Usb Card Reader Causing Failure To Boot

OK, so this has me stumped and I'm hoping that maybe I can get some insight into why this is happening.

First, some system specs:
Mobo: MSI 880GM-E43 AM3 AMD 880G
CPU: AMD Athlon II X3 445 Rana 3.1GHz
RAM: G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666)
Video Card: GeForce 9800 GT
HD: 3 WD drives varying from 320GiB to 1TiB
USB Card Reader: Kingston FCR-HS219/1 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader
OS: Win 7 Professional x64

I built this system about a year ago, then ~8 months ago I doubled the RAM (started out with just 2x2GB, put in another 2x2GB), then, ~5 months ago those two new sticks caused issues so I RMA'd them, got new ones, everything was working great. I have a wireless keyboard, wired mouse, webcam, printer and card reader all plugged into the rear USB ports.

Yesterday I turn on my computer, the Mobo logo flashes and then a constant stream of fast beeps that doesn't end (at least, not for a couple minutes). I did some checking and determined it was either my video card or memory that was bad (I tried booting without my wireless keyboard plugged in just in case something was screwy with it and it was broadcasting a stuck key, no avail), so I removed the two new sticks, plugged in the keyboard and mouse, powered on just fine, so I concluded that the memory was bad. So, I powered down, put the case side back on, plugged everything back in and left it alone. Then, my wife tries to turn on the computer and it won't boot up (same problem as before). Then she notices that she has a 16GiB SDHC card in the card reader, removes it, and it powers on just fine. We do 6 consecutive power cycles randomly plugging the card in and removing it, the problem appears to be perfectly tied to the card being in the card reader.

I've checked my boot options to make sure that the computer isn't trying to boot from the card (although it seems like the symptom would be different), and this isn't a hard problem to avoid, but I don't understand why it's suddenly an issue when we've had the card plugged in before at startup.

Any insight that can be provided is appreciated, thank you!

 

Have you checked in the device manager to see if there are any warnings next to the card reader or any other component?

 

This very well could be a power issue. The memory card reader also uses a usb connection on the motherboard. With the card in it is possible you don't have enough power.

Have you tried booting with the card in and the keyboard and/or mouse unplugged?

It could just be the card reader or card is bad.

 

Same thing you describe happens with a lot of SD card readers even with laptops when trying to boot Windows, additionally to BSchwarz suggestion of the card reader being faulty or the SD card itself try another SD card if you have one and see if you still get the same problem.

To add you could also install this utility from Kingston, though it may not help too much as it is just software rather than a driver, since that card reader is a plug and play device anyway so uses the inbuilt Windows drivers, but might have some settings that might help?

http://www.kingston....t.asp?s=hs219Da

 

I go with the card itself, if the system boots OK with the reader plugged in but no card in it. As suggested do you have other cards? Have you tried them?

Nev.