Windows 10: Realtek Card Reader Keeps Disappearing

I've just updated my Dell Inspiron 7537 laptop to Windows 10.

All is working fine apart from the built in Realtek card reader. When the PC starts, the card reader appears as a drive and I can read/write to the card. However, the reader will randomly show no content in file explorer and the drive disappears altogether if I remove and reinsert the card. The card reader reappears if I restart the PC. Device Manger shows no problems with the card reader.

I've tried the Dell Windows 10 driver, the latest driver on Realtek's site and the driver installed by Windows update but all fail in the same way. The card reader was fine in Windows 8 so I think it's a software issue.

Any ideas what may be wrong?

:)

 

Can't install Windows 10 ERROR: 0xC1900101-0x20017

You may have a RealTek sound driver but the one I was having issues with was a RealTek card reader driver. It did not affect my sound card. After I disabled the RealTek card reader driver I was able to install Windows 10. Then I installed an updated driver
for my RealTek card reader that I downloaded from the RealTek website.

 

Windows 10 update failed?

I'm trying to finish "Feature update to Windows 10, version 1709" in my windows update for Windows 10, but every time I try to finish it, there is some kind of problem involving "Realtek PCIE Card Reader". The update can't finish because this card reader
isn't compatible or something and it told me to uninstall it myself then press the "refresh" button...

So I uninstalled the "Realtek PCIE Card Reader" from my programs list and pressed the refresh button...

The windows update keeps telling me to uninstall "Realtek PCIE Card Reader", even though it's already been uninstalled. I even got rid of the registry entry for "Realtek PCIE Card Reader" in RegEdit. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, the update won't finish
and it keeps telling me to uninstall the thing. I've restarted the update several times, turned my computer off and on, etc. Nothing has fixed this...

What do I do to fix this issue and finish the update?

 

Hi, it's normal for the drive (letter) not to be shown in explorer/a file manager if no card is inserted.

However you also report
a. the content of the card not being displayed randomly
and
b. the (empty, I presume) card reader appearing as a drive after a restart

Those two are not normal behaviour.

The one thing you haven't tried is using the Windows 8 compatible driver, assuming it's different.

Noted (not the same symptoms though):
Inspiron 15 7537, clean install of Windows 10, SD Card reader driver issues - Windows 10 - Software Operating Systems - Dell Community

 

The reader icon doesn't appear if there is no card present. The problem is file explorer can be correctly showing the card then the card contents disappear leaving an apparently empty drive. The drive icon will eventually disappear but it doesn't reappear when I remove and reinsert the card.

 

Just looked at the driver list- that for Win 8 is different, so worth a shot.
Product Support | Dell US

Note that Win 10 will replace any driver different to what it thinks is good for you... unless you act.
So if that works, please see the tutorial on how to stop drivers being updated.

 

I tried the Dell Windows 8 driver but it just shows the same behavior. The drive keeps disappearing at random but reappears on restart. Maybe its just a case of waiting until Dell sort out the driver support?

 

Could be worth trying the Dell forum.. and checking reports for your type of PC generally.

If you upgraded (rather than a clean install) it's worth checking (after creating a restore point)
- what happens on a clean boot
- what happens if you disable all non-MS shell extensions with shellexview (free).
Take care to hide all MS shell extensions first (see shellexview's GUI).

 

I just discovered reports of a bad block on the card listed in event viewer before it disappears. I'll try and correct that and try another card. Have also posted to Dell forum.

 

I did a surface scan and the SD card had a clean report.

I then viewed the card reader in Device Manager and noted it was connected to Intel 8 Series PCI Express Root Port when "View devices by connection" is selected. I let Windows update the driver for this and it found a driver about 6 months newer which it installed and all appears fine.

I've updated all the Intel hardware items in the same way,

 

Hi, interesting the driver hadn't been updated automatically. Glad you've solved it. Please mark as solved - thanks

 

I've turned off auto driver updates for now since the Dell forum reports some issues with new versions of the Intel ME driver and I don't want this to auto update.

 

Excellent- I was just thinking of saying that whether the driver you have is older OR newer than what Windows thinks is good for you, it will replace it. (Assuming it's monitoring drivers at that level in the same way as, say, graphics drivers).
Windows Updates - Hide or Show in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums