Scanner woes

[bengal_lancer]

I have had no end of grief from my scanner – an HP Scanjet 6200c. It is about 18 mths old and came with HP Precision Scan Pro 1.0 scanning software. It runs off a USB connection.

From day one this software gave me aggro. During installation the files hpsjvxd and hpsjbmgr throw up a ‘fatal error… and will be shut down’ message. HP support advised changing the file extensions to .old (they were .exe I think) and the using the software as normal. This worked for a while but generally the pattern is, every few months or so, the scanner application would freeze up during use and even when shut down with the task manager and the computer rebooted the scanner software could not be reopened. Hence in desperation I would uninstall and then re-install the software. The scanner would then work ok for another couple of months or so and then out of the blue would freeze.

This last time even the uninstall/ re-inst failed. Hence I am now effectively left with a useless scanner. BTW the HP website does not have any later version of the software than v1.0 for this model.

Oh, I’ve just remembered, on one occasion about 6 mths ago I uninstalled this s/w using its own uninstall utility (instead of the add/rem progs in the control panel applet) and guess what? – It removed some files that it should not have and the machine completely crashed and would not reboot at all. In the end I had to reinstall windows 98 over the top to get going again. Luckily I did not lose any data. However I still get an error message during each windows start up informing me that various .vxd files could not be found.

I have been contemplating 3 possible solutions:-

1) Buy a new scanner.
(Expensive and wasteful on the face of it since there is nothing wrong with the hardware).
2) Back up all data to my 2nd hard drive (slave) and reformat the main one, then reinstall w98 and all other required appls. Hence the ‘fresh start’ may allow the HP scan s/w to re-install without clashing with something else.
(This is very tempting but I would lose many w98 and ie5 critical updates and SPs that I have downloaded).
3) Employ some kind of disk/ duff file cleaner and then try re-installing the scanner.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

[socrates]

Try going to the following site and downloading the latest software drivers for the scanner from;

http://www.driverguide.com/guide/search.htm

The username/password are drivers/all

I find this site very useful and use it all the time!!

[socrates]

See if these help....

http://www.driverguide.com/cgi/dnldpage.pl?URL=http://www.driverguide.com/uploads/uploads2/13449.html&MANU=Hewlett_Packard_(HP)&CAT=Scanners&MODEL=6200c&cse&OS=Windows_95_&_Windows _98

http://www.driverguide.com/uploads/uploads2/13892.html

http://www.hp.com/cposupport/swindexes/sj61cse_swen.html

http://www.driverguide.com/cgi/dnldpage.pl?URL=http://www.driverguide.com/uploads/uploads5/2334.html&MANU=Hewlett_Packard_(HP)&CAT=Scanners&MODEL=ScanJet_6200C&OS=Windows_95_&_Wind ows_98

http://www.driverguide.com/cgi/dnldpage.pl?URL=http://www.driverguide.com/uploads/uploads5/3719.html&MANU=Hewlett_Packard_(HP)&CAT=Not_Specified&MODEL=ScanJet_6200C&OS=All_Windows_ Versions

[fobotcso]

HP software has a habit of over-writing some of the native Windows files such as *.dll's with versions of its own. I once fixed a similar problem by removing some of the Windows applets such as Notepad and PhotoEditor (use Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and Windows Setup). Then I re-installed those Windows components and the original Windows files were restored over-writing the HP versions.

Last time I did this it worked a treat.

[AquaPlane]

We Run HP ScanJet 6300C's (later model but same deal) at work, and they've been more trouble than they're worth. I ran mine off SCSI as I was on NT with no USB support. Worked fine, but died one day with horrific graunching noises. The replacement arrived from HP and had a dirty scan glass. The third one is fine, but doesn't work with USB now I'm on Windows2kPro. The latest software I think is PrecisionScan Pro 2.02. That's what I'm on anyways, and it works okay.

Aq

[bengal_lancer]

Thanks for the various replies.

Socrates - I have checked out the drivers at the links mentioned but I can't see anything later than PScanPro v1.0 relevant to the HP6200c.

[Ausatco]

Bengal Lancer,

It may be worth your while to take a deep breath and do your 2nd option. Painful though it is, it's probably the best option in the long run. You can be reasonably assured that you will have a clean system.

Perhaps before you do that it would be worthwhile upgrading to Win98SE (in Oz it cost only about $20.00 IIRC for CD media plus post, package and handling). Then download and save on your 2nd HDD IE5.5 from the microsoft site (or get it on CD - it may be available as an upgrade now, I haven't checked) These two together eliminate the need for many of the SP's and critical updates, though you will still have to get a few. At least you will have an up-to-date system.

I had my system screwed by badly behaving drivers for a USB camera, rather like your scanner software has stuffed yours, took the above route and have not regretted it.

(edited to add the postscript)

Cheers

AA

PS My scanner is an oldie - Optic Pro 9630P. I'd recommend it to anyone. I have a friend who uses a CANON on a USB port with good results too, but I don't know the model number - sorry.

[This message has been edited by Ausatco (edited 03 January 2001).]

[pied piper]

Agree with Ausatco.

It hurts less each time you do it ;)

write down any liscence numbers you need and copy your mbx or pst (mail folders) to a backup.

[bengal_lancer]

Given that I have a 20 GB HDD drive as a slave presumably the best idea is to use the Maxtor diskette to create an image of my c-drive over to the d-drive (plenty of room). Then format the master HDD (c)?
If you do this how do you get into the position to reload windows? Do you need to use the Microsoft boot disk? (BTW I already have W98 SE+ IE5.5 + SP1 albeit the original OEM W98 SE cdrom is IE4. - Presumably this can be re-downloaded from the MS update site?)

[Ausatco]

Use your Win98 startup disk. Make sure you use a current one - ie, one that is created by your Win98SE, not an old one lying around from an earlier Win98.

If in doubt, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk.

Boot from your startup disk. This will give you Fdisk and Format, the tools you need to clean off your HDD, plus a fair bit more. There is also a good help file on how to use the utilities provided by the startup disk. It will also give you access to your CDROM drive so you can re-load Win from the CD.

You may also need to use your MAXTOR software as well as or instead of some of the MS software on the startup disk - you'll have to read up on your Maxtor documentation, I'm not familiar with it.

If your Win98SE is an upgrade version, then I think the 98SE startup disk will satisfy the Windows version checking that Setup does. Maybe someone else can help out here.

If not, you may have to install your old Win98, then run the win98SE upgrade.

After you've re-installed, you will have IE 4.0, or whatever they supply on the Win98SE CD. Somewhere on your system there should be all the IE5.5 SR-1 files that you downloaded - they are not auto-erased after installation like other MS update files, so you shouldn't have to download them again. Restore them from your back-up if needed, then run the file iesetup.exe. Then go to the Windows Update site to refresh your Critical Updates - they will have been lost when you cleaned off your system drive.

Hope this helps. (Been there, have the T-shirt :), but forgotten some of the details)

AA


[This message has been edited by Ausatco (edited 07 January 2001).]