Level 1

12 points

SD Card Slot Disappears After Sleep (Gone Until Reboot)

I love my new Macbook Air 2013. Its speedy Core i7 and lightening-fast 256GB SSD make for quite a wonderful experience in Windows 7, too. But I have a problem that is proving to be quite the frustrating little niggle, and I just can't sort it out. So I've turned to you guys for help.

Here's the thing: the SD Card (the slot, the device, the card, the folder, the drive, everything) just vanishes after the MBA wakes up from sleep. I've tried it with various cards with different filesystems (FAT32, NTFS, EXFAT) and capacities (32GB, 64GB, 128GB) -- always the same. I've reinstalled Windows 7 Pro x64 multiple times using up-to-date boot camp assistant and Apple Support Drivers.

The card works fine. Until, of course, the computer goes to sleep. When it awakens, the card is gone -- even from the device manager -- until the computer is rebooted. That's right, plugging the card (or any other card) into and out of the slot doens't fix it. Neither does resetting the NVRAM or SMC. Neither does adding an event to the Task Scheduler to disable the device prior to sleep and re-enable it on wake (it doesn't re-enable, the entire device vanishes).

Here are some more details:

- Putting the card in for the first time while the computer is asleep is okay -- the card appears when the computer is awakened. But putting it back to sleep afterwards causes the same behavior -- the card and reader disappear until reboot.

- The computer can go to sleep and wake up many times without a card inserted without the device disappearing. I can put a card in and have it recognized propertly after any number of card-free sleep-wake cycles. But the moment the computer sleeps with card inside, the reader disappears until next reboot, no matter what.

- This behavior does not occur in OSX to my knowledge (although OSX handles both mounting AND sleep states VERY differently than Windows, so I can't directly compare).

I have tried everything short of scripting a reset of the root USB hub (a highly unrecommended procedure that can disable the keyboard/mouse/etc). I've even tried new USB hub drivers (intel 8.10) to no avail.

Anyone have the same issue? Does this work for you? Does anyone have a copy of older SD card drivers (maybe the latest ones are screwy?). Thanks

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), Windows 7, OSX 10.8.5 too.

Posted on Oct 3, 2013 8:08 PM

Top-ranking reply

Hawk521

Level 1

18 points

Posted on Oct 1, 2017 6:52 AM

There is no solution. Only work-arounds.

To the best of my knowledge, if you only use the Mac OS you will not see this disappearing SD Slot problem. BUT - if you utilize Bootcamp to run Windows (any version) and you allow your computer to go into "SLEEP MODE" while using Windows (when you close the lid or just let it time out) - then you WILL encounter this problem.

When s Mac running Windows in Bootcamp goes into sleep mode, the Bootcamp SD Slot goes dormant and cannot be waked up without a power off/on of the machine - which will restore the SD Slot. And for most folks a simple restart of Windows will restore the SD Slot, probably because it goes through the full boot-up process.

Workarounds;

You can utilize the Hybernate mode (instead of SLEEP mode) and never see the problem. The difference involves the fact that Hybernate involves a full power off of the computer whereas the SLEEP mode leaves the power on (albeit in a low power state.) Or you can use a full SHUTDOWN in lieu of SLEEP mode. In this case the SD Slot is fully functional upon reboot of the WIndows OS.

In my case I had always preferred to use the SLEEP mode because it is quicker to wake up. But once I started using the SD Card slot extensively while in Windows, I had to change to either SHUTDOWN or HYBERNATE to ensure that the SD card would be functional when I needed it.

This problem has existed for over 3 years. Apple has seemingly acknowledged it as a problem on occassion, but has yet to ever bother with a fix. I suspect it relates to the fact that this problem only affects users who run Windows on their Macs. And why would Apple bother to fix something that they disapprove of in the first place. <sarcasm detected!>

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148 replies

towoode

Level 1

4 points

Apr 13, 2016 11:59 AM in response to Loner T

Nope, I don't wish to do that. This is an astonishing 3+ year old driver bug which users in this thread have found against multiple operating systems. I expect working drivers, from Apple. Can someone post legitimate links to where apple are dealing with this problem, I don't any real information about this issue being dealt with: where are the filed bugs, the responses?

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Apr 13, 2016 12:20 PM in response to towoode

towoode wrote:

Nope, I don't wish to do that. This is an astonishing 3+ year old driver bug which users in this thread have found against multiple operating systems. I expect working drivers, from Apple. Can someone post legitimate links to where apple are dealing with this problem, I don't any real information about this issue being dealt with: where are the filed bugs, the responses?

Each bug filed by an individual is not publicly visible. The reporter should provide updates.

As the Windows patches/KBs show, it is not a driver issue, but a Kernel issue. From https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2990172 ,

Status

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.

Do you still think this is a Driver Issue?

towoode

Level 1

4 points

Apr 13, 2016 1:47 PM in response to Loner T

That KB is about SD cards not being recognized on win 8, the problem we are having is that the card reader disappears entirely on any version of windows, and various other operating systems on all models of retina macbook with a specific chipset.

Goody64

Level 1

28 points

Apr 18, 2016 7:15 AM in response to Gabe-A

I've got the same problem. The internal card reader doesn't open when I insert an SD card. I checked the "About this Mac" and got this message, This computer doesn't contain any Apple Internal Memory Card Readers. And I couldn't get it to read from a USB card reader. Have you resolved this issue since you posted it ? I'll get it back when I do a Reset the System Management Controller (SMC0:I shut the machine down, unplug it for 15 seconds and then plug it back in, and restart. I then have my internal card reader again, until the Mac goes to sleep or I put it to sleep. Then when I awaken the machine, the card reader is gone again.

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Apr 25, 2016 2:42 PM in response to Goody64

Before sleep/hibernate Windows should preserve the device state. After Wake, it should re-probe all devices, notify the user of any changes in the devices or their state to the user. For example, you can replace the SD card before the computer is Awake, and notify the user of any changes. Events reported to the Windows kernel get lost/ignored causing problems.

towoode

Level 1

4 points

Apr 26, 2016 1:31 PM in response to Loner T

Rather than ask users to mediate between MS and Apple, someone from Apple should pick up the phone. MS have wholeheartedly adopted a continual update model now, I'm sure this could be fixed with some communication. These posts aren't going to stop coming in, that should be very clear at this point!

Evan_hu

Level 1

4 points

Apr 26, 2016 4:29 PM in response to Gabe-A

I feel a bit better when I saw this thread knowing that I am not the only one who has this problem. But instead of SD card disappearing time to time , I also suffer from other problems caused by it I believe. when the card reader is not recognized , and i press the 'option' button to switch between Win and Mac , it takes 90~120 seconds to show the boot selection screen. And the touch pad and key board lagged a lot ! I only saw people here complaining the SD card recognition problem. does it mean that none you you guys ever experienced the issues i have ?

I'am using 2015 MBP ,128G, 4G,retina .

towoode

Level 1

4 points

May 1, 2016 1:45 PM in response to Evan_hu

No sorry I don't see that behaviour at all.

BUT: since a raft of windows updates I installed today, behaviour has changed. Instead of silently failing, when I resume from sleep I often get this:

1) under Universal Seraial Bus Contollers in Device Manager, we have an atserisked 'Unknown USB Device (Port Rest Failed)' - that sounds like progress, right. Something has tried to reset the port at least, rather than silently failing.

2)A popup says "USB device Not recognised - The last USB device you connected to this computer malfuntioned and Windows does not recognise it. Recommendation: Try reconnecting the device. If Windows still does not recognise it, your device may not be working properly."

I agree, my device (sd card slot driver) is likely not working properly.....

Also now it seem the card slot disappearing can now persist over reboots, only a shutdown or reboot to osx will make it come back.

May 2, 2016 2:37 PM in response to towoode

towoode wrote:

No sorry I don't see that behaviour at all.

BUT: since a raft of windows updates I installed today, behaviour has changed. Instead of silently failing, when I resume from sleep I often get this:

1) under Universal Seraial Bus Contollers in Device Manager, we have an atserisked 'Unknown USB Device (Port Rest Failed)' - that sounds like progress, right. Something has tried to reset the port at least, rather than silently failing.

2)A popup says "USB device Not recognised - The last USB device you connected to this computer malfuntioned and Windows does not recognise it. Recommendation: Try reconnecting the device. If Windows still does not recognise it, your device may not be working properly."

I agree, my device (sd card slot driver) is likely not working properly.....

Also now it seem the card slot disappearing can now persist over reboots, only a shutdown or reboot to osx will make it come back.

I get exactly the same behavior, except even a reboot to OSX doesn't bring it back.

seba DGA

Level 1

4 points

Jul 12, 2016 5:17 AM in response to echang777

Hello,

I have the same problem with El Capitan, MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013).

The SD Card is visible after reboot, vanishes after returning from Sleep.

Even if I pop it out and reinsert, the SD is not visible, nor mounted.

Any suggestions?

Seba

towoode

Level 1

4 points

Sep 5, 2016 12:51 PM in response to Evan_hu

Sorry Evan I previously said I don't see that behaviour, but I see similar: in fact I've found that the presence of an SD card with a lot of files on most often makes an alt-boot never do anything but display a black screen. Take the SD card out, no problem. I believe that the mac is somehow trying to scan the files on the card, because I also have the behaviour that my mac corrupts zip files on any sd card i insert over time. I suspect this is related to me booting between osx and windows because the corruption only seems to occur when i boot to windows.

Oct 10, 2016 3:57 PM in response to Gabe-A

Just to add another voice to the list of people this is affecting. I understand why people are saying that this could be with either MS or Apple I am firmly under the impression that this is to do with the drivers, as such this rests with Apple who provide these drivers. A couple of extra details of the behaviours I've seen are:

- Once the SD card has been 'lost' then a restart doesn't work - apparently the restart doesn't actually power down the SD card so it doesn't recover.

- Conversely - hibernating does recover the card - hibernation does result in a full power-down.

- Occasionally, though not predictably, the slot will recover around 2 minutes after waking (not found any pattern for this)

As such the hibernate option appears to be the fastest way to recover - but it's not an acceptable workaround.

Oct 27, 2016 9:00 PM in response to Gabe-A

Problem is due to the MacBook not to remount the SD card upon wakeup. I'm using Transcend Jetdrive Lite, they have a Toolbox you can install the application, selecting Jetdrive lite, turn on or off the auto-wake up option. Problem resolved on my MBA by selecting "Off". I believed it should work for other SD card as well.

http://www.transcend-info.com/Support/Software-181/

Dec 15, 2016 10:56 AM in response to Gabe-A

To everyone who is having this issue:

I started having is problem the day I got my MacBook Pro. I installed windows and sure enough, the sd card would disappear. This, of course, frustrated me but I was positive it was a driver issue of some kind. I looked it up and it seemed as if a lot of people were having the same issue. I thought "There's no way is a hardware issue, so many people have the same problem." So I let it be.

About two months later I started using windows on my mac again and the whole sd card issue came up again. Then I thought "What bad would it do to take my mac in to see if it was a hardware issue." So I did. And sure enough, it was a hardware issue. There is a chip inside the mac that controls the sd card reader and I guess apple's chip isn't that good. Turns out mine was faulty from the time I bought it.

I had a warranty on my mac so it was no big deal apart from the fact that I had gone on months thinking my mac was fine.

If anyone still has this issue and still has a warranty, take your mac in. It's not a driver issue. Your mac is faulty or broken. Don't be like me and believe everything you read on the internet.

towoode

Level 1

4 points

Jul 4, 2017 1:20 PM in response to customcables067

Indeed after the Sierra firmware update, we are now back to the original situation that the card slot disappears after sleep. The vendor ID on my card reader says it is an apple device so I don't understand why posters here have discussed other vendors?

I updated my bug post with apple, and once again requested a response. It has now been 6 months with no response

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SD Card Slot Disappears After Sleep (Gone Until Reboot)