Card Reader Won't

[yru]

Hi all!
I recently purchased a memory card reader.
It works very well, finding it ideal for my daily backups.
Except that my Toshiba laptop doesn't like it.
The system crashes each time I plug the reader in its USB port.
This Toshiba is an old machine, but works perfectly well with everything else. It runs on W98se.
I tested the reader with WinXP and Win98 in two other computers and it worked just fine. I also tried swithing sizes on my Compact Flash cards, both 8 and 64 megs did equally well with all other PC's, but none with my laptop.
One of the reasons I bought the reader was to also conveniently make file transfers.
Did anyone encounter a similar problem?
Is there a solution, or should I abandon hope?
Any good idea will be much appreciated.