Card Reader Failes to reset in Windows -- requires reboot between cards

I have a problem with Windows, that I have had intermittently for years, and was wondering if others have had it and if anyone has found a better work around.

My Multi-card reader does not reset when I remove a CF card. Then, when I add another card, it is not recognized. I have no choice but to reboot before using it again. Sometime, going into the properties dialog and disabling and re-enabling the device works, but most times it does not.

Has anyone figured out how to prevent this, or a good work around?

Before removing a card, I always 'right click' the drive and hit 'eject' and wait fort the 'safe to remove' popup before removing it.

I used to use the 'Safely Remove Hardware and Eject' option from the 'notification' area of the start bar, but that would often disable the entire multi-card reader and not allow me to use it at all (USB, san, etc.) again without a reboot. The 'eject' option has been working pretty well, but recently, it has started to fail again -- I get the popup saying it is safe to remove the card, but when I do and add another.. nothing. I have had this problem, off and on, for years, with various versions of windows (now windows 7 64 bit). It seems like when it works, it works consistently for months, and then when it begins to fail, it fails consistently for moths.

Any help would be appreciated!

I had a card reader (even with no card)that if I left plugged into my computer the computer would fail to boot. was told computer was trying to boot from card reader(?) so I bought different brand and no more problems. maybe we sorta have the same issue and some one will cure it.

Thanks for the reply.

Mine is a different problem though.

Your problem could have been fixed by going into the BIOS menu during start-up and changing the boot order so that the machine always tries to boot from the hard drive first.

It is frustrating.

Try opening "Computer", right-clicking on the drive representing your CF card and choosing "Eject" there. If you use "Safely Remove Hardware", it'll safely remove the card reader, hence you need to reinstall it. I use USB Safely Remove, which lets me choose whether to eject the card or the device.