I had to buy a new card reader too, I had a real cheap one to start. The new one accepts all sorts of cards, which is good, as our family has many many different kinds of cards and cameras.
Here is one solution, a friend just came back from a great barge trip thru Paris, and one of her cards would not recognize in her Mac. So I brought it home, it wouldnt open iPhoto like my own cards here do. But there is always a little icon on the desktop for the card, so I just dragged them out of it into a folder for her trip here on my desktop.
I suspect something might be awry with her card, so I will just put them on a DVD and she can import them that way.
Jane