Multi-Card Reader Issue

[William_Prokop]

I work for an IT company in Oklahoma and we are all stumped on an problem we are having with one of our contracted clients. This issue isn't to just one computer or to one model of card reader. It has happened with internal (which we install) as well as external.

When we insert an SD or micro SD card into ANY card reader, it removes all of our drive locations excluding C: and D: drives.

This includes any mapped network drives we have installed or any USB devices that fall under "USB Mass Storage" as well as any smartboards, phones or tablets plugged into the computer as well.

We have done this on 15 different computers using 4 different card readers, 5 SD cards, and 3 different micro SD cards. All of the computers were running Windows 7 and all were upgraded using the free upgrade from Microsoft (grrr less contract money for us). Drivers for each card reader has been installed. Drivers have been uninstalled and reinstalled on each computer when the issue first started happening.

It is boggling our minds. It is not so much that it is a big issue at all. It isn't. They rarely use SD cards at the location. Mostly it was from cameras used for various reasons for documentation. But, it irritates me that we can not figure it out.

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
IF nothing else, I think you win the most bizarre problem post of the month, if not the year.
You say 15 "different" computers. Are they in fact different or might they share anything in common physically.
I assume you have looked into BIOS updates, chipset and drive controller updates, including any specific chipset that might be supporting the USB connections (jmicron or renesas for example).
IF you adjust your drive mapping to the higher letters in the alphabet...... say "R" and above and leave the portable USB devices to fight over "next available" drive letter, do the mapped network drives still get zapped?

 

[Tim Locke]

So what does Disk management show.
A with no card in the card reader
B with a card in the card reader.

 

[William_Prokop]

15 built computers from the company I work for, we don't buy PCs from the big manufacturers. 3 different MOBO (all Asus), 4 different CPU (all Intel of 2 different socket).

As a rule of thumb where I work, mapped network drives all start at T: and work their way up from there. So USB and external drives will grab E, F, G normally unless I set it otherwise (I never do). When I get back at the computers on Monday, I will get the information about the chipset and drive controller updates. But iirc, our tech that handles the company said he updated them. He could have lied (of course), so I will check the updates.

I will pull the pictures from disk management. I didn't personally pull it up, so I can not say what it does with card in reader and no card in reader.

 

[bassfisher6522]

I just saw this thread....nothing to add just curious as hell as to the overall outcome of this post. Very interesting conundrum looking forward to your next post.