re: old scanner on old 98 pc stopped working
Friday, August 14, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Windows 98 Annoyances Discussion Forum
Posted by C K
(6528 messages posted)
Is it parallel port or SCSI port? If parallel, this was a classic symptom of a failing
scanner, and when the bulbs go out of specification or the interface starts to fail,
the scanner stops working, so it can work one day and not the next, sometimes depending
on the tempature of the room believe it or not. Scanners had to warm up and then
the color temp of the bulbs were checked by the electronics inside the scanner.
If the bulbs output color was off, the scanner didn't work. Sometimes it would throw
an error and sometimes it won't. SInce the bulbs are florescent, they will go out
of spec as the hours of start and on time increase and they get older, whether used
or not because they are always kept warm. They are never totally "off" unless you
have turned the power switch off (if it has one). That coupled with the fact that
the parallel port scanners were really a pain to keep functioning correctly, it was
no wonder that USB scanners rendered them obsolete in a very short time.
SCSI scanners seemed to last longer. I still have old HP 4c and 6100 scanners in
use from the mid 1990's believe it or not. Only have lost two out of 6 due to bulb
age and use. Even then, when they failed, they had the same symptoms as the parallel
port scanners. Little wonder really as the parallel port is really a simplified
SCSI port.
Bottom line, if it is found one time and not the next and then returns, the scanner
(or scanner bulb), the interface or some other piece of hardware is failing in your
system IME. SOftware won't heal itself so I doubt that you have a total software
issue. There is a hardware componant failing somewhere, in my experience.
If this is a USB scanner, most of the above applies, only the interface is different,
but USB presents a few problems of it's own.
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