Failed to connect to card: Unresponsive card (correctly inserted?) on Windows

Nitrokeys HSM
1

I installed OpenSC with version 0.26.1win64 and I was testing generating DKEK shares with the sc-hsm-tool.exe but suddently it stop working and I can’t get to connect anymore. I wasn’t able to initialize the hsm. Now when I run “sc-hsm-tool.exe -vvv”, I get the following output:

sc-hsm-tool.exe -vvv
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.499 [sc-hsm-tool] sc.c:340:sc_detect_card_presence: called
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.515 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:470:pcsc_detect_card_presence: called
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.515 [sc-hsm-tool] Nitrokey Nitrokey HSM 0 check
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.515 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:387:refresh_attributes: returning with: 0 (Success)
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.515 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:478:pcsc_detect_card_presence: returning with: 1
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.515 [sc-hsm-tool] sc.c:351:sc_detect_card_presence: returning with: 1
Using reader with a card: Nitrokey Nitrokey HSM 0
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.515 [sc-hsm-tool] sc.c:340:sc_detect_card_presence: called
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.515 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:470:pcsc_detect_card_presence: called
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.531 [sc-hsm-tool] Nitrokey Nitrokey HSM 0 check
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.531 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:387:refresh_attributes: returning with: 0 (Success)
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.531 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:478:pcsc_detect_card_presence: returning with: 1
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.531 [sc-hsm-tool] sc.c:351:sc_detect_card_presence: returning with: 1
Connecting to card in reader Nitrokey Nitrokey HSM 0…
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.531 [sc-hsm-tool] card.c:254:sc_connect_card: called
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.547 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:609:pcsc_connect: called
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.547 [sc-hsm-tool] Nitrokey Nitrokey HSM 0 check
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.547 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:387:refresh_attributes: returning with: 0 (Success)
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.547 [sc-hsm-tool] Nitrokey Nitrokey HSM 0:SCardConnect failed: 0x80100066
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.547 [sc-hsm-tool] card.c:403:sc_connect_card: returning with: -1113 (Unresponsive card (correctly inserted?))
Failed to connect to card: Unresponsive card (correctly inserted?)
Failed to connect to card: Success
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.562 [sc-hsm-tool] ctx.c:934:sc_release_context: called
P:10312; T:6004 2025-12-03 16:00:30.568 [sc-hsm-tool] reader-pcsc.c:977:pcsc_finish: called

2

Hello, when did you place the order of this HSM Nitrokey ?

3

It was some time ago, the 13th of march. We received it the 22nd of may. The project was delayed that’s why we started using it just now.

I also wanted to add that sometimes when running the tool it hangs and doesn’t return anything. The open-sc notifier displays a toast message whenever I connect or disconnect the nitrokey. In the device manager the device appears as a smart card reader. It is using a Microsoft driver Ucbccid (WUDF), ver.10.0.19041.1.

4

Okay, I think your Nitrokey is from a faulty batch. You can contact shop@nitrokey.com with these information and they will send you a replacement.