Why won't my card reader work?

Q My Acer Aspire M1610 desktop computer has various memory card reader slots built in. I also have a card reader attached via USB. This all worked well before Christmas and I was able to transfer photos to my PC with no problem. Now, though, when I insert the SD card, it doesn't work.

I’ve tried accessing it via Windows Explorer but all I get in a return is a message that says “Please insert disk in drive M”. The only thing I think changed before this occurred is that I installed Kaspersky, as it was offered free by my bank (I also uninstalled AVG due to a conflict between the two). Do you have any suggestions?
Barry Woodcock

A We can think of a few ideas, ranging from corrupt drivers for the memory card reader to a faulty memory card. However, we have also seen situations where Windows seems to ‘lock’ a drive letter to a particular device, which can lead to odd results when the device is later removed and re-inserted.

There are couple of possible solutions. First, switch off the PC, insert the SD card and power up and launch Windows: if the drive is now accessible then that’s the problem solved.

If not, click Start, right-click Computer and choose Manage. In the Computer Management window that appears, click to expand the Storage heading on the left and click to select Disk Management. Now, in the right-hand pane, right-click the relevant drive and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths from the pop-up menu.

Then click Change, select a new drive letter from the dropdown menu, keep the ‘Assign the following drive letter’ radio button selected and click OK, then click Yes to confirm.

Now launch Windows Explorer and try to access the card once more. If this doesn’t work, try re-installing the built-in card reader’s drivers – they should be downloadable from Acer’s support website. If that fails then, if possible, try the card in someone else’s PC or card reader, to check it’s working – it may have developed a fault.

Finally, if none of this has worked, consider uninstalling Kaspersky to see if that restores access. This won’t explain why the problem happens, but it will at least isolate the culprit – and that will help to find a solution.