SD Card Reader Problem and Other Stuff

[#40Fan]

Dell Inspiron 1501 with Vista.  It belongs to the mother in law and she had so much **** on here that it was just easier for me to reformat the system.  Or at least I thought it was easier.  Now the SD card reader won't work.  When you insert the card it chimes to let you know the card has been inserted, but after a couple of seconds it chimes again as if it was removed.  I tried downloading new drivers from Dell, but when they are installed it won't chime with the installation of the card.

It seems to be booting awfully slow too.  I took a 2 gig stick of ram out of another laptop and it helps with performance, but boot up is still slow.  Only two things checked in the Startup tab in System Config is AVG and NetZero.

When shutting down there is an error that pops up quickly just before it leaves the desktop and goes to black screen.  It appears and dissappears so quickly I can't see what it is.

Let me know what you think.
 

[1972vet]

Did you reinstall using one of the function keys or did you use the installation DVD supplied by Dell? Reason I ask is that some Dell systems are pre-installed and have a hidden partition from which a user can restore the system to it's factory condition as it was when it was purchased from the retail outlet.

If that feature is available, I'd use it instead as the drivers are already installed and the system is restored using an image file rather that all of the installers.

If you used an installation DVD, or because you had no other choice, then I should mention that Dell would have (should have) also provided a DVD which would contain all of the necessary drivers that support that system and the other software it came with.

[#40Fan]

I installed using a disk.  I was only given one, so the other may be lost in space.  I'll see what I can do to round up the disk and go from there.