Ricoh PCIe SDXC/MMC Host Controller is working porrly with cards, T420s

[answer42]

I've T420s, Ricoh PICe SDXC/MMC Host Controller, and several SD cards. Right away I can say that the cards (Kingston, Samsung, Transcend) are all right, tried them on different computer and phone, they work well, so I assume this is not a card issue.

I never used Card reader extensively, so I can't say if it started lately or was always like that, my T420s is about 1 year old and I'm running Windows 7 32bit.

Here is the problem.

Device seems to be switching on and off all the time when the card is inserted or taken out.

I can say this as I'm keeping device manager window open.

It seems like the connection between card reader and motherboard (?) is very bad, as I have to press on the device to pop out and press it back in to appear in the list of devices. When I plug in the card, it might actually show up, but then, when I pop out the card and pop it back it, it won't show again. So I have to take out the device itself again to have a chance of accessing my card.

I've tried updating the driver from http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS014960 But it  didn't help.

I've seen this: http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/SD-Card-reader-not-working-Code-22-ThinkPad... But even if the device appears under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, there is no "Ricoh SD Disk Device" under "Disk Drives" most of the times when I insert cards.

Anyone had similar issues?

[Gamloi7]

Hi, answer42

I would make sure that the BIOS is up to date. If the BIOS is not up to date, the motherboard may not be fully recognizing when a card is present in the port. The latest BIOS for your machine is 1.35, and you can find that here. So definitely make sure the BIOS is up to date and see if that helps the issue.

Hope it helps,

Adam

[answer42]

Thanks, I've ran the update and will let you know if it helped a little bit later.

[Zarf]

Bumping as I have the same problem with a T430s.

Deprecated from Win 8 to 7 and everything's working fine except for the Ricoh card reader.

I did reflash my BIOS with the latest one on the support site.

Used TV Update which selected the same drivers as listed on the support site.

The reader seems down until I insert a SD card.  Laptop makes the 'device added' sound and shows the

Ricoh host controller under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers in Device Manager (not Storage Controllers).  Remove the

SD card & it plays the 'device removed' sound & the Ricoh host controller disappears.

Uninstalled the driver & tried the T420 driver, no joy.  For giggles loaded the Win 8 driver & it shows up under

Storage Controllers but is disabled because the driver isn't signed properly.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[tripplec]

Same problem here. Lenovo is way behind on funcitoning drivers as is the case here. Unsigned so it can't be used.

[b0bbyj0nes]

I have this problem on my T530 too.

[kirbyzhu]

The same problem troubled  me for more than 3 years. It appears timely. 

I am T430s