After a lot of correspondence over the past 8 months, Ricoh has replied that it will not fix this issue due to the machine being out of manufacture. I assume this means parts would have to be remade, and they are busy putting their efforts in to parts for new models, not older ones they no longer manufacture.
Our lease on these goes until 2016 or 2017.
Follow these steps to help with USB flash drives not being recognized:
Always remove the users TCard and/or USB flash drive from the machine before proceeding.
STEP 1
-if a users device is not recognized then do a soft reboot (hold down "*" and "#" until the display turns off, let go and wait for it to start up on its own)
STEP 2
-if Step 1 fails then do a hard reboot (press the green power light on the top of the machine, the light should go out...then locate the orange power switch on the front panel of the machine and switch it to "sleep". Turn it on after a few seconds)
STEP 3
-if Step 2 fails then loan the user our USB
Any time our USB fails, follow Step 1, and if necessary Step 2 as well. It should work.
If it doesn't then put an out of order sign on the "scan" card unit. (the machine can still be used as a photocopier)