Acer aspire 5750-6636 card reader glitch that forces a shut-down

I have an older Acer aspire 5750-6636 laptop running a Win7/Linux Mint Dual boot that's been running perfectly since I got it a few years back. Within the last week, any time I push to eject the SD card reader, the screen flashes multi-colored weirdeness and I can't do anything else unless I restart the system. It has not been moved around it all, nothing has damaged the laptop, micro SD, or adapter to my knowledge, and I'm the only one who uses it. Does anyone have any ideas what could be going on? I routinely use the reader to ransfer filers back and forth between the laptop and my tablet, and it had been working fine for years.

If there's no direct solution, I'd be happy to hear of any work-arounds that anyone may have.

Thank you all in advance.

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JackE

Seems to me like a mechanical issue. If you gingerly or very gently push the eject button, does it the screen still go haywire?

Jack E/NJ

brimosher

Thank you for your response.

It happens when I press it as gently as I can while still being able to eject it, which is how I handle it almost every time.

I suppose I could just shut it down every time before I eject it or add data via usb, but I was really hoping to figure out something different.

JackE

OK. I'm still gonna guess it's something mechanical. More annoying than it is a serious electronic issue. But you probably won't like my suggestion on trying to resolve it. Pull and re-seat (a half dozen or so times) as many accessible connectors to and from the MB, screen, webcam, reader, etc as you can find. That'll mean removing the screen bezel, back cover and keyboard to get at these connectors. Some of them will be sticky-taped to hold them in place. The point of re-seating them so many times is to try to clean the contacts and assure a firm connection. See, I told you that you probably won't like doing this. 8^)

Jack E/NJ

brimosher

yeah, you're right, I wouldn't like doing that, but it has been a while since I did a thorough cleaning. I think I'll go the less invasive route first, open it up, blast the various places you suggested w/ canned air, then look for the most funked up looking connections and work them first, as those little pieces are pretty fragile. Can you suggest some kind of cleaner rather than unseating and reseating numerous times? rubbing alcohol perhaps? Then I should (I hope) only have to do each connection once? I worry about bending fragile metal and plastic pieces and ending up with more problems than I started with.

JackE

Can't recommend alcohols or contact cleaners containing alcohols for places where it can't evaporate quickly if it gets trapped inside the connectors. Alcohols are hygroscopic. Rubbing alcohol itself is usually 10-30% water already. Canned air sounds OK. You might also try vacuuming the air intake port and/or blowing thru the exhaust port with a shopvac if you don't wanna pull things apart to chase the dust bunnies out.

As for breaking plastic pieces and catches, that's almost a "given" especially when removing the keyboard and trying to get the ribbon connectors apart. That's what electricians and Scotch tapes are for. 8^)

Jack E/NJ

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