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I repaired my 41 cardreader, but it can't read or write on cards it just pull cards and the 41 shows the message MALFUCTION CARD

Any suggestion?

Thx

Pio

I've had this caused by dirty swtich contacts on top of the reader, which don't therefore close properly as the card passes through.
If you are happy taking the reader apart (it's not _totally_ trivial, particularly the catches that hold the reader to the 41), then you can undo the screws holding the little PCB on top of the
reader mechanism and pull if off the connecting pins. Then clean the contact pads on the PCB and _very carefully_ clean the contact springs.

Make sure that all the wires to the head are connected properly. They have a tendency to pop out of their sockets during a roller repair.

Also if you have access to another reader verify that the cards are not written properly. A reader that writes but not reads is almost always caused by a bad tantalum filter capacitor on the sense amp chip power connections.

The original message said that you got MALFUNCTION on attempting to _write_ to a card as well as on reading.
As far as I know, bad head connections won't cause this, but the card reader _will_ give a MALFUNCTION if the card-at-head switch doesn't close soon enough after the motor switch.

Hi Marx,
just today I succeeded in repairing one of my cardreaders. It could write cards, readable on any other cardreader, but doesn't read any card, written by itself or by any other cardreader. Its a CARD RDR 1E type. What I did:
- Changed the Tantalum capacitors on the Sense Amplifier PCB (2x6,8µF/16V and 1x 3,3µF/16V) and
- carefully demagnetized the head (the card slot was completely disassambled to get as close as possible to the head - see Tony Duell's advice).
- Run some written cards through the reader (VER) until no errors occured (about 7 times the same card than another an so on)- There was an order I could observe: In very bad condition it displayed MALFUNCTION. As the conditions became better it displayed CHKSUM ERR.
From that moment on it could read any card I gave it to eat.
Regards, Andreas

Tony, David and Andreas

Thanks a lot for the replies they gave me hopes for fixing my 41 CR.

Thanks again,

Pio