ROG Ally SD Card Reader Not In Devices

[Bloombud]

The SD Card Reader Hardware isn't even showing up in my devices list when trying to look into updating/reinstalling drivers.  I just bought a microsd card today to try and add storage for more games, and come to see that on my Ally it seems the hardware isn't even connected/showing up at all.  Help.

[tornadoclawer]

Get an external sd drive.  You can get one for far less than an sd card.

[chadhay]

Probably gonna get a 2tb nvme and not use the sd slot but at this point I’m not sure if the cards busted the drive or both. The cards not showing up anywhere now though but I didn’t let it run hot ever most of the time my fans were maxed because i was scared the reader would fail man that really helped🤔

[tornadoclawer]

Correction: get an external micro sd reader

[saffref]

Not really a solution. With just one USB-C port available, using an external SD card reader means either buying a USB hub or operating on battery power. It is also rather clumsy for what is meant to be the ultimate *portable* computer. ASUS are selling the device with an integrated microSD card reader as additional storage option. The least they can do is compensate their customers for the fact that it is pretty much unusable (see my earlier comment about what I think would be a good option for a respectful and responsible company).

[zain1smith]

Still no fix until today?

Two of my SDcards cant be read anymore now. (They still can be read on my laptop and on my Switch)

I tried using an external SDcard reader on my Ally and it can read my SDcard just fine and runs the games.

So this issue is clearly on the internal SDcard reader slot

Strangely the issue didn’t happen right away but after several hours of usage.

So is this a hardware or software/driver issue?

[Soren_Lynx]

I am watching this issue for a month now and waiting for a definitive answear too before I buy it. But  as we seeing how it goes probably someone else will release a stronger device before Asus starting to be open about it and offer a real solution.

[saffref]

IMHO, there is no technical solution, at least not *after* the microSD card reader has failed. The fan speed adjustments from BIOS updates *may* prevent it from "dying" if the problem is heat-related (but with ASUS not communicating on the issue, there is no consensus on this). Their options are limited to offering compensation or ignoring complaints (and taking the reputation hit). I does seem they're going for the second one unfortunately...

[Soren_Lynx]

I agree. Tech companies usually address these things way faster. Admitting a design error and offering a real solution would be way less of the rep impact than doing what they are doing.
Well it is very unfortunate for them too because it is a gaming device for the gaming community which tends to read (or watch videos) about these things a lot. I am pretty sure I am not the only one not spending anything on this devices until this situation solved.
Especially since they released it with a higher price in Europe. While only 50 usd difference between them and their most famous competitior in the US, it is minimum 130 usd difference in Europe. 800 € is a pretty steep price for a faulty product without proper support.

[ronny78]

Bought my Rog Ally about 2 weeks ago and used a 512 GB Samsung EVO SD Card in it. Was downloading files from steam at high speed (100 mb/s++) to the card when my Ally suddenly froze and everything got sluggish. Tried to release the SD Card by using the safe measure release thing in windows, but everything was so sluggish that the Ally was unusable. Took out the SD card the "unsafe" way, just releasing it and the Ally was working as normal again. 

Since that episode I couldn't get the SD card reader to read any cards without getting sluggish or it wouldn't read them at all. My Samsung EVO card could not be read by the Ally, my chromebook, my computer, my nintendo switch.... It was fried. 

My theory is that the way steam transfers files by having high transfer speeds then zero speed, then high speed, then zero speed heats up sd cards to the point that the cards get fried and then damage the sd card reader. Don't believe it's the heat from the CPU, GPU or the fans that ruins cards and readers, but steam. This is probably why the steamdeck has/had similar problems with SD cards getting ruined. It's definantly not the heat on the Steam Deck since they have the SD card reader on the bottom.

Got a replacement Ally a week ago, but have not wanted to try using SD cards on my new device until further notice from ASUS about the issue.

[inputlag]

I bought an asus rog ally on August 3, and today passing some things from the micro sd to the ssd the memory stopped reading, I tried an external usb reader entering the same memory and the micro sd reads without problems