Acer 620U flatbed scanner - suddenly not found

[WillyW]

Hello,

First post here.

Win98SE
576MB ram
Acer 620U flatbed scanner    
USB ports built into motherboard.   Not 2.0.   Probably 1.1.


Has been working fine for years.  Not used much.   Tried to use it today, and got an error message.
Scanner is not found.   Please check if power is on and if cable is connected.

Did that.   Power was on.  Cable was still connected.

Even though I haven't had the problem with Windows eating drivers,  thought that maybe this was the first time for me.   Decided to download and install the newest driver.
Found it at:
http://members.driverguide.com/driver/detail.php?driverid=113589
Downloaded, and ran the setup program.     Appeared to go along normally.
It was a newer ver number than the old driver.

Still getting the same error message.  

No hardware additions/deletions/changes since last time scanner worked fine.
Same for software.   Maybe WinRar was installed since.    In other words, nothing that could be involved with USB ports.

Went to Device Manager.
Scanner appears under Imaging device.   Properties say it is working properly.
Under USB controlers->Root hub,  it appears there too,  under the Power tab.

Unplug the USB cable from it, and it disappears from both.   Plug it back in, wait a moment, and it reappears.

This is normal,  isn't it?
Please confirm.


What else....    oh...    
Went to  Control Panel->Scanners and Cameras.    It appears there.  
Disappears and reappears when usb cable is unplugged and re-plugged.
Again, I'm thinking all is normal so far.

But, when I click on Properties, there in Scanners and Cameras,   it takes a moment to open the Properties reporting window.
Under the General tab,  it says    Status   unavailable.
And the    Test Scanner or Camera  button is grayed out.

I'm thinking this is not normal.

I'm hoping my scanner is not dead too.    It lights up fine, when switched on.
Motors hum and whir, just like it always did.

What is my next step to figure this out?

If I had another computer handy, I would have tried it on that.   Do I have to find a friend that will let me install it on theirs?  
If so,  I'll try.   Please advise.

Other than that,  I'm hoping for other suggestions.


Let me know if you need more info, or if I left out something.

Thanks

[DaveLembke]

Is there any lint in the USB port of your computer??? Had one customer a while back that had dust bunnies in their USB ports from the air flow into the case, caused the USB device to act like this...

Also, have you swapped USB cables??? Just in case you have a bad cable...

Also, do you have a lot of devices on your systems USB port to pull down the power supply??? If your scanner communicates and is powered off of your USB port it could be a low voltage or amperage condition... ( If you have a USB Hub with power injection ) you can try to run the scaner through the power injected HUB...

Also had once where the lock on the bottom of the scaner was in the locked position causing the scanner to make noise like it is initializing, but it would disable the device as a protection to avoid trying to move the scan head while locked... If your scanner has a transportation lock to protect from G-Forces in transit from one location to the next, be sure it is unlocked... It wil do just as you describe if locked...

*** Also why the odd memory size 576MB ... Do you have a 512MB Stick and a 64MB Stick or Video sharing memory off of your 640MB???

Good Luck

[WillyW]

Is there any lint in the USB port of your computer??? Had one customer a while back that had dust bunnies in their USB ports from the air flow into the case, caused the USB device to act like this...

Interesting.  I would never have thought of that.

But I doubt it.   I unplugged the usb cable from the back of the computer and re-plugged it.   Tried again.  Same result.
Next,  moved the plug to the other usb socket on the back of the computer.
I didn't see a bunch of dust, and I think that the unplugging / replugging would have moved any dust off.

Also, have you swapped USB cables??? Just in case you have a bad cable...

No, I haven't.
I'll have to try the old one.

Just got DSL about a month or so ago.    DSL modem came with a nicer USB cable that I wasn't going to use for DSL.   Swapped out the old scanner cable then.  The new cable was about a foot longer, which was nice.
Worked fine.

Have you ever heard of a cable going bad, when it is just sitting still though?
No stress or movement?

Also, do you have a lot of devices on your systems USB port to pull down the power supply???

No.
Two usb devices.
Two ports on the back of the computer, and each has one device plugged in.
One is the printer, and the other is the scanner.

If your scanner communicates and is powered off of your USB port it could be a low voltage or amperage condition... ( If you have a USB Hub with power injection ) you can try to run the scaner through the power injected HUB...

Scanner has a wall-wart to power it.  
No USB hub in use at all.

Fwiw,  Device Manager->Universal Serial Bus Controllers->USB root hub->Properties->Power->Power properties
shows both devices.   Printer says required power is 2mA and scanner is 100mA.
It says total power available per port is 500mA,  so I'm not even close to straining it.

Also had once where the lock on the bottom of the scaner was in the locked position causing the scanner to make noise like it is initializing, but it would disable the device as a protection to avoid trying to move the scan head while locked... If your scanner has a transportation lock to protect from G-Forces in transit from one location to the next, be sure it is unlocked... It wil do just as you describe if locked...

This is news to me.    I'll have a look at it, and see if I can find anything like that.    I've had it so long that I don't recall anything like that from when I unpacked it.
Thanks for the tip.

But I'll be surprised if I find anything wrong like this....  scanner hasn't been moved for a long time, and worked fine right where it is.  

*** Also why the odd memory size 576MB ... Do you have a 512MB Stick and a 64MB Stick or Video sharing memory off of your 640MB???

Back when I built this computer, I think I started with 64M of ram.   Some time  later,  for some reason that I can't remember right off the top of my head,  I bought a 256M stick and installed.
Ran that way for years.
About 6 months ago,  acquired another 256M stick in a deal.   Since there was a slot open,  might as well use it - right?     So, I stuck it in there.

Regarding video - it is a Rage AGP card.  I forget the specs.  Nothing special.

Good Luck

Thanks.   and thanks for responding so quickly too!

I'm dejected, and hoping that there is some way to further test the scanner.  
Maybe some diagnostic software or something that can tickle it and see what it does?

[Computer_Commando]

I have exactly the same scanner and it does the same thing to me for Win2k and WinXP.  I usually just reinstall MiraScan ver 4.03.  That seems to work ever time.  This only seems to happen when I don't use the scanner for a long time.  It's as if Windows "drops" the drivers if not used for a period of time.

[patio]

Good to see you again C. C. !

[WillyW]

I have exactly the same scanner and it does the same thing to me for Win2k and WinXP.  I usually just reinstall MiraScan ver 4.03.  That seems to work ever time.  This only seems to happen when I don't use the scanner for a long time.  It's as if Windows "drops" the drivers if not used for a period of time.

Driver here was older, worked fine.
But, I installed the newer one anyway attempting to get it working again.  I believe 4.03 was the ver number on the  newer one that I d/l'd.   Link where I got it is in previous post.

No go.  

Any other suggestions?     (fingers crossed, hoping somebody has something...)


Since you have the exact same scanner,  will you check something for me?
Turn it off.  Let it sit a while.
Before you turn it back on, open the cover, so you can look inside at the light bulb and mechanism.
Turn it on.
It should whir and hum some.
The light should come on, and the carriage should move.
What I want to know is:  During that warm up cycle as it comes on,  how far did the carriage move?

In my memory,  mine used to move a few inches...  maybe more.... then it would return to the top and stop.

Now,  it just moves maybe a quarter inch.   Bzzt, bzzt, and it is back to the top.
I'm wondering if something mechanical has broken inside the guts of it.

Thanks

[WillyW]

Also had once where the lock on the bottom of the scaner was in the locked position causing the scanner to make noise like it is initializing, but it would disable the device as a protection to avoid trying to move the scan head while locked... If your scanner has a transportation lock to protect from G-Forces in transit from one location to the next, be sure it is unlocked... It wil do just as you describe if locked...

Found the lock.
It was not on.

Cycled it anyway.   It was very stiff... hard to move.    Put it on, and then pushed it right back off.

Tried again with scanner.    
No change.

[WillyW]

Update -  if anybody else had the same problem and found this thread by searching:

Got it!   It works again.  


Looking around the forums here,  I saw one of the wise posters, more than once, mention that it can be a good idea to have a Linux Live CD handy - for a variety of reasons.

It suddenly hit me -  why didn't I think of that?  -    I've been playing with a Linux Live CD a bit lately.     (Very interesting stuff, btw. )  
Puppy Linux.

Loaded it.
Started looking in their forums for tips on how to load linux drivers for the scanner.   Got lucky, and my flatbed scanner model is supported.

Having never done it with linux before,  I fumbled and stumbled -  but I got it!

Scanner whirred and hummed and I saved the output to the hard drive.

Exited and booted Windoze.

The linux software, running the scanner,  made a .jpg file just fine.  
So now I know -  the problem is not the scanner hardware.

Bolstered with this confidence,  next I un-installed the Windoze MiraScan driver/software that I had recently installed.
Re-installed.
Re-booted.
Went to Control Panel->Scanners and Cameras->Properties.  This time the Test button was not grayed out, and when clicked it quickly replied that it was working.
Tried scanning something.
Worked fine.

I think what happened, was that the first time I installed the new driver,  I did it without un-installing the old software first.    Now that I think about it,  I remember going back and un-installing that old version - AFTER the new one was installed.
I suspect that caused the new install to fail to work the scanner.   This time around,  I un-installed BEFORE running the install again.

What caused the problem in the first place?    I have no idea.....  maybe Windoze just up and decided to eat the driver that had worked fine for years.

Indirectly, I got what I needed out of these forums.
Thanks!    

[GX1_Man]

Linux can save your *censored* in a lot of ways!

Thanks for posting back with your success.