USB card reader requires restart of Macbook Air?

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Level 1

4 points

USB card reader requires restart of Macbook Air?

I saw this post from several years ago but I am having the same problem and did not see a solution.

Using: USB smart card reader in USB 3.0 bus of a Macbook Air running Catalina 10.15.5.

The card reader works, however, only after a full restart. Any time I plug in the card reader and my smart card, the light comes on solid and then turns off after a couple seconds. The device is recognized in the System Report, but the keychain is not receiving the login details when I try to access the websites.

If I restart the computer and reinsert the card I'm good to go. All credentials are recognized by the websites. So my question is: why do I have to restart in order to use the card reader? And can I accomplish the same thing without restarting?

I have two MacBook Air laptops and two card readers - it happens with all of them no matter which combination I use. For card readers my main one is the Rocketek RT-SCR10 and the back-up is an Identiv SCR3310v2.0.

Any assistance would be great!

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jun 23, 2020 5:05 AM

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Answer 1

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Jun 26, 2020 1:53 PM in response to LeeHfromMD

Hi Lee,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We understand that in order to use your USB smart card reader with your Mac devices, both have to be restarted before the reader will work properly. We can see why you'd reach out about this behavior; we'd like to help. Based on the behavior you've described, we'd recommend using the steps in the resources below to reset the System Management Controller and NVRAM of the Mac devices:

Reset NVRAM or PRAM on your Mac

How to reset the SMC of your Mac

Let us know the results.

Best Regards.

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Answer 2

brenden dv

Community Specialist

Jul 2, 2020 7:27 AM in response to LeeHfromMD

Hey Lee,

We appreciate you taking the time to work through those steps and get back to us with the results. What happens if you try to use the card reader when logged in to a test user account? How to test an issue in another user account on your Mac

Since the behavior occurs with both card readers and two Mac devices, we'd also suggest checking with the card reader manufacturers to see if a restart is required for the devices to work properly with your Mac.

Let us know what you find.

Take Care.

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Answer 3

LeeHfromMD Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 2, 2020 6:36 AM in response to LeeHfromMD

Thank you for the response, well if I did it correctly then it did not work. When I followed the instructions to reset the PRAM on my non T2chip MacBook Air laptop I held the four keys down and when the laptop started and played the start up sound the screen went blank again like it turned off, I let go of the four keys and it played the start up sound again and powered up. I then reset the SMC, followed the instructions, this time nothing happened when I held the four keys down, let them go and hit the power key and it started right up. I then plugged my card reader and card into the laptop and tried to access a work site and the card certs were not found. I had to shut down the laptop, plug in the reader with the card in it and restart to get it to work again.

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USB card reader requires restart of Macbook Air?

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