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.

[rogusercc]

Yeah, you might be right. I can't see any thermal issue here at least on my first Ally either. Before it developed this "SD card reader issue", I was downloading some huge games from Steam for a few hours (to internal SSD, not the SD card). That's the only thing I can think of to generate some heat to the device, but again, was that enough to make the reader chip malfunction? I always check my temp on the Ally, and it was always between 4x to 7x degree C. Unless the reading was wrong, I can't believe that was the cause of the issue. Oh, I also did the 322 BIOS update and AC update right before the SD card reader faild on that Sandisk card of mine. My new Ally so far has no problem with the latest updates, but I'm playing anything heavy on that until ASUS confirms the real problem here. 

[wpfreund]

I had trouble sending you a private message. My Rog Ally's SD card was going in and out and now in just completely stopped working. Best Buy wants me to make GeekSquad appointment and then they send it back for warranty. Is there another route especially one that would be faster to get warranty repair on this?

[OPT1MU5prime]

That's why I have Total tech at bestbuy. I'm on my 3rd Ally because when you are a total tech member, you have 60 days to return a product. So I have my 3rd ally and I haven't updated until there is a fix

[MasterC]

We have not gone silent. A clear statement was made to inform everyone that we WILL absolutely help anyone who has an issue with the SD card. On several occasions, I have asked people here to send in their unit for repairs, We are not providing temporary solutions, such an action does not make sense from a business standpoint as it is simply not feasible. If you have received an RMA unit that is still having the same issue, please PM me directly straightaway. We are taking the matter seriously.

[mebronfin]

Thanks MasterC! is this fix now live? If not, what's the rough timing expected? Just got a new Ally and want to make sure to wait to use my micro-SD until it's fixed

[rogusercc]

This is what i'm having right now on my Ally. It is a 512GB Sandisk Extrem V30 U3 A2 card I have been using for more than a year on my laptop. It worked fine since I got my Ally day one, until yesterday it stopped working. I only used my Ally in 15w-18w model since day one and I had about 400GB of games on this SD card before it faild. After the card is faild, I formatted the card from my laptop multipal times and used Disk Management Tools to rebuild the partition, nothing works. The Ally will show the card when it is inserted into the handheld, and i can open folders no problem, but as soon as I try to copy (write to) any file (as small as under 1MB) onto the SD card, it will stop working and freaz the Ally until I pull out the card from the device. The same SD card is still working perfectly on my ASUS laptop and MacBook. I installed steam games onto it and copy/delete large files (10 GB) multipal times on it to test, and the card is working just fine. But my Ally will not accept this card any more for some reason. I put another slower Sandisk micro SD crad, which is a Sandisk Ultra 128GB U1 A1 card, and I installed about 50GB of games from steam and direct copy onto this card, and it is working normally so far. Below is the error message I got from the Ally when using my faster 512GB Extrem SD card:

Also note, I use Windows 11's Device Manager to uninstall the SD card reader and used an older, generic driver to see if it makes any difference. Sadly, not. So I don't think it is the SD card reader driver's issue here. I hope the information I provided here could help ASUS to indentify and solve this annoying issue. 

[adyojon]

hey im planning on NOT using a SD card, does that mean my device will fail? or get errors via device manger? as i heard alot of problems when people are using a SD card.. 

[rogusercc]

I don't think so. You should be fine. 

[Jigme21]

Same here — never worked.  Device not recognized to even attempt to install a driver.  SD card works otherwise when used via a usb hub.

[MasterC]

When did you send it in? Please PM me your service number, and I'll check what's the hold up. 

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@Lpunlimited wrote:

I think it's due to the heat that is going through the SD card hardware. My perfectly fine SD card does not work anymore since I put it into the Rog Ally. It won't also format to NTFS and the SD card is not recognised on my laptop and PC anymore. I don't understand how they can screw this up so much.. how can u not know not to put the SD card reader above the heat flow... Anyway, I don't want to buy another SD card cause I am afraid it will undergo the same problems. I am thinking of returning the Rog Ally, because this is taking them too long to fix.

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