LinuxQuestions.org - Force a USB card reader

I have an Acer Aspire One netbook with 3 USB slots and an SD/MMC media card slot. There are two ways I can read my SD media cards in it:

- by inserting the card in a standalone USB card reader then plugging that reader into any of the USB ports;

OR

- simply inserting the media card in the built-in card slot.

I prefer using the built-in card slot for three reasons:

1) sometimes I need all the USB ports for something else (e.g. external keyboard and mouse + camera or cell phone);

2) as a matter of fact, the only standalone USB card reader I use to have stopped working suddenly, I need to buy a new one;

3) that's what the built-in card slot is for!!!

The problem with the built-in card slot is that it doesn't work every time. I often insert a card in it and... nothing happens. The card won't even turn up in the output of 'fdisk -l'. There are times when it will show up in 'fdisk -l', just won't be mounted automatically, but that I can forgive. My real beef is when it isn't detected at all. I wait, wait, wait... and nothing useful happens.

I have found two ways of fixing it, both very annoying:

- rebooting :mad: :mad: :mad:

- removing and inserting again... several times... until it finally gets detected and gets mounted or at least I can mount it manually. :mad:

QUESTION: Is there some command I can run on the command line to force the system to wake up, get off its butt and act upon the presence of the media card?

TIA