[OT] Wooo Hooo! (computer related)

Good for you, Beverly. Do all your peripherals like the new USB card? Since I did the same installation a while back, my computer only recognizes my Visioneer scanner if I plug it into one of the new USB ports immediately after a reboot, before calling up any other software. It must be some sort of interface glitch between the Visioneer and the PCI card, because everything else (HP printer, WD external drive, camera, etc.) performs normally with the new connections, and the speed gained in scanning makes a reboot worth it. It just irritates me, though, that I can't figure it out, although from googling it appears other people have the same problem.

Doreen in Alabama

I haven't tested it with anything except the one external HD yet. I have ordered a 7 port USB 2.0 hub, because I want to be able to use it for my digital cameras, photo printer, MP3 player, GPS, and the second external HD (and each one has a *slightly* different cable connector, so I have them labeled). It has been a real pain having to swap out cables every time I want to use a different device. My scanner *could* be cabled using USB, but right now I have it daisy-chained using my old inkjet printer's serial port. Yes, I know *old technology*, but it works... for now. ;-}

Have you tried a complete uninstall, reboot, and then re-install of the Visioneer? It may be that some proprietary driver needs to be installed, did it come with an installation disk? I know XP pretty much has all the drivers one needs, but occasionally some piece of hardware has to have its own special driver.

My scanner is also a Visioneer, so I'll let you know what mine does after I get the hub. I can always just continue to use it as it's currently configured, though.

Beverly

You and my son - who has his computer on a shelf under his desk, sans cover - "open computing" as he keeps the ancient tower ticking.

BEI Design wrote: My scanner *could* be cabled using USB, but

My old Visioneer, which wasn't USB, was hooked up the same way. But USB

2.0 gives the new one a huge speed advantage, especially when scanning in high resolution.

Oh yes, I did the uninstall and reinstall thing, step by step according to each and every instruction I could find, downloaded drivers, you name it I did it, ad nauseum. My Visioneer is a 9320; there may be some variable that affects this model that doesn't mess up others.

Fingers crossed for you!

Doreen in Alabama

I have an even OLDER (circa 1996) Pentium computer I keep running for the grandchildren. Win 98 SE, huge CRT monitor, wired network card. It has all their stuff pre-loaded, and has an internet connection. Slower than molasses in January, but their home computers are all Mac, and they have several games they can play only over here on "Grandma's PC". ;-) They are

*not* allowed to use either of my "real" computers.

And I keep one old 486 box (circa 1989) which still has a 5.25" floppy drive in case I ever need to make copies to a 3.5 floppy, because some of my favorite old legacy apps came on that (5.25) media.

My currently-in-use computer (excluding the whiz-bang newer notebook, but its strictly for the embroidery machine) is almost always without its side. Makes getting at the guts much easier. I didn't know I was "open computing" though. ;-> I did give it a thorough vacuuming when I was working on it this week.

Beverly

My older scanner was a "Viviscan" by Vivitar (bought in about

1992). No USB at all. This one, a Visioneer 8100, had both serial (parallel?) and USB, but I hooked it up with the printer daisy-chain. I haven't even tested it using the USB connection. I really don't like several things about it, mostly software related, I'm about ready to toss it and bring the Vivitar back.

It's got to be a real bummer to have to re-boot every time you want to use the scanner. Have you tested it on another computer with USB 2.0, just to see what happens?

Thanks.

Beverly

See how important these news groups are? Keeping you up to date on the lingo!

We have passed on so many computers to so many family members. At first, I kept the old ones in the "cold room" in the basement, but it got to be too much. I did pass on the TI99/4A and the Commodore 64 to non-family. I'm not sure what my son did with his Timex-Sinclair. I wear computers out, sort of. They start running hot. I might push just a little... But moderate users can generally get along with them, especially after I add fans. I had one fan with a blue light - was fun!

There are two ancient laptops here - they run the Singer EU when I want to use it. Just got the old man a nice Toshiba. Almost changes my mind about laptops --- but not quite. The keyboard is bigger, the screen is beautiful and legible, but that touchpad is for the birds. I would add a trackball, myself, but it's his and he likes it.

I like my desktop with the flatscreen monitor - though I'll never forget the cats when I set it up. They kept looking at it and behind it and at the front, and behind again. As if to ask me where the rest of it was.

Today, one of them managed to get the power button on the UPS box. Don't know if it was the same cat that used to push the button on the answering machine to listen to the little man inside or not.

Oh, my yes, thanks!

The first think I did with my new laptop is get a USB mouse *and* keyboard. I loath the touchpad, and the keyboard wasn't useful, it required a bunch of fussing just to use the number pad.

LOL!

Beverly

Well, I love the 9320. It does a great job with color slides and negatives, as well as the usual. I've heard good things about Vivitars.

Oh, it's not so bad, now that I've gotten over being offended that I can't figure out *why* I have to reboot. ;) Can't test it on my old puter, since that one just has USB 1.0.

Doreen in Alabama

USB 2.0 cards are cheap! At least this one was, I was able to use PCI card, got it at my local CompUSA, which is shutting down, so everything was 30-50% off. ;-)

Beverly

I don't think the mobo in my old Gateway supports 2.0.

Doreen in Alabama

Both of my older computers are Gateways, too. The one I'm currently using I bought in 2001, and I wasn't sure until I started investigating it, whether I needed an IDE or a PCI card. Turned out this one' motherboard uses PCI, and the PCI USB cards are common.

But if it were IDE, like the 1996 one, I probably would have had to hunt online. Still, I think if I could find the card, the mother board would probably accept a USB card, I'm not so sure the Win98SE OS would handle it, though. :-| That's why that one is relegated to the grandchildren.

Beverly.

If you use an add in card it handles all the work instead of the OS. The catch becomes IF the card maker has drivers for the older OS. Most only go back to 98SE. If your OS is 98SE or newer you usually won't have a problem.

On the issue of the scanner not being seen at initial boot, is the scanners USB cable one that came with it? Some cables don't seem to get along with 2.0. I had the same type of problem with my FILs older Compaq, It wouldn't see his memory card reader without a reboot. Went through the process of reinstalling the driver for the reader with the same result. Then I decided to remove and reinstall the USB card and used an updated driver for it as well. Worked fine after that.

Steve,

Yes, it's the USB cable that came with the scanner. Actually I had to get out my documentation to be sure, because I remembered having to buy a cable for something...it was the printer, which for some odd reason didn't come with a cable.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Doreen in Alabama