Dell Vostro 1000 SDHC Driver
I was left scratching my head after a 4G SD memory card came up as RAW formated when I inserted into my wife’s brand new Dell Vostro 1000 laptop. Windows wanted me to format the card. Knowing that the card had no pictures left on it, I proceeded to format the card. That was a huge mistake.
It formated the card as FAT32. Before I formated the card, it worked flawless in the camera and other SD card slots and USB SD adapters. It came up as FAT32 in the other devices. Why wouldn’t the brand new laptop recognize the SD card and show it as RAW formated?! And now, since I formated it with the new laptop, the card would not work in the camera anymore! BUT, the Vostro could see the SD memory without any problems now…
I tried to format the card inside the camera. I kept getting a memory and disc error. I formated the card in another PC with a USB SD adapter. The card would work fine in all computers, including the Vostro, but now the camera couldn’t see it.
I did some searching and found this life saver of a utility: SD Memory Card Formatting Software from Panasonic
From their web site “Generally, SD/SDHC Memory Card file systems formatted with generic operating system formatting software do not comply with the SD Memory Card specification.”
Caught red handed…
After I did a “Full Format” with the above utility, the camera could see the memory and all was well, or was it…
I then went back to the Dell Vostro laptop and plugged in the SD card directly and I got the same message! It wanted to format the card and the format of the device came up as RAW! Also, my brand new SDHC 8G memory card didn’t work in the Vostro either.
I did some more digging and found the SD Host Controller was running on an old Microsoft driver from 2001. I went to Dell’s support site and found new drivers, “Chip Set: Ricoh R5C832, R5C833, R5C843, Driver, Windows 2000, Windows Vista 32-bit, Windows XP, Multi Language, Multi System, v.1.0.1, A00″ - R141246.EXE
I installed this new update and it found that my drivers were already up to date. 2001 is NOT an updated driver in my book. On closer inspection I found that the Dell driver only included drivers for xD, MS, and MMC. Where is my SD driver? I then dug around for a new driver and found this. Here is the new drivers. Here is just the drivers minus the executables for all you nervous nancy’s out there.
I did not use the setup program. I updated the driver directly from the device manager. I found the SD Host Controller and updated the driver manually. Now the driver is from 2006 and all is well. I can plug in the 4G SD card directly into the Vostro and it works. I can plug in my 8G SDHC card and it works now too.
Use these drivers at your own risk and hopefully Dell will post updated SD drivers soon for all laptop users. Dell uses Ricoh R5C8xx chips in:
Inspiron 1501
Inspiron 640m / E1405
Inspiron 9400/E1705
Inspiron 1420
Inspiron 1520
Inspiron 1521
Inspiron 1720
Inspiron 1721
Inspiron 6400/E1505
Latitude D420
Latitude 131L
Dell Precision Mobile WorkStation M90
Vostro Notebook 1000
Vostro Notebook 1400
Vostro Notebook 1500
Vostro Notebook 1700
XPS M1210
XPS M1330
XPS/Inspiron M140/630m
XPS M1710
XPS M2010
Good luck.
December 31st, 2007 21:00
[...] « Dell Vostro 1000 SDHC Driver [...]
January 22nd, 2008 17:37
Thanks, this helped me immensely! Downloading the latest driver (as of 1/22/08 Windows XP) for my vostro 1400 didn’t solve this problem so I’m glad i came across your site. After loading the drivers from the “SD” folder in the zip, I was able to have my 4GB Micro SDHC card get recognized in XP.
THanks Dude!
February 1st, 2008 12:43
Sweet, thanks man! Dell’s Ricoh drivers always sucked and people are having problem reading SD’s cards because of this. I never knew that dell never actually updated the SD driver. Go figure! That would explain a lot of things. Thanks!
February 1st, 2008 23:35
Thank you for the link. I found your blog through leog.net.
My desktop isn’t on the list of compatible computers. Do you have any idea where I could find an SDHC driver for the XPS 410/Dimension 9200? I’ve talked to Dell tech support twice and they do not know.
February 2nd, 2008 08:55
Nomo, try this, even though it’s not on the list (I assume you use Win XP)…
1) Create a system restore point (to be safe)
2) Download the zip file I created in the above post.
3) Unzip them, open the Device Manager and locate your SD device. Right click the device and select properties. Select “Update Driver”
4) Select “No, not this time”
Click Next
Select “Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Click Next
Select “Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install.
Click Next
Click “Have Disk”
From there, browse to the directory you just unzipped and search for the “SD” directory.
5) Now, this is the part where Windows will tell you whether or not the driver is compatible. If it is, install it. If it isn’t, don’t.
If the driver is incompatible, you can try this other convoluted way of patching Windows XP to allow for SDHC support:
Read bogdan2’s post here
My old old Acer (Aspire 2100) laptop has an SD card slot, but in reality it’s an external USB memory reader that embedded into the laptop. So when I plug in the SD card my laptop treats it as a USB SD mass storage device. So there are no drivers involved and there is no way for me to update the driver or fool it into using SDHC cards. If you have such a device in your computer, then you may be out of luck.
Let me know how you make out.
February 3rd, 2008 06:24
Thanks a lot. Finally, after weeks of frustration my Dell Inspiron 9400 can now read 4GB SDHC cards. I am curious though, how come Dell themselves are incapable of coming with a working driver.
February 3rd, 2008 10:35
Adi, I really don’t know why they haven’t updated the drivers in the R141246.EXE driver package. It’s pretty lame. I posted my concerns to the Dell Community forum, but have received no responses.
Dell Community forum post…
February 3rd, 2008 11:14
I did contact Dell through their Chat system. Maybe they’ll provide updated drivers now. We can only wait and see.
February 4th, 2008 22:27
Thank you for replying, Cote. After posting my question I was able to find the following driver for the TEAC 13-1 media card reader for my Dell XPS 410/Dimension 9200. The drive now reads SDHC, and (presumably) other HC media.
http://support.us.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&releaseid=R176603&formatcnt=1&libid=0&fileid=240271
February 5th, 2008 04:40
Thanks!
Worked like a charm on my Lattitude D420.
February 11th, 2008 19:06
drivers do not work for my e1705. infact my card reader is dead. will have to reformat which will hopefully fix it. tried the zip file and exe. no results
February 11th, 2008 19:41
Jim, save your self some effort and use Windows System Restore. Boot into SAFEMODE first, then use System Restore. On any driver installation, windows will create a restore point.
Was your card reader working before you installed the drivers?
When you said, “tried the zip file”, are you able to manually update the drivers, if so, did Windows tell you the hardware was incompatible?
February 11th, 2008 21:21
My card reader was working fine before. When I tried the zip file manually windows did not say it was incompatible nor did it say it was compatitble. Will try the safe mode rollback.
February 12th, 2008 08:37
Jim, if you intend to do a System Restore just make certain you boot into Safemode first. I have never EVER been able to use System Restore unless I initiated the restore from Safemode.
Also, when you “tried the zip file manually”, what exact steps did you use? Look at the steps in my above comments on how to manually update the driver. If you have never manually updated a driver from the device manager, it’s not as easy as just clicking on the zip file.
Steps for manually updating driver.
February 18th, 2008 21:47
There is a hotfix for this issue in WinXP:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923293
It is a special request as it has not been tested completely.
February 20th, 2008 17:27
Andy, check this out:
Read bogdan2’s post here
No need for a special request from Microsoft.
February 24th, 2008 09:26
Worked fine on my Inspiron 9400. I had replaced Vista with XP and this is the only driver I didn’t get from Dell.
thanks very much for your time and effort on this - saved me plenty.
gmacd
March 6th, 2008 14:54
I had the same problem with my Samsung X20 laptop and Windows XP Home. First the card reader wouldn’t see the SDHC card (4GB from Toshiba) at all. After installing the Dell drivers, the card reader would see the card, but was saying in was not formatted, though I already used it for some time in my Canon PowerShot where it worked great. That’s where I formatted the card. Thanks to your warning, I did NOT format it on Windows, but instead manually updated the Ricoh CD Card driver with the SD drivers. XP almost instantly recognized the card after that. Thanks for your help, that really made my day!
April 3rd, 2008 16:39
Thanks very much for your efforts! The new driver was exactly what I was looking for, for my Dell Vostro 1500.
Let’s hope Dell get’s their act together and updates the drivers.
April 7th, 2008 19:06
Awesome. After searching endless hours, you solved my problems.
April 15th, 2008 00:28
Thanks.. fixed my ins6400
April 16th, 2008 13:20
works great with fujitsu q2010. Thanks
April 21st, 2008 17:30
I tried what you told but still didn’t work. I want to read micro SDHC not SDHC though. Also tried what Bogdan suggested, didn’t work. I’m usnig inspiron 630m with XP home. Anythig I can dot to read micro SDHC? I have a SDHC adapter which goes in USB slot. I can read a 64MB micro SDHC card that way but not 4GB micro SDHC. The my computer page just freezes when I put in 4GB card.
April 22nd, 2008 18:15
Well, this driver only effects the on board SD slot on your laptop. It has nothing to do with USB memory card readers that you are talking about. USB card readers generally do not use drivers. They appear as mass storage devices to the computer or laptop.
As far as your USB card reader is concerned, you need to make certain that it supports SDHC cards. It sounds to me that your USB card reader doesn’t support SDHC OR there is a manufacturer compatibility problem.
I do recognize one inconsistency in your situation. I have never heard of a 64MB micro-SDHC card. I have only heard of 64M micro-SD cards. It sounds to me like your USB adapter only supports micro-SD memory. Go out and buy a new micro-SDHC card reader if that’s the case. Good luck.
April 29th, 2008 15:16
the exe worked on my xps m1330
thanks
May 2nd, 2008 01:59
Thanks a lot for this! I was stuck with a 4gb sdhc that this vostro wouldn’t even recognize. After the install, works perfectly!
May 4th, 2008 21:36
Brilliant. It worked perfectly on the Acer 5720 running XP. Thanks for posting this up.
May 6th, 2008 04:24
WOW… nice find.
May 8th, 2008 17:26
I can’t seem to get it to read my new microsdhc card with the included sd adapter Windows just does not think there is a disk in the drive even though the drive shows up when i open my computer . I tried using the microsdhc card in an older micro sd adapter and the card gets read by my vostro 1000 reader (with the updated drivers) but it does not have enough speed to run readyboost (which it should if its a class 6 card). It still shows up as a 4gb card and I can transfer files perfectly. I used a USB sdhc adapter with the microsdhc card and its included adapter, and it worked fine and showed that it was readboost capable. So from all of this, I know that theres nothing wrong with the microsdhc card and its included adapter, but there might be someting wrong with the reader and/or the drivers. Any clues?
May 8th, 2008 19:34
Excellent find! Thanks a bunch, I never thought I would have been able to get my Dell Ispiron E1405 card reader to recognize my SDHC card. This driver package is great!
May 10th, 2008 15:27
Thanks so much. Working perfectly on my Dell E1405.
May 12th, 2008 18:13
Asa,
That’s very odd. From your testing, there doesn’t seem to be any reason why it shouldn’t work. Your hunch maybe be correct though.
1. I really don’t know what the difference is with your included SD adapter and your older micro SD adapter, but that sticks out as a bit odd since the adpters look and act the same way, no?
2. I don’t think these drivers were specifically written with Vista in mind so that might be part of the problem.
3. Does Readyboost, by design, not run on Micro SD cards for some odd reason? Is Vista or the driver reporting that the cards is slower than it actually is, where as the USB adapter doesn’t report this info to the OS? I don’t know enough about Vista or Readyboost.
Let us know if you get it working. Sorry, I can’t be of anymore help.
Does this effect you: Here
May 23rd, 2008 13:21
worked like a charm on my E1405. Thanks guys
May 28th, 2008 09:53
I followed your instructions but when I put a 2GB disk in my Dell 1405 it asks me if i want to format it. [No I dont]
In Device Manager
under disk drives I have: a Richo SD Disk Device [driver 7/1/2001 version: 5.1.2535.0]
under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers I have: A Ricoh SD Host Controller 12/20/2006 version 6.2.0.8
May 28th, 2008 14:25
Linden,
The Disk Drive device, “Ricoh Disk Device” will appear when an SDHC card is plugged in with that above driver date. My laptop does the same thing.
Now, does that card work fine in other devices (camera or SDHC USB adapter)? Maybe it really needs to be formated? If you have the SD Memory Card Formatting Software from Panasonic, you can always reformat it back to spec. Also, does your computer want to format any SD card you place in the drive, not just SDHC cards? Good luck.
May 28th, 2008 17:15
Hello,
Yes the sd 2GB card has files that work in my treo and camera and a sd card reader.
When I put in 2GB card into Dell slot it only wants to format the 2GB. I can put a 1GB in the Dell slot and it reads fine.
Thoughts?
Also, does the driver you referrence only work with Vista? My Dell E1405 is on Windows XP.
Thanks
May 30th, 2008 14:42
Thanks! This worked for my Dell Vostro 1500 running Windows XP. I’m going to be shifting to Vista Home Premium in a couple of days, hope it works on that too :s
May 31st, 2008 19:38
Works great on the Lenevo/IBM Thinkpad Z60m as well!
June 1st, 2008 02:05
Thanks!! worked like a charm on my Vostro 1000
June 3rd, 2008 12:47
Thank you for this fix. I was having major problems with one of our shareholder’s D420 laptop computers not identifying the SD card. This worked great!
June 4th, 2008 10:52
Linden, that’s very odd. If you are feeling a bit dangerous, I would:
1) Back up your files that are on your 2GB SD.
2) Format the card in Windows.
3) See if it all still works in all devices and windows
4) Restore files, and again, see if it works in all devices and windows.
If that doesn’t work, then it’s a bit beyond the scope of this blog/thread since we are talking about SDHC cards and not SD cards.
I would then:
1) Use the above Panasonic formating software or try to format the card in your camera or Treo.
2) Restore your files
3) Try different a different 2GB flash brand.
This driver is for XP. I don’t know if it works on Vista. Good luck.
June 24th, 2008 19:17
Thank you so much! it was the first hit on google, so i tried it and it worked perfectly!
July 8th, 2008 14:28
THANKS!!! Worked like a charm! I was really worried that my $5 purchase had gone to waste
But really — it worked. I used the setup. No problems at all.
July 9th, 2008 00:35
Thanks for posting this, I am using a Dell Inspiron 6400 and the post with the outline of what to do was the silver bullet…THANKYOU!!. I am pasting it again here:
1) Create a system restore point (to be safe)
2) Download the zip file I created in the above post.
3) Unzip them, open the Device Manager and locate your SD device. Right click the device and select properties. Select “Update Driver”
4) Select “No, not this time”
Click Next
Select “Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Click Next
Select “Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install.
Click Next
Click “Have Disk”
From there, browse to the directory you just unzipped and search for the “SD” directory.
5) Now, this is the part where Windows will tell you whether or not the driver is compatible. If it is, install it. If it isn’t, don’t.
July 11th, 2008 14:16
Thanks for these drivers, was looking for it aswell.
I also had problems with one wrong driver and one missing driver when i got and installed my vostro 1700 with XP some months ago. Got the correct ones from the vostro 1400 page. Come’on dell, wake up, this is not what one expects from a company like dell.
July 11th, 2008 23:34
that really helps me! I just bought SDHC only to find it wasnot detected… Thanks for the driver
July 18th, 2008 07:30
I had good luck using the microsoft update from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6EDFB30F-B1AB-42A8-A330-ACD6762961BC&displaylang=en
(forces you to reboot after installation)
I have a Dell Inspiron 9400 and am reading a PNY SDHC 4GB card now.
Thanks for the help.