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Built-in SD card reader not working, causing crashes on Acer Aspire in Mint 14

Hello team, got a thorny one.

I have an Acer Aspire with 8 gigs of ram running Mint 14 64bit which is set up like so,

Code:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)

00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)

00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)

00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev c4)

00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev c4)

00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev c4)

00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)

00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 04)

00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 7 Series Chipset Family 6-port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04)

00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 7 Series/C210 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)

03:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9485 Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)

04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57785 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe (rev 10)

04:00.1 SD Host controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Memory Card Reader (rev 10)

See that last line? That is where I think my trouble lies. The problem is that when I insert an SD card in the sd slot, it isn't recognized. Also, the act of inserting the card sometimes causes the machine to crash HARD. X crashes, I get a terminal screen full of errors, and everything locks up.

I've been through syslog, the xorg log, and dmesg, but when crashes occur there doesn't seem to be anything recorded in the logs.

Closest I've gotten is this in dmesg

Code:

[    1.312029] udevd[99]: starting version 175

[    1.380010] sdhci: Secure Digital Host Controller Interface driver

[    1.380015] sdhci: Copyright(c) Pierre Ossman

[    1.383692] sdhci-pci 0000:04:00.1: >SDHCI controller found [14e4:16bc] (rev 10)

[    1.383757] sdhci-pci 0000:04:00.1: >Invalid iomem size. You may experience problems.

[    1.386256] mmc0: no vmmc regulator found

[    1.386349] Registered led device: mmc0::

[    1.416722] mmc0: SDHCI controller on PCI [0000:04:00.1] using ADMA

[    1.416793] tg3.c:v3.123 (March 21, 2012)

"You may experience problems" indeed.

Something is wrong or missing, but I've no idea what. I'd really like to get this handled. Anyone else seen this or have any brilliant ideas?

Thanks!

Here is the dmesg output when I insert a card and it simply fails to read it, but doesn't crash.

Code:

[ 2852.448195] sdhci: Timeout waiting for Buffer Read Ready interrupt during tuning procedure, falling back to fixed sampling clock

[ 2852.448234] mmc0: new ultra high speed SDR104 SDHC card at address 0007

[ 2852.476534] mmcblk0: mmc0:0007 SD16G 14.4 GiB 

[ 2852.486945] mmc0: Controller never released inhibit bit(s).

[ 2862.494894] mmc0: Timeout waiting for hardware interrupt.

[ 2862.495064] mmcblk0: error -110 sending status command, retrying

[ 2862.546923] sdhci: Timeout waiting for Buffer Read Ready interrupt during tuning procedure, falling back to fixed sampling clock

[ 2872.573632] mmc0: Timeout waiting for hardware interrupt.

[ 2872.573776] mmcblk0: error -110 sending status command, retrying

[ 2872.575341] mmcblk0: unknown error -5 sending read/write command, card status 0x900

[ 2872.575352] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 0

[ 2872.575359] Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0, logical block 0

[ 2872.576221] mmcblk0: error -110 sending stop command, original cmd response 0x900, card status 0x900

[ 2872.576230] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 0, nr 8, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.576234] mmcblk0: retrying using single block read

[ 2872.576704] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 0, nr 8, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.576710] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 0

[ 2872.577441] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 1, nr 7, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.577450] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 1

[ 2872.578558] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 3, nr 5, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.578564] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 3

[ 2872.579153] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 4, nr 4, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.579157] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 4

[ 2872.579730] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 5, nr 3, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.579734] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 5

[ 2872.580303] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 6, nr 2, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.580307] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 6

[ 2872.580868] mmcblk0: error -84 transferring data, sector 7, nr 1, cmd response 0x900, card status 0x0

[ 2872.580872] end_request: I/O error, dev mmcblk0, sector 7

[ 2872.580877] Buffer I/O error on device mmcblk0, logical block 0

[ 2882.588386] mmc0: Timeout waiting for hardware interrupt.

[ 2882.640471] sdhci: Timeout waiting for Buffer Read Ready interrupt during tuning procedure, falling back to fixed sampling clock

[ 2892.667183] mmc0: Timeout waiting for hardware interrupt.

[ 2892.667336] mmcblk0: error -110 sending status command, retrying

[ 2892.719235] sdhci: Timeout waiting for Buffer Read Ready interrupt during tuning procedure, falling back to fixed sampling clock

[ 2892.778663] mmc0: Card removed during transfer!

[ 2892.778673] mmc0: Resetting controller.

[ 2892.778715] mmcblk0: error -123 sending status command, retrying

[ 2892.778839] mmcblk0: error -123 sending status command, aborting

[ 2892.779309] ldm_validate_partition_table(): Disk read failed.

[ 2892.779386] Dev mmcblk0: unable to read RDB block 0

[ 2892.779911]  mmcblk0: unable to read partition table

[ 2892.975231] mmc0: card 0007 removed

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE~

Borrowed an 8gig sd card from a friend's camera, it mounts and reads just fine. Formatted my 16gig card in the same camera, took a picture for good measure, stuck it in the reader...CRASH!
Could it simply be the card? My Lenovo G555 Slackware 14 laptop reads the same card just fine. Hmm.

Well, its been several days, and I've been through a lot with this Acer in that time. For the purposes of this thread, suffice it to say that I gave up, went to reinstall windows 8, was unable to do so, and finally, with the help of a fantastic android app called DriveDroid, was able to rescue the system and install Ubuntu 12.10.

Unfortunately the weirdness with the sd card persists in Ubuntu, so apparently it was not solely a Mint issue to begin with. Farewell Mint 14, Cinnamon was a joy to use. Back to Ubuntu, Slackware and, when I need it, w*.

Cinnamon is beautiful tho...I wonder if there's a package in the Ubuntu software center...

it may be a bug or a problem with the driver which needs to be updated..

after googling ..found that some users reported bugs with this card may be upgrading the kernel to te latest version will solve the problem
also being on a 64-bit system which is less familiar to the manufactures until recently may contribute to the problem..

I am not expert in Linux hardware but I will be glad to help you..

@kareempharmacist

Cheers for the offer, but I've decided to just leave it alone for right now. There have been a couple of Ubuntu kernel updates since I posted this, but I haven't checked to see if the issue is fixed. Guess I could do that this evening tho...