I’m beating that the hardware isn’t up to the job, rather than the driver being at fault. It is Acer after all! Have you complained bitterly to their tech support department?

Well, I don’t think anybody’s winning my SD card at the moment, sorry…. I appreciate all the work you and others put into helping me <g>, but it seems that the issue with the internal card reader goes back to the driver after all, as I originally thought myself, and it isn’t solved as there doesn’t seem to be a newer driver available. And the idea that allows me to use ReadyBoost at the moment is one that I came up with myself - using an external (ExpressCard) card reader.

Reading all the FAQs I found, I got the impression that ReadyBoost should definitely help with those situations that Windows gets itself into, where a good amount of swap file traffic suddenly occurs. Of course this doesn’t happen all the time with a system that has 2GB of RAM, I can see that. But it does definitely happen every now and then, and so far I still haven’t had the impression that things go much better with ReadyBoost in these situations. When I have a period where I’m going to work at home for awhile, I will probably try working with my USB stick for a period of time, as that one is nearly four times as fast according to ReadyBoost’s own measurements. Maybe I’ll see a difference then - or if I don’t, I can decide to drop it altogether.

Thanks for all your ideas, John - if you feel you should really win that SD card, don’t hesitate to prove your case! Maybe I’ll change my mind…

So who’s won the prize in your judgement?

Since you got 2GB of RAM then you might not be getting into the situation when "stuff" is being saved onto the Speedboost device all that often. Does it look like Vista is using it?

I didn’t see any obvious difference in the customer’s laptop that had only 1GB of RAM that was using Speedboost with the Kingston Traveller II. That said, the memory stick was flashing like mad as Vista seemed to be constantly using it.

When I think about it, all the Microsoft droids (both DPE and IT Pro types) always seem to use USB memory sticks with SpeedBoost. Perhaps there is a very good reason for that!

See http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/82210 for the exact product that worked for my customer.

So, I think there are a number of things I’ll want to try:

* Formatting with different block sizes. I tried different file systems already, all three of them actually, with no difference whatsoever. But I went for the default block sizes in all cases.

* Disabling the device, or rebooting between tries. Well… that final test I did, with the Extreme III card, was done on its own anyway. Will see if I can find any new info that way.

* Finally, the thing with the driver… my personal favourite before I ever read your comments. Problem is, there don’t seem to be any specific drivers for any of the devices that are relevant to this problem, other than those for the Intel chipset, which I have already installed. That comment you’re quoting is also not very clear to me - what is an "SD Memory host control"??? Here’s a shot from my Device Manager that shows my device:

I suspect that the comment from the other blog talks about the entry called "ACER USB20 HS-COMBO USB Device". That one runs with Microsoft drivers, but I haven’t been able so far to find any other drivers for it. I shall have another look…

Thanks again, John, I’ll post again when I have further info.

Comment reads:
"I can not stress this enough for those complaining that the feature doesnt work or you are having problems with performance with SD memory class flash drives.

please ensure that your SD Memory host control is of the drivers from your manufacturer and not using the Standard Microsoft SD Host control. the standard one is designed for over all compatibility and basic performance levels.

once you upgrade that you will not have problems so long as your memory fits the req."

This list shows the Sandisk III being compatible. So it looks like you are correct regarding it working but alas so far it isn’t.

How much really RAM does your computer have? At least 2GB I hope! Vista runs like a dog with anything less than 2GB. Get more real memory.

It seems that some devices perform differently depending on the format method used. Ensure you format the device when it is in your laptop, try FAT and NTFS - seen a report that said not to use FAT32. Try different block sizes. The smaller the better due to the testing methodology used by ReadyBoost. It may be necessary to make multiple format attempts.

This registry hack allows you to override Vista’s decision:
1. Let Vista test is, and check the Do not Retest this device checkbox.
2. Unplug the device
3. Go to regedit
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\EMDMgmt
4.find the key related to you device (the device vendor and name is in the key)
5. Change the follwing values:
Device Status 0×02
ReadSpeedKBs 0×1000
WriteSpeedKBs 0×1000
6. Plug the device, right click on it to open properties and enable cache.

- But if the device is truly running slow then you’re only going to make your system slower!

Seen reports that plugging in the slower SD cards and disabling them before trying your new shiny Sandisk III may work.

There is always the chance that your Acer hardware just isn’t up to the job of running ReadyBoost when using SDRAM! It seems strange that all the different types of SD cards have the same performance, indicating the bottleneck lies somewhere else in the system.

Have you thought about implementing an external SATA hard drive instead. It has been reported that this setup is super fast. I’ve no clue if it works or not!

Regards

John