Help! My system doesn't see my internal card reader!

[LaughingWarrior]

Hello! I've been lurking for many years and have found this forum extremely useful.

Today I have a problem:

Since updating from Mavericks to El Capitan, my system no longer recognizes my internal card reader.

I have tried:

Restart, restart with PRAM/NVRAM reset, running hardware diagnostic (both short and long passes, which returned no hardware issues at all)... I am running out of ideas?

Under System Report, when I click on Card Reader the message reads : "This computer doesn't contain any Apple Internal Memory Card Readers."

However the card reader shows up under the USB Device Tree as follows:

Card Reader:

Product ID: 0x8404
Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)
Version: 3.10
Serial Number: 000000000310
Speed: Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Apple
Location ID: 0x1d183000 / 3
Current Available (mA): 1000
Current Required (mA): 500
Extra Operating Current (mA): 0
Built-In: Yes

The USB port on that side (right next to the card reader) seems to work normally.


MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X El Capitan (10.11.2)

Any suggestions before I make an appointment at the Apple Store? My system is past warranty and Apple Care at this point.

 

[chscag]

Buy a can of compressed air and blow a few short blasts into the slot. It may be dirty.

 

[pigoo3]

Under System Report, when I click on Card Reader the message reads : "This computer doesn't contain any Apple Internal Memory Card Readers."

Have you tried inserting a card…and seeing if it reads it?

- Nick

 

[LaughingWarrior]

Have you tried inserting a card…and seeing if it reads it?

- Nick

Certainly, that's how I discovered the problem. I've tried all the SD cards I own, and it won't recognize any of them. I've tried the advice found elsewhere online to try with the card locked, the lock switch in the half-way position, and try inserting the card less than fully as well; no change.

 

[LaughingWarrior]

Buy a can of compressed air and blow a few short blasts into the slot. It may be dirty.

Thanks; I tried this as well, with no change. An examination of the slot with a flashlight shows no debris or dirt, and it doesn't look damaged that I can tell.

 

[pigoo3]

Certainly, that's how I discovered the problem. I've tried all the SD cards I own, and it won't recognize any of them.

This is the sort of info that's good to include in post #1. Then we know exactly what's been tried. Assuming is never a good thing.

Give this a try. Try downloading, installing, and running Onyx (a free maintenance app). Then just click on the "automation" button.

- Nick

 

[LaughingWarrior]

This is the sort of info that's good to include in post #1. Then we know exactly what's been tried. Assuming is never a good thing.

Give this a try. Try downloading, installing, and running Onyx (a free maintenance app). Then just click on the "automation" button.

- Nick

I use Onyx regularly, but will run the gauntlet and report back...

 

[pigoo3]

I use Onyx regularly, but will run the gauntlet and report back...

Good deal.

- Nick

 

[chscag]

I use Onyx regularly, but will run the gauntlet and report back...

After you run OnyX, try resetting your System Management Controller (SMC).

 

[LaughingWarrior]

After you run OnyX, try resetting your System Management Controller (SMC).

Hmm. After DL of the proper OnyX for El Cap and running it... no change.

After resetting the SMC... my machine is running faster than it has since the moment I updated the OS, but still no change to the issue with the internal card reader!

Thanks for the suggestions so far... anything else?

A little more info I could add: I've tried Disk Utility, but it doesn't see a card inserted in the reader slot. I thought maybe I could mount the card manually in there, but nope! Cards don't show in the Finder either.

 

[chas_m]

You've certainly done your due diligence on this problem. The way I see it, you have two options:

1. Take it in to get fixed.

2. Buy an external USB card reader and move on.

Of course its no fun for the card reader to have busted -- but if my machine has to develop a fault, that's the one I'd pick!

 

[LaughingWarrior]

You've certainly done your due diligence on this problem. The way I see it, you have two options:

1. Take it in to get fixed.

2. Buy an external USB card reader and move on.

Of course its no fun for the card reader to have busted -- but if my machine has to develop a fault, that's the one I'd pick!

Thanks. Apple Care did cover a prematurely failed battery, which was nice. I wondered whether the battery replacement might have caused a loose connection or something, but that was months ago, and this problem didn't manifest until this week.

My change jar covered a replacement screen and upper housing when I dropped it on the tiled kitchen floor - not nice at all. That was years worth of change... almost $700 worth! (Thin, light fancy bits are awfully expensive...)

If this is obviously a hardware issue rather than software, I'll just finally figure out how to transfer pics via my DSLR's built-in WiFi I guess...

Anybody have a guess what the cost to repair might be at the Genius Bar?

 

[JackInOlyWa]

Mine either, sometimes

I think there is a software problem related to this issue (could be OS X 10.11.2, Aperture, or Photos). I have an iMac (27 in, late 2009) that worked properly before the last system update. Now it works for awhile but then stops recognizing that a card is inserted. When it is not working and I look at a system report, I see the the line for the card reader that says, "This computer doesn't contain any Apple Internal Memory Card Readers." When I reboot the computer, the problem is corrected and I can read SD cards and the system report shows a card reader ... until it stops working again.

 

[chscag]

Read post # 2 in this thread and give that a try. It is possible that your card reader is defective but not likely due to software. Very likely a hardware problem.

 

[JackInOlyWa]

Read post # 2 in this thread and give that a try.

Well, I'd have to get it to fail again before I could say anything fixes it and that just isn't happening now. Cleaning, as in Post #2, could help if my computer could not read a card but the problem is more basic that that. The system "forgets" that there is even a card reader in the computer: "This computer doesn't contain any Apple Internal Memory Card Readers." Rebooting consistently fixes the problem for me and I don't see how that could fix a hardware problem.

 

[MacInWin]

Well, I'd have to get it to fail again before I could say anything fixes it and that just isn't happening now. Cleaning, as in Post #2, could help if my computer could not read a card but the problem is more basic that that. The system "forgets" that there is even a card reader in the computer: "This computer doesn't contain any Apple Internal Memory Card Readers." Rebooting consistently fixes the problem for me and I don't see how that could fix a hardware problem.

Jack, that's easy to create. Imagine a flaky cable that works 90% of the time. You boot, the system detects the reader and all is well. Now the cable flakes out and the card reader disappears. That disappearance is noted by the system. But it's not designed to keep testing to see if it comes back. It's gone, so it's gone and noted as being gone. So now you reboot and the 90% probability is that it's there, so it reappears, at least until the cable goes south again. So a reboot CAN fix a hardware problem, sort of.

EDIT: Has your Mac ever been opened? Serviced? I ask because perhaps the technician didn't put the cable back firmly, or damaged it somehow in the process. Just sort of a shot in the dark, but that's mostly how cables go bad.

 

[pm-r]

Do you have a bootable clone backup copy with Mavericks you could try in case it's something to do with software with your El Capitan update?

 

[chscag]

EDIT: Has your Mac ever been opened? Serviced? I ask because perhaps the technician didn't put the cable back firmly, or damaged it somehow in the process. Just sort of a shot in the dark, but that's mostly how cables go bad.

Is the SD card slot on an iMac attached to the logic board via a cable or is the card slot soldered to the logic board? I would suspect on my iMac at least (late 2013) the slot is soldered, but I don't know for sure.

 

[pm-r]

Is the SD card slot on an iMac attached to the logic board via a cable or is the card slot soldered to the logic board? I would suspect on my iMac at least (late 2013) the slot is soldered, but I don't know for sure.

It seems via cable, and one screw to mount it, at least in the 2009 models:
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2309+and+2374+Teardown/1236

 

[dtravis7]

I just checked both My early 2010 27" Quad Core iMac and my late 2011 MBP and with latest El Capitan the card reader works like it always did. I would, like was suggested above, use an external hard drive with an older OS X and see if it again works. Unless the card reader is very different in the Macbook Air than my PRO and iMac, I can't understand why El capitan would break that functionality,