Hello everyone,

My notebook has an integrated 6 in 1 card reader, after reading from a SD card I use for my Digital camera I must safely remove hardware device in order to get it back. So my problem is that when I want to read again from the card my pc doesn’t find it. I can see in the device manager this yellow exclamation mark under USB Mass Storage device and a message saying about “safe removal” (code 47). I’ve tried putting the card in the slot and afterwards select scan for new hardware but without any luck. The only way is to restart, until I safely remove hw again. Is this a windows xp bug? A driver issue? How can this be fixed (if it can)?

My other questions has to do with my laptop performance. It has an integrated Ati Radeon 9600 Pro with 128MB (M10). Should I stick with the manufacturer drivers or try some catalysts in order to improve performance?
Could the sound system holding it back a little? It’s a Realtek AC’97 with Max Supported Hardware Sounds:17 and EAX supported but I see in HALO that I cannot enable Hardware Sound at all.
Here are some benchmarks in order to give you an idea: Quake3 Arena:198fps, 3DMark2001~9800, 3DMark2003~2930, Aquamark3:22,830 and Unreal Tournament: Flyby~138fps, Botmatch~64fps.
Any ideas or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Notebook System:
Pentium4 2.8Ghz
512MB RAM
Manufacturer/Motherboard: Clevo D400V/D470V
Ati Mobility Radeon M10 (Radeon 9600Pro 128MB)
HDD:IC25N060ATMR04-0 60GB/DVD-CDRW
Windows XP Home with SP1

For the card reader this might work:
Right click on my computer, go to properties.
Go to hardware tab, click device manager.
Expand the disk drives group.
Right click on your 6in1 card reader and hit properties.
Go to the policies tab, choose "Optimize for quick removal", and hit ok.

For the video drivers you must stick to the manufacturer's drivers, ati does not put out their own mobile drivers. Your current video performance is very good, I get about the same scores in 3dmark on my ibm thinkpad w/ it's 64mb mobile 9600pro.

The onboard sound on laptops is never very good, if it sounds decent it is good enough. I can't think of a laptop that has more than 2 channel audio, you don't really need advanced stuff for only 2 channel audio.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

" I can't think of a laptop that has more than 2 channel audio"

Start thinking of a Dell Inspiron 9200 or XPS. Both have 3 channel sound with 2 speakers and a subwoofer.

<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

and they are built in. Hypersonic also...

<font color=red><pre>\\//__________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

Ah yes, I forgot about the desktop in a little case laptops
Those are more portable computers than laptops though, lol.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

I'll give you that, but their size and weight wasn't the issue .

<font color=green>****</font color=green> Never Assume <font color=red>ANYTHING</font color=red> <font color=green>****</font color=green>

Most decent Toshiba's have Sub's too (And they aren't as big)
And I believe the XPS has 4speakers as well as the sub... as to whether they share channels or not, I have no idea.

Regards,
RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?

Hi, thanks for your reply!
You mentioned the 2 channel audio. I am curious, i have an analog output (i plug in my headphones mostly for gaming), i have a mic or line in and an S/PDIF Digital output (5.1CH). Does this mean that i can connect 5.1 speakers for surround sound in both Games and DVD (&music) playback? Is it possible and does it disconnect my analog output automatically or should i select it from software somehow?

If it says it has 5.1ch s/pdif ouput then you definatly could plug a digital 5.1 system up to it. You would have to set that in the audio software that came w/ ur laptop.
It will probably have the choice of digital and analog, digital only, and analog only.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

yeah, but its S/PDIF - so you'll need an external amplifier so that you can use speakers - am I wrong?

RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?