT.SYS is the cause of the crash. This is a very old driver used in Windows 7 and there are numerous issues with it in many forums dating back even to XP. There are no crashes introduced by any other device or USB key/drive connected. Only the SD card.

I thought it may have be due to the USB controller being turned off for power conservation but even after removing the ability by toggling not to turn off to save power to the USB devices it still crashed the very next time I used it which was days later. The system was plugged in as well as it usually is.

I can do the same thing on my old notebook with its internal multicast reader running Window 7 32 bit and it does not have a problem. The Thinkpad does with Win 7 64bit. I am always conscious of a BSOD occurring if I dare plug in my camera card. This renders the port useless since I cannot afford regular crashes and a card reader externally may have to be used.

[tripplec]

I have looked into this hoping there were better new drivers.

The "Ricoh SD controller" does not show up in Device Manager. Why not? If I plug a SD card into the reader I see it under Disk Drives and a new entre appears Portable Devices showing the Canon SD card withing. If you remove the card both indicators disappear. I installed the Ricoh card reader drive several times, uninstalled the device while the card was in since thats the only time I see it under Protable devices but it continues to use the Microsoft drivers and the specific control entry I am really looking for is NOT there. Smart Card Readers is not the Richol multicard reader. So without it listed and validating the correct driver may be the reason I am crashing the system unless I have just rebooted it, it remains functional.

Who else has a T520? Does the SD card reader show up. This is an OEM Win 97 64bit configuration.

EDIT

I see the "Ricoh PCIe SDXC/MMC Host Controller" under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers but again only when a card is inserted. It is using Ricoh 6.10.10.32 drivers which is the latest generic driver and not what is on Lenovo's site. All attempts to implement the Lenovo driver has failed. It always installs the same version.

[tripplec · Accepted solution]

After considerable effort and reloading the drivers. I found the driver version to be the 6.x series installed and not the version number that Lenovo states on the package information. Comparing the two driver SYS files in fact are the same including the version number. In the end I have the latest one installed but it is not what Lenovo states.

Also since all this uninstalling number times every way I could to force it to take. The SD card is not crashing the system any more. I have used it in and out more times since posting then all the times before put together. It looks like all that fixes something, somewhere, somehow without rational reason as to the BSOD crashes.

[translingo_pl]

I had exactly the same problem and have managed to solve it, however it took me several sleepless nights.

The faulty driver my Card reader used was ver. 6.10.10.32 (according to info in Device manager). I found another driver on Lenovo's website (http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles/8axw02ww.exe ; ver. 6.20.11.42 dated 4th July 2012). What I did was install the new driver. During the installation process I found it was not digitally signed, but I continued the installation process anyway. Then, in Device manager, I chose the Card controller (in IDE ATA/ATAPI section) and clicked on Update driver. I chose manual installation and indicated the place where my driver was saved (by default: C:\DRIVERS\WIN\MULTICARD). Windows won't let you use the driver straight away as it lacks digital signature and here is how to cope with that: http://www.techspot.com/community/topics/how-to-install-use-unsigned-drivers-in-windows-vista-7-x64.... . I followed "Solution number 2" and the "Finding out what files to sign" section. If you do it carefully, your drivers will be signed automatically and the whole procedure will finish at this point.

The only difference is that my Card reader is now listed under Storage controllers, which changes nothing, in fact. I have tried using different SD cards and have not encountered the BSOD anymore.

Hope you'll find that useful.

Cheers,

Robert