expresscard 34 media reader

  • Thread starter Thread starter Danny
  • Start date Start date
D

Danny

I have bought a new Sonnet 21-1 multimedia memory card reader & writer
expresscard|34

I am trying to use it my new Lenovo T400s with Windows XP SP3 installed on
it. My notebook has an expresscard34 slot in it. That's where i put this card
reader. evrything works fine. it appears as E:\ in windows explorer and I can
transfer files using my SD card in it. The only problem is when i try to
shutdown my computer by leaving the expresscard|34 reader in my notebook it
hangs at the Windows is shutting down screen.

Shutdown works fine when i take the reader out.

somebody please help me.

Thanks
Danny
 
Danny said:
I have bought a new Sonnet 21-1 multimedia memory card reader &
writer expresscard|34

I am trying to use it my new Lenovo T400s with Windows XP SP3
installed on it. My notebook has an expresscard34 slot in it.
That's where i put this card reader. evrything works fine. it
appears as E:\ in windows explorer and I can transfer files using
my SD card in it. The only problem is when i try to shutdown my
computer by leaving the expresscard|34 reader in my notebook it
hangs at the Windows is shutting down screen.

Shutdown works fine when i take the reader out.

somebody please help me.
Click to expand...

Sounds not like a Windows XP with SP3 issue - but a "Sonnet 21-1 multimedia
memory card reader & writer expresscard" issue.

Verify you have the latest drivers (motherboard chipset, etc) for your
entire system. These you get from the actual hardware manufacturers - not
Microsoft. In your case, given what you have, perhaps this will help speed
things along for this part:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-72858.html

Verify the system is clean of adware/spyware/malware.

Download, install, run, update and perform a full scan (separately) with the
following two applications (freeware versions are the ones to use for this):

SuperAntiSpyware
http://www.superantispyware.com/

MalwareBytes
http://www.malwarebytes.com/

After performing a full scan with one and then the other and removing
whatever they both find completely, you may uninstall these products,
if you wish.

Download and run the MSRT manually:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/malwareremove/default.mspx

Reboot.

Do a little basic house-cleaning (space, etc):

Download/install this:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301

After installing, do the following:

Start button --> RUN --> type in:
"%ProgramFiles%\Windows Installer Clean Up\msizap.exe" g!
--> Click OK.

(The quotation marks and percentage signs and spacing should be exact.)

If you are comfortable with the stability of your system, you can delete the
uninstall files for the patches that Windows XP has installed...
http://www3.telus.net/dandemar/spack.htm
( Particularly of interest here - #4 )
( Alternative: http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_hotfix_backup.htm )

You can run Disk Cleanup - built into Windows XP - to erase all but your
latest restore point and cleanup even more "loose files"..

How to use Disk Cleanup
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310312

You can turn off hibernation if it is on and you don't use it..

When you hibernate your computer, Windows saves the contents of the system's
memory to the hiberfil.sys file. As a result, the size of the hiberfil.sys
file will always equal the amount of physical memory in your system. If you
don't use the hibernate feature and want to recapture the space that Windows
uses for the hiberfil.sys file, perform the following steps:

- Start the Control Panel Power Options applet (go to Start, Settings,
Control Panel, and click Power Options).
- Select the Hibernate tab, clear the "Enable hibernation" check box, then
click OK; although you might think otherwise, selecting Never under the
"System hibernates" option on the Power Schemes tab doesn't delete the
hiberfil.sys file.
- Windows will remove the "System hibernates" option from the Power Schemes
tab and delete the hiberfil.sys file.

You can control how much space your System Restore can use...

1. Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the System Restore tab.
3. Highlight one of your drives (or C: if you only have one) and click on
the "Settings" button.
4. Change the percentage of disk space you wish to allow.. I suggest moving
the slider until you have just about 1GB (1024MB or close to that...)
5. Click OK.. Then Click OK again.

You can control how much space your Temporary Internet Files can utilize...

Empty your Temporary Internet Files and shrink the size it stores to a
size between 64MB and 128MB..

- Open ONE copy of Internet Explorer.
- Select TOOLS -> Internet Options.
- Under the General tab in the "Temporary Internet Files" section, do the
following:
- Click on "Delete Cookies" (click OK)
- Click on "Settings" and change the "Amount of disk space to use:" to
something between 64MB and 128MB. (It may be MUCH larger right
now.)
- Click OK.
- Click on "Delete Files" and select to "Delete all offline contents"
(the checkbox) and click OK. (If you had a LOT, this could take 2-10
minutes or more.)
- Once it is done, click OK, close Internet Explorer, re-open Internet
Explorer.

You can use an application that scans your system for log files and
temporary files and use that to get rid of those:

Ccleaner (Free!)
http://www.ccleaner.com/

Other ways to free up space..

JDiskReport
http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/jdiskreport/index.html

SequoiaView
http://www.win.tue.nl/sequoiaview/

Those can help you visually discover where all the space is being used.

After you are satisfied you have cleaned up the space well enough, organize
and check it for issues...

CHKDSK
How to scan your disks for errors
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265
* will take time and a reboot.

Defragment
How to Defragment your hard drives
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314848
* will take time

Verify your update functionality is working properly and you are fully
patched...

Download/Install the latest Windows Installer (for your OS):
( Windows XP 32-bit : WindowsXP-KB942288-v3-x86.exe )
http://www.microsoft.com/downloadS/...6F-60B6-4412-95B9-54D056D6F9F4&displaylang=en

Reboot.

and...

Download the latest version of the Windows Update agent from here (x86):
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237
.... and save it to the root of your C:\ drive. After saving it to the root
of the C:\ drive, do the following:

Close all Internet Explorer windows and other applications.

Start button --> RUN and type in:
%SystemDrive%\windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /WUFORCE
--> Click OK.

(If asked, select "Run.) --> Click on NEXT --> Select "I agree" and click on
NEXT --> When it finishes installing, click on "Finish"...

Reboot.

Then follow the instructions here:

How do I reset Windows Update components?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

Reboot.

Log on as an user with administrative rights and open Internet Explorer
and visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and select to do a
CUSTOM scan...

Every time you are about to click on something while at these web pages -
first press and hold down the CTRL key while you click on it. You can
release the CTRL key after clicking each time.

Once the scan is done, select just _ONE_ of the high priority updates
(deselect any others) and install it.

Reboot again.

If it did work - try the web page again - selecting no more than 3-5 at a
time. Rebooting as needed.

The Optional Software updates are generally safe - although I recommend
against the "Windows Search" one and any of the "Office Live" ones or
"Windows Live" ones for now. I would completely avoid the
Optional Hardware updates. Also - I do not see any urgent need to install
Internet Explorer 8 at this time.

Come back - let everyone know how your system (overall) is running and if
the issue has gone away.
 
Danny said:
I have bought a new Sonnet 21-1 multimedia memory card reader & writer
expresscard|34

I am trying to use it my new Lenovo T400s with Windows XP SP3 installed on
it. My notebook has an expresscard34 slot in it. That's where i put this card
reader. evrything works fine. it appears as E:\ in windows explorer and I can
transfer files using my SD card in it. The only problem is when i try to
shutdown my computer by leaving the expresscard|34 reader in my notebook it
hangs at the Windows is shutting down screen.

Shutdown works fine when i take the reader out.

somebody please help me.

Thanks
Danny
Click to expand...

Expresscard supports two interface standards at the same time. An
Expresscard design, may rely on one interface or the other. In lots
of cases, the USB2 interface pins are the ones being used.
I suspect the card reader is actually a USB2 device inside
an Expresscard form factor.

(Pins 2 and 3 support USB operation. Pins 21,22,24,25 support PCI Express x1.)

http://www.allpinouts.org/index.php/PCI_Express_Card_and_PCI_Express_Mini_Card

So the question would be, how can a USB2 device prevent Windows from
shutting down.

Before you shut down the computer, have you tried to use "Safely Remove"
from the taskbar ? Maybe if there was no file system activity, it would
allow shutdown. You could also try pulling the SD card out of the
adapter before shutdown, and see if that makes a difference to it.

Paul
 
Hi Paul,

I have tried to manually use the "Safely Remove" option in the taskbar with
both my SD card in the expresscard reader and without it.

The E:\ appears in my Windows Explorer whether I put my SD card in it or
not. I am having problems with shut down even when there is nothing in my
expresscard reader. But when i take my expresscard reader out from my
expresscard slot then it shuts down without any problems. Whereas i was
hoping to leave my expresscard reader in the slot all the time. The
instructions that came with the expresscard reader state that the reader can
be left in the notebook all the time.

thanks
Danny
 
Danny said:
Hi Paul,

I have tried to manually use the "Safely Remove" option in the taskbar with
both my SD card in the expresscard reader and without it.

The E:\ appears in my Windows Explorer whether I put my SD card in it or
not. I am having problems with shut down even when there is nothing in my
expresscard reader. But when i take my expresscard reader out from my
expresscard slot then it shuts down without any problems. Whereas i was
hoping to leave my expresscard reader in the slot all the time. The
instructions that came with the expresscard reader state that the reader can
be left in the notebook all the time.

thanks
Danny
Click to expand...

The first thing I'd do, is look in Device Manager, to see if it is a USB
Device, or a PCI Express device. I think it is USB, but you should check
and verify that. While you're in Device Manager, if you find an entry
for that device, see if it has any Power Management settings or the like.

Paul
 
Hi Paul,

It definitely appears a USB Device (specificallly as USB Mass Storage
Device) in Device Manager.

How do i see the Power Management settings on it? I right clicked on it and
clicked on Properties but there is nothing as far as i can see that relates
to Power Management.

Please advise.

Thanks
Danny
 
Danny said:
Hi Paul,

It definitely appears a USB Device (specificallly as USB Mass Storage
Device) in Device Manager.

How do i see the Power Management settings on it? I right clicked on it and
clicked on Properties but there is nothing as far as i can see that relates
to Power Management.

Please advise.

Thanks
Danny
Click to expand...

I guess there wouldn't be a power setting for mass storage.

I tried searching for "usb card reader hangs shutdown" but
I'm not seeing anything yet that matches the symptoms.

When you got this product, were you required to install
drivers ? I don't see any drivers on the Sonnettech site.
And I would not have expected drivers to be needed. What
I'd be looking for, is perhaps a driver package intended
for some older OS, getting installed and upsetting the
OS.

(No drivers here.)
http://www.sonnettech.com/support/kb/kb.php?cat=311#position_content

*******

You could try this tool.

http://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbdlm_e.html

The reason I'm interested in that tool, is because of this option.

NoMediaNoLetter=1

I would be interested, in whether the symptoms change, if the
device no longer hijacks drive letters.

Paul
 
Hi Paul,

I tried that tool as well. The symptoms did not change even though I got
the tool to prevent the expresscard reader to hijack a drive letter (with no
SD card in it).

Please advise.

Thanks
Danny
 
Sometimes the shutdown works fine with the expresscard reader in the slot.
But once i start the computer again and try to shutdown the second time it
always hangs during the shutdown (on second attempt).
 
Danny said:
Sometimes the shutdown works fine with the expresscard reader in the slot.
But once i start the computer again and try to shutdown the second time it
always hangs during the shutdown (on second attempt).
Click to expand...

I don't know how else to debug it.

You can look in Event Viewer, but I doubt there will be anything of
interest in there. Any time I've had a problem, there was absolutely
nothing of interest in there.

Try contacting Sonnettech and see if they have any comments.

http://www.sonnettech.com/support/contact.html

Maybe there is some USB setting you can play with in the BIOS,
like USB legacy support.

Paul
 
Back
Top