Can’t write to SDHC cards (“write protected” error)

Topic

New Reply

New dv6-7000 laptop (Win7 64-bit) has a problem I can’t seem to solve:
When using any SDHC memory card you cannot write or erase files to the card. You can read the files just fine, but you get a “Write Protected” error when trying to write or erase. The card is, of course, not write protected, and can be written to in several other laptop/desktop SD drives that I’ve tried. And I’ve tried different brands/sizes of SDHC cards. Smaller capacity regular SD (non SDHC) cards can be written to just fine.

I tried removing this device from Device Manager and rebooting to reinstall the hardware drivers, but no help.

The Realtek SD Driver shows as version 6.1.7600.16385 in Device Manager properties, dated 6/20/06. HP’s support site shows a newer driver version 6.1.7601.29005 dated 2/24/12. When I download and run sp56166.exe to update the driver, it seems to go through the update process successfully. But the driver still shows as the older version in Device Manager. Also tried manually forcing install of this driver. Note that this “older” 6.1.7600.16385 driver is what shows up in other Win7 PCs with built-in SD card readers (different manufacturers), and those all write to SDHC cards fine. Anyway, trying to update the driver hasn’t helped.

I’ve also verified that this reader is not configured for ReadyBoost.

Could there by some registry setting that’s affecting this drive’s ability to write to only SDHC cards, yet work fine with non-HC cards?

Any ideas would be much appreciated! Hard to believe that a new dv6 laptop can’t properly write or erase files from High Capacity SDHC memory cards. Haven’t many posts about this sort of issue using Google, so it doesn’t seem to be a common problem.

Also posted this at HP Support Forum, but no fix yet ….
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Hardware-e-g-Windows-8/dv6-7000-can-t-write-to-SDHC-cards-quot-write-protected-quot/td-p/2566037

Thanks in advance!

Reply | Quote

Replies

See if this is of any help:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5623312_remove-sd-card-hp-laptop.html

Jerry

Reply | Quote

Thanks Jerry. Will give those tips a try!

Reply | Quote

Tried those tips, Jerry, but no help. Still can’t write to or format SDHC cards, yet regular SD cards work fine.

Note this message when I looked at the ReadyBoost tab under the SD Drive’s Properties ….
This device cannot be used with ReadyBoost. The device is mounted read only. This usually happens with write protected devices/media or when BitLocker group policy settings prohibit write access to non-encrypted removable devices.

Is there any clue there? Why are SDHC Cards being mounted read only? Could this be a BitLocker policy setting issue?

Puzzled.

Thanks for any help!

Reply | Quote

See if your SDHC card has a small lock switch that maybe has been knocked to the read only mode.
Also if possible try it in another computer without bit-locker such as win 7 home premium.
Could also see if bit-locker is disabled in ‘Services’.

Reply | Quote

See if your SDHC card has a small lock switch that maybe has been knocked to the read only mode.
Also if possible try it in another computer without bit-locker such as win 7 home premium.
Could also see if bit-locker is disabled in ‘Services’.

Thanks! It’s not the lock switch. I’ve tried several different brands of SDHC cards, and they all do it. But only this HP dv6 laptop. Other PCs and laptops I’ve tried have no problems with these SDHC cards.

This laptop does have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. Do you think I want BitLocker enabled or disabled in “Services”? Since I’m not use BitLocker, can I just disable it?

Reply | Quote

one of my HP laptops won’t write but only read SDHC, the other one will read and write.

To be honest, I think the card reader itself is the culprit. I’ve tried numerous drivers and operating systems.

One linux distro worked 100% with the reader. (CommodoreOS)
Nothing else did.

I came to the conclusion the one linux distro uses a universal driver at the bit level, while everything else just tells the reader ‘do this’ or ‘do that’ and the reader itself doesn’t have the code to handle the writing correctly.

The same linux distro made my touchpad a multi-touch pad and added all sorts of cool features to it.

The same linux distro made my sound card take steroids. Allowed all audio ports to be output, and I had complete, correct surround sound.

The same linux distro allowed me to drive a total of 3 screens when the hardware only supports 2 at once.

Methinks custom custom drivers are in CommodoreOS, and Windows uses generics.

So I gave up on it. At least I can pull my pictures off my card and into the PC.

In conclusion, I doubt you’ll find a fix, but in the chance you do, please share it with me!!!

Good luck my friend!

Reply | Quote

Thanks Ben09880. I’m starting to think it’s a hardware thing, too. It’s just hard to imagine a hardware-related issue that would cause an SD drive to work fine with non-SDHC cards, and not write to just SDHC cards. And in a brand new HP laptop, no less. I’ve been getting good suggestions at the HP Support Forum, so maybe someone will help me solve this.

Reply | Quote

Hi there.
I don’t know if this will help you or not. I had the same issue with a Kingston HyperX 64GB USB 3.0 drive. In the Hard drive properties Tools I simply ran a check disk and let it perform the repair. After that I was able to use it for Readyboost.

Hope this helps. I registered just to post this as I spent a couple of hours searching google without finding any solution. Then I remembered when I put the drive in another computer windows popped up with a message that there were errors on the drive (Which I ignored at the time as I have seen this often).

After repairing the drive on my Windows 8 computer it then stopped displaying the “This device cannot be used with ReadyBoost….” message.

Carl.

Reply | Quote

i have this issue with 2 different cards. one i was able to fix by right click properties then security tab and i had to add my user to the permissions list. the only one that was there was everyone, i added my username then check marked the everything box, clicked apply and it worked then. however my other card doesnt show me security tab for some reason which is making that one harder to fix but i think you just have to find the permission settings for it and then do the same by adding your user and checkboxing the all or everything box. i dont know if this will help you but you may want to try if nothing else works. good luck

Reply | Quote

this works for one of my sdhc cards

Perhaps the one that has the tab is formatted NTFS and the other a fat format.

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

Reply | Quote