M200 - correct SD card host controller driver

[Digital]

My previous two posts highlighted the problems I had been having getting the SD format and SD boot utility to work and having found the solution I thought I'd make yet another post with a title that might be helpful to anyone looking for the solution to the same problem.

As I had a spare hard drive to hand I popped it into my M200 and did a fresh install onto it from the restore DVD. (As an aside, that's an astonishingly quick process - only a matter of a few minutes). A quick check showed that both the SD format utility and the boot utility were working properly and could recognise up to a 2 GB SD card. Device Manager showed that the host controller driver was totally different from the one that I had been using: the latter was a Microsoft one while the original one was a Toshiba one, TOSHIBA SD Card Controller Type-A. This can be downloaded from the Toshiba download site but the reason I couldn't find it was that it isn't listed for the M200! It's listed for the Portege 2000, 2010, 4000 and 4005 but not the M200.

Once installed, followed by installing the format utility and then the boot utility as was well. But clearly one shouldn't then update the drivers as that was the cause of my problems in the first place.

Now if only I could find a way to create an SD boot disk with BartPE on it!

[WNewquay]

Hi Digital,

Do you have a link to the driver that works?

Thanks.

[Digital]

Here you go..
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...ngdgnj.0&ct=DL

[Digital]

A bit more digging (now that I knew what to look for!) produced the M200 version here
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...all_docs=false

Despite being a much larger file it seemingly results in the same driver being installed.

[WNewquay]

Thanks Digital!

[eT]

A bit more digging (now that I knew what to look for!) produced the M200 version here
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/t...all_docs=false

Despite being a much larger file it seemingly results in the same driver being installed.

<div align="right">Originally posted by Digital - May 12 2008 : 05:40:07 AM</div id="right">

Will this sdsecure-driver give me 2 GB SD-card support? (currently my M200's internal SD-card-reader on the frond side only reads SD-cards up to 1 GB)

eT

[Digital]

A good question, eT! I think the answer is yes as I was able to format a 2GB card using the Toshiba format utility, but having messed around with the card in my Linux eee PC, it is no longer recognised in the Toshiba SD slot and I don't have another one to hand to check for you. But my recollection is that when the larger cards, i.e. over 1GB, came out the only way to make them usable in the M200 was to make sure you had the old Toshiba driver and not the later Microsoft one.

I'll check this out when I get home at the weekend and can pop in the 2GB card from my camera to see if it still works OK.

[eT]

Did you get a chance to check it out?

Thx,
eT

I'll check this out when I get home at the weekend and can pop in the 2GB card from my camera to see if it still works OK.

<div align="right">Originally posted by Digital - May 16 2008 : 08:33:40 AM</div id="right">

[Digital]

Well, as you suspected, eT, the original drivers did not recognise the 2GB card. So I then updated the SD Host Controller driver via Device Manager using automatic update. This resulted in the driver being updated to the Microsoft one which I had before but this time all is well. The 2GB card works as do the SD format utility and the boot utiliity. No idea why they didn't work before but it would seem that reinstalling the original driver and then updating it did the trick.

Now all I have to do is get BartPE onto a bootable SD card!

[eT]

Thanks very much, mate!

[Gotta try this out tomorrow (it's a quarter to one at night down here ...)]

eT

Well, as you suspected, eT, the original drivers did not recognise the 2GB card. So I then updated the SD Host Controller driver via Device Manager using automatic update. This resulted in the driver being updated to the Microsoft one which I had before but this time all is well. The 2GB card works as do the SD format utility and the boot utiliity. No idea why they didn't work before but it would seem that reinstalling the original driver and then updating it did the trick.

<div align="right">Originally posted by Digital - May 19 2008 : 6:26:43 PM</div id="right">