diff --git a/drivers/mmc/host/at91_mci.c b/drivers/mmc/host/at91_mci.c
index 4e1b2e6288dae295a1fb2e1a8699823515d6e163..37efe6b3f12ddcdcb0c8403c321ac186a45c3dbb 100644
--- a/drivers/mmc/host/at91_mci.c
+++ b/drivers/mmc/host/at91_mci.c
@@ -756,7 +756,8 @@ static void at91_mci_request(struct mmc_host *mmc, struct mmc_request *mrq)
 	host->request = mrq;
 	host->flags = 0;
 
-	mod_timer(&host->timer, jiffies +  HZ);
+	/* more than 1s timeout needed with slow SD cards */
+	mod_timer(&host->timer, jiffies +  msecs_to_jiffies(2000));
 
 	at91_mci_process_next(host);
 }
@@ -944,7 +945,8 @@ static irqreturn_t at91_mmc_det_irq(int irq, void *_host)
 			pr_debug("****** Resetting SD-card bus width ******\n");
 			at91_mci_write(host, AT91_MCI_SDCR, at91_mci_read(host, AT91_MCI_SDCR) & ~AT91_MCI_SDCBUS);
 		}
-		mmc_detect_change(host->mmc, msecs_to_jiffies(100));
+		/* 0.5s needed because of early card detect switch firing */
+		mmc_detect_change(host->mmc, msecs_to_jiffies(500));
 	}
 	return IRQ_HANDLED;
 }