I've had two of three external card readers fail (the type plugged in via
USB cable). Both were SanDisk, each of which cost about 3 times what I paid
for the one that has kept working. >8-(
Interestingly, both of those that failed, besides being from the same
vendor, were used the majority of the time on Windows machines. One was
never used on another OS and pretty much never unplugged once plugged in,
the second had been used exclusively on Windows for about a year, and died
pretty soon after plugging it into a new machine that ran Linux. The 3rd,
generic, still working external one, has been run on 3 different Linux
machines (as we've upgraded the machines over time) and lives in an
environment where months go by where the machine is powered up in an
entirely un-air-conditioned or heated vacation home (San Felipe, Baja, so
it gets really hot in there, but not very cold) and where power failures
are fairly frequent. It spends the majority of its time plugged in, and
works reliably every time I've used it. I think it cost me something less
than 10$ from Newegg.com
None/zero/nada of the internal ones (mounted in a 3.5" floppy drive slot
and directly connected to one of the motherboard's USB connectors) that I
have has failed. That's about another 5 or 6 card readers, (multiple
machines, you see, or machines built for family members). All have been
exclusively used on Linux machines.
All of the above card readers have been multi-slot readers handling
multiple types of cards.
Gotchas I'd mention that you might look out for, all of which can cause
symptoms like you're reporting:
(1) Windows USB plug/unplug detection handling is often poor, in my
experience, especially as regards card readers
(2) Beware that if you did not manually remove drivers for old card
readers, Windows is unlikely to have removed them for you. Resulting poor
handling of which driver to activate when plugging in a newer/different
card reader can cause erratic operation.
(3) Many older card readers can not read newer, higher capacity cards. This
is especially true of SD cards, (standard, mini and micro physical sizes).
(4) Failure to properly eject/remove a card via Windows' software can cause
subsequent newly inserted cards not to be read.
YMMV, of course. I never noticed until I was writing this reply that the
two failures were both used mostly on Windows machines. I had definitely
noticed that both were expensive SanDisk models. There have been numerous
malware attacks on card devices and other USB storage devices on Windows
over the years. It's possible that is the reason for the failures I note
above--as well as the relatively high failure rate of card readers I noted
at the school district where I used to work. Maybe someone has reliable
data that would prove or disprove that possiblity. Linux generally doesn't
allow these sorts of attacks.
---
Scott
On Sat, Aug 23, 2014 at 3:01 PM, Tina Manley <tmanley@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> PESO:
>
> Do all card readers eventually quit working? I have at least 6 here,
> ranging from the newest Transcend one to several older Belkin ones. None
> of them work. The computer recognizes that they have been plugged in but
> will not read any card put in the reader.
>
> I finally had to find all of the cords for the cameras involved and
> download the cards through the cameras!
>
> Have you had card readers that have been very reliable?
>
> TIA
>
> Tina
>
> --
> Tina Manley
> www.tinamanley.com
> tina-manley.artistwebsites.com
> --
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