error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg

English Hardware
#1

Hello hive mind!

I’ve a CF-52 laptop with a built in MMC SDXC card reader. This laptop is running OpenSUSE Leapt 15.4

The card reader seems to be installed and can be listed by lspci:

borsatto@CF-52:~> sudo lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:16.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family KT Controller (rev 04)
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (Lewisville) (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation QM67 Express Chipset LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family Mobile SATA Controller (IDE mode, ports 0-3) (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family Mobile SATA Controller (IDE mode, ports 4-5) (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Whistler [Radeon HD 6630M/6650M/6750M/7670M/7690M]
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Turks HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 6500/6600 / 6700M Series]
0a:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] (rev 34)
0b:00.0 CardBus bridge: Ricoh Co Ltd CardBus bridge (rev 02)
0b:00.1 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd PCIe SDXC/MMC Host Controller
0b:00.4 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Ricoh Co Ltd R5C832 PCIe IEEE 1394 Controller (rev 03)

Although when I insert the memory card in the slot, nothing happens (I mean, its not mounted) and the dmseg registers these lines:

borsatto@CF-52:~> sudo dmesg | grep mmc
3.320236] mmc0 bounce up to 128 segments into one, max segment size 65536 bytes
3.323098] mmc0: SDHCI controller on PCI [0000:0b:00.1] using DMA
3.545985] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
3.545991] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
3.771267] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
3.771273] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
3.988981] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
3.988999] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
4.216490] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
4.216499] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
5.162626] sr 1:0:0:0: [sr0] scsi3-mmc drive: 31x/62x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
739.351541] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
739.351551] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
739.579983] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
739.579992] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
739.809224] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
739.809234] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
740.031841] mmc0: error -84 reading general info of SD ext reg
740.031851] mmc0: error -84 whilst initialising SD card
1259.997310] snd_pcm pcspkr joydev i2c_i801 i2c_smbus rfkill snd_timer snd mei_me tpm_infineon mei e1000e panasonic_laptop(N) soundcore lpc_ich sparse_keymap mfd_core button ac thermal f
use configfs ip_tables x_tables sr_mod sd_mod cdrom t10_pi hid_generic ata_generic usbhid radeon crc32_pclmul ghash_clmulni_intel i2c_algo_bit drm_ttm_helper ttm drm_kms_helper syscopyarea
firewire_ohci sysfillrect sysimgblt sdhci_pci fb_sys_fops ata_piix cqhci ahci cec ehci_pci sdhci yenta_socket(N) firewire_core aesni_intel ehci_hcd pcmcia_rsrc(N) rc_core libahci crypto_sim
d cryptd usbcore libata mmc_core serio_raw drm pcmcia_core crc_itu_t battery video btrfs blake2b_generic libcrc32c crc32c_intel xor raid6_pq sg dm_multipath dm_mod scsi_dh_rdac scsi_dh_emc
scsi_dh_alua scsi_mod msr

This card works perfectly in another Laptop (Dell precision with internal mem card reader) as well in my Nintendo DS.
Before I’ve installed OpenSUSE, this laptop was running with Win10 and the can guarantee this card reader was working.

I’ve searched on the internet but I couldn’t find much information on this particular error code…

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

#2

By “CF-52” do you mean a “Panasonic Toughbook CF-52”?

  • Please note that, this Laptop was introduced to the market around about 2007 (with Windows XP installed) …

What happens if, you plug a recently purchased USB-2.0 SD Card-Reader into one of the USB ports?

  • Can you then access the SD Card?

What happens if, you open the Laptop’s case and check the physical connectors to the MMC Card Reader?

  • Is there dust inside the Laptop’s case?
  • What happens if the contacts inside the MMC Card Reader and the Card Reader’s connectors are cleaned with a Contact Spray (available from Electronics Supply Stores)?
#3

Hi! Thanks for the reply!

Yes, you’re right. It’s a Panasonic Thoughbook. Although it’s from the 2009 and the OS was originally a Win 7. This particular one is a Core i5 and I’ve added some more memory and an SSD card.
Is it too old to run OpenSUSE Leap 15.4?? Win10 (which demands much more hardware performance) was running ok on it before I formatted and installed OpenSUSE.

I was not planning buying a USB card reader since the built in is working.

Not planning to disassembly this laptop since it’s a pain in the neck to do it…

I will run a live session from a flash drive with another distro just to check if the issue will remain… I will keep you posted of the result.

Thanks!