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I have an Acer Aspire 7720G-813G32Bn laptop. It has integrated (maybe 3?)-in-one memory card reader. The reader uses Ricoh chip from R5C8 series. I don't know the exact model number. I can't see the chip itself because it's covered by plastic and is very difficult to remove.

My problem are drivers. Acer has some drivers (unfortunately, driver I used, the "CarReader_Ricoh_352.02_Vistax64" is unavailable at this time, but there is still 351 version) for Vista SP1 64 bit. So far I've used those. However since the last reinstall of Windows, when I install those drivers, nothing happens. Normally, Windows would detect a bunch of unknown devices and the SD card reader. Once I install drivers from Acer, those unknown devices turn into various card readers.

Now, however, Windows only detected SD card reader and installed the SDA Standard Compliant Host Controller. The card reader would work sporadically with that driver. After some time it stopped working altogether. At first I thought it was a hardware problem and thought is was unsolvable. Later I was trying to force the installation of Acer's drivers but when I select the .inf files, I get the "The folder you selected doesn't contain a compatible driver blah blah blah make sure driver is for win64 blah blah" error. When I try to right-lick install the .inf files, I get the "The INF file you selected does not support this method of installation" error. It worked several months ago, but doesn't now.

While looking among available drivers in windows, I found Ricoh Secure Digital host controller R5C841 driver which I installed. Now SD card reader seems to work, but won't read SDHC cards.

Any ideas what to do to solve this problem?

EDIT1 I just downloaded some drivers from Microsoft(warinig: IE-only link!). With them too, I get the "The INF file you selected does not support this method of installation." error. This is strange since those drivers are from M$'s official driver website.

EDIT2
Here are the screenshots:

expanded list of devices in device manager part 1 with affected devices highlighted expanded list of devices in device manager part 2 with affected devices highlighted expanded list of devices in device manager part 3 Hardware ID page for affected device

The unknown device is CIR receiver which I do not use and which has problematic driver

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4
  • Can you try to expand device manager and the majority of the branches and take a few screenshots?
    – William Hilsum
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 16:12
  • @Wil Posted screenshots.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 16:27
  • Your screen shots would be better if you didn't have all of the irrellavant devices listed as well. I.e. video card, monitors, bluetooth... you get the idea.
    – James Mertz
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 16:33
  • @KronoS Put a red circle around affected devices.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 16:53

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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+300

I have managed to find a newer device driver than the one from Microsoft, which also supposedly supports 64-bit:
Asus N51Vg Notebook RICOH R5C8xx Card Reader Driver 3.57.01 (Vista)

Another and somewhat older driver is here :
Asus X58L Notebook RICOH R5C843 Card Reader Driver

However, for obvious reasons, I cannot test them.

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8
  • I'll try it out.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 16:53
  • That driver is actually same version as the one I originally used.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 17:32
  • @harrymc With the driver you linked, reader can read some cards, so +1 for you.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 17:45
  • Does "some cards" mean "all cards", or do you still have problems?
    – harrymc
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 18:00
  • @harrymc It means that some, but not all, cards work. I tested all cards with another reader and they work, so most likely, the cards themselves aren't the problem.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 18:26
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To me, it looks like everything is working as it should from that picture. However, if you want an updated driver, take a look at Dell's support site here. Ricoh use a generic driver architecture (similar to Nvidia) and anything is pretty much compatible with anything.

If it doesn't however, I can tell you that the way I have seen most card readers work is that they are usually one of two sorts.

  1. List as generic card reader or as a disconnected device that does not do anything, then as you put in a card of a different type, it simply activates / shows an entry in device manager....
  2. List each device which is the other behaviour I have seen, which makes me think nothing is technically wrong. (such as yours)

so, all I can really suggest is look up the original specifications of your laptop and make sure it is compatible with the type of card you are using. If the card is not working, make sure it is in correctly.

I have been caught out by Micro SD cards that need to be pushed in a tiny bit further etc.

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  • I'm using standard SD cards and they are on the supported list. In my case, when I insert card which does work, new drive gets detected and shows up in my computer. As far as pushing is concerned, card "clicks" when it's correctly inserted, so it's not the problem.
    – AndrejaKo
    Commented Nov 15, 2010 at 21:36

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