Need help getting a card reader to work with Vista...

[jra]

I recently upgraded my system and used Vista 64 as the OS. Everything works great except I can't get it to work well with a card reader. Sometime it will see the card sometimes not. When it does see the card, I start the transfer and it will freeze up at somepoint before it finishes downloading the photos (some photos will actually make it through to the computer). I thought maybe the card reader was defective so I went out and purchased another one...same thing. I've also tried different cards and different types of cards (CF and SD) along with a different USB port....it's all the same. I can't get my photos on my computer :( .
Any help or suggestions would be well appreciated :)

[MaxxuM]

So, is this a internal USB connection to the motherboard? This is what I would do; reinstall the motherboard's 64-bit Chipset Drivers (those usually fix mass storage/usb/firewire problems). Check the wire to the motherboard and make sure it is connected properly. Change USB ports on the board or if it's connected via USB in the back then switch ports. If that doesn't help the card reader may have a short :(

[jra]

So, is this a internal USB connection to the motherboard? This is what I would do; reinstall the motherboard's 64-bit Chipset Drivers (those usually fix mass storage/usb/firewire problems). Check the wire to the motherboard and make sure it is connected properly. Change USB ports on the board or if it's connected via USB in the back then switch ports. If that doesn't help the card reader may have a short :(

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to re-install mb drivers tomorrow and see if that does the trick. I've tried different USB hubs that work fine with other equipment and two different card readers that also work fine on my laptop so I know that isn't the issue. I have found a round about way to get my photos for now. If I download just 1 or 2 at a time, they'll go through. If it does freeze, I just unplug the reader and plug it back in and re-start the process where I left off. It's quite agonizing but at least I can get my photos on my computer. If anyone else has any more ideas, please speak up :) I'll report back tomorrow evening on whether the mb driver re-install did the trick.

[jra]

OK...I tried to re-install mb drivers and it had no effect. To give a little more detail.....when I plug in a card reader, my HD light fires up and just continues to blink and stay on as if my HD is trying to do something (no card in reader yet). When I put a card in the reader, the computer may or may not see it. If it sees the card, it will ask me what I want to do, I usually click to open folder to view files. I then can drag and drop the pictures to the desired location and the download will start. At some point, usually after 2 or 3 photos, it will just freeze up. The computer looks as if it's still transfering but no data is moving. I've let it go just to see what it will eventually do and it will just hang there for hours.....no errors and no data transfered. I'm running Vista 64 on a computer with PS CS3 and calibration software and the drivers for my hardware...that's pretty much it....pretty bare bones. Computer is well within spec with a quad core Intel processor and 8GB of RAM. As I mentioned above, it does this with two different card readers and two different cards. If anyone else could shoot a suggestion my way, I would sure appreciate it.....this thing is driving me nuts :)

edit...one other twist to the story....Sometimes after inserting a card, it will give me the message that I must format the drive before it can be used. I obviously choose no since I don't want to loose my photos. Do I need to format this card with Vista for any reason? Everything works fine with my Vista laptop.

[OdiN1701]

So the card reader works fine on your Vista laptop?

Have you tried any other USB device on your desktop using the same port?

[jra]

So the card reader works fine on your Vista laptop?

Have you tried any other USB device on your desktop using the same port?

Yep....I have a wacom tablet and it works fine in any USB port.

[OdiN1701]

There must be some driver issue then if both the port and the card reader works.

It could be that this particular card reader and the brand of the USB controller, or the controller's driver software, do not play nice together.