Strangely, I don't have that setting in my bios. Version is 1.34. The reader worked fine before, and I haven't been in the bios since. I think it must be something else...
I just ran Lenovo diagnostics with the device attached and the following came up. Maybe that helps pinpoint a possible solution? 3/23/2021 11:06:44 - Message: USB Status Test was executed with SUCCESS 3/23/2021 11:06:44 - Message: Could not load the driver correctly. Some checks of USB 3.0 version can not be performed. Grateful for any insight...
Many thanks for your help @kaljukass and @HHo2016! Uninstalled, removed and re-installed the Lenovo Renseas driver, same issue persists. Installed the new driver 2.1.39, same issue persists. I would like to point out that the USB3.0 ports on this computer work with other USB3.0 devices but this card reader does NOT work on any of the USB ports on his computer. However, it works fine on other computers. I think something is preventing this specific device driver from loading properly on this computer, perhaps a power issue because I vaguely remember now changing something in the registry related to power... Are there any advanced settings that affect the voltage of the USB ports?
AFAIK, there is one for the USB Hub (I have not changed this setting): Just to confirm, you tried to uninstall the "Portable Device" i.e. the entry with the exclamation mark on it in Device Manager? Unfortunately, it seems like some recent Windows Update might have broken something. Check which updates/programs were installed recently. Then run "sfc /scannow". As a last resort, you might need to reinstall Windows...
I now did uninstall the portable device (before I uninstalled the USB3.0 driver), and now the portable device now shows up as "WPD FileSystem Volume Driver" with the yellow exclamation mark and the device status "This device cannot start. (Code 10)". I tried the power saving setting setting of the generic USB device, and it has no impact, unfortulately. I now remember there was a power setting somewhere that I changed some weeks ago that I had never seen before, in some hidden list, about power and USB... Makes me crazy I can't remember where it was and so far, I didn't find it.
Thank you, I now found a solution: I went to device manager and saw the SD card that was plugged into the reader but no drive letter. I now assigned a letter and now it works.