Perils of Smart card Readers

[gawdknows]

Hello Group

I use on-line banking from my win[ME], and everything was allright , till yesterday [that's how it all starts doesn't it ]

Now when I try to log into my Bank, the Bank browser tells me that it can't read my smart card reader anymore ! In normal circumstances, I would get a PIN code input box and from there it's surf-ville. But now it says , "I can't read your card reader or the card".

My Own 2 cents diagnostics:-
1. Mu USB port is fine.
2. The card reader shows the customary red light, showing it's on and detected.

So I phoned up the Bank 'Tech Sup.' people and explained this new woe.

Bank asked me to go to the registry and narrate what I see in the 'Reader' part of the registry [i.e under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-->SOFTWARE-->CS engineering-->smchb]

So this is what the 'Reader' read:-

ComPort = "COM8" ; Bank was Happy

ReaderName ="UNKNOWN" ; Bank was NOT Happy and said that I may have installed some vague software which has made this to ="UNKNOWN" ....but no worries , put "PCSC" in place of "UNKNOWN" . and So I did,

and as per the bak when I reboot, there should be no problem with the card reader anymore.
I did, No Joy, because everytime I reboot, I see that "UNKNOWN" is there again in place of the desired "PCSC"[ which I modified manually].

So in short "UNKNOWN" prevails and thus no card reader !

I phoned up Bank people and now they will send me a new version of ME[ after Nov 2003] and as per them this will take care of the registry settings and keep it to "PCSC" once changed.
I don't know how 'concrete' is this advice, and I thought to refer to the Gurus here , since this is a Pure ME kinda issue and I am sure the same card reader will work on a different PC.
Wishing someone wise may tell me what's going on , and how to see my 'meager' account savings on-line again...boo hoo!!

TIA

 

[mattjurado]

I'd take the advice of tech support. Odds are, they have worked out any ME bugs, and I'm assuming they are sending you a software patch (not sure what you meant when you said they are sending you a "new version of ME&quot.

As to why it changed, there are a few things to consider.

1. Virus (update your scanner, scan)
2. Spyware (get spybot from

http://security.kolla.de,

update it, scan for spywares)
3. Changes you made (try uninstalling new hardware/software, or even maybe use the system restore function to rollback your OS to a date where this device did work fine)

You might do number 1 and 2, but I'd try whatever they send you before you troubleshoot further.

Matt J.

 

[gawdknows]

Hello Matt and Group

Thanks for the feedback.
Actually I have to admit something here. The day this problem arose, was the day I ran 'Hijack this' program [ I suppose you are aware of this one] and then in all my 'wisdom' erased the 'smart card ' entry from the 'scan' stuff [thinking it to be a rogue file !]. From that day onwards my card reader is 'unknown' in the registry.

To make matters worse, I deleted my 'Microsoft smart mouse' from the add/delete software programs. This I did because I un-installed the Banking program,then re-installed the banking program, rebooted my PC and jacked in the card reader. I was hoping windows will prompt about this new hardware[since I had deleted my 'Microsoft smart mouse' software] and I could start anew.
But this did not happen !
Now I don't see the 'Microsoft smart mouse' [exact phrase beats me, but that's how I remember it as] in the 'software' section of my PC. and as you know by now, uninstalling and re-installing the banking software did not help.
BTW I rec'd a new CD rom from the bank, you are right, it wasn't a ME cd but a new version of their software, but no joy here too.

I know my answer lies in the fact that I deleted 2 entries from the 'Hijack this' scan. One was the Banking security layer stuff, which ofourse is back with the new installation, and the smart card stuff, and that's been chased out by me , abused roundly and it's not coming back at all.

So I guess the question now would be how can I make ME , detect this 'smart mouse' once again ?
How can I get it back into my 'software' section [ I ran the ME installation , as I had mentioned in my begin mail and I think I had run the ‘repair’ section from the CD rom], because if it detects the 'card reader' once again, I think I'll be on track, 'cos that's the way I remember how it went back in the 'good old working' days. Actually the installation was quiet simple.
1 Install the banking software
2 Boot pc
3 Jack in the reader
4 Windows detects it
5 and we carry on

it's point 4 ....I think which is crucial...but correct me if I was wrong.

Hope someone makes more out of this.
TIA

**PS: oh ! and I ran Spybot, no joy.