VueScan stopped working as soon as I paid the $50!!!!

[Djon]

Vuescan's been reliable for me for several years with several updates,
with one minor bug that was fixed within two days. I use it for 3200
Epson and a Nikon V, and I'm about to try it with my Brother megaweird
scanner/printer/fax... I've not checked to see if it's compatible but
I'll try anyway....it'll be great if it does work.

I happen to LIKE Vuescan's front end. It does take some workflow
practice, but that pays off.

To approach this logically, UNINSTALL the HP software AND Vuescan,
REINSTALL HP (only) AND download any updates for updates to the HP
software. You will probably have to turn off firewalls and antivirus to
do this, then turning one firewall and one antivirus back on
afterwards...modern times.

Test to see if the new download (and possible update) of HP software
works ...if it doesn't work reliably, don't bother with Vuescan until
you toss the scanner and replace it with a credible brand (Epson,
Nikon)... If the old HP does work with HP you might then reinstall the
Vuescan, if only to get your money's worth. You might like Vuescan with
your replacement scanner...I think most Nikon users do, at least for
B&W.

Uninstall/reinstall/update is a standard fix for scanner/printer
problems. Somebody should have mentioned that earlier.

We often have so many demanding applications (I certainly do) that they
want to conflict, and scanner software is especially inclined this
way.

Since you've always had trouble with your HP (HP trouble?...now THERE's
a shocker it's almost certain that your problem has to do with
faulty hardware (such as ISDN cord/connection) or with the HP
application. Blaming Vuescan, purchased as you did to save a system you
knew to be bad, was suicidal.

Since it wouldn't work properly with HP's application (or the
conflicted condition in which HP's application may find itself) it was
a bad bet somebody elses's software would make it behave. If you can't
make it behave with HP's software, you chose to waste your money on
another application.

Conceivably some problem did kick in when you paid for Vuescan, but
since your scanner (or HP software) was damaged goods to begin with,
it's silly to blame Hamrick. It may simply be your losing gamble...you
hoped to save money in order to run technology that you knew to be
faulty to begin with.

 

[Djon]

Don't mess with your ini. You'd open yourself to a world of hurt at the
suggestion of a troll.

 

[rafe b]

Anyone to second my nomination of the above for the grand prize for the
biggest nonsense uttered in this newsgroup in a very long time?

There's something to be said for using what works,
or what you're comfortable with, or what came for
free with the scanner. Any/all of those are valid
reasons for using this or that scanner driver.

There's something to be said for mastering a tool
before you call it crap.

For example, I've never really made my peace with
VueScan, but I take it for what it is, and have made
some use of it from time to time. I've never had the
patience or inclination to "master" it.

A lot of folks have said horrible things about
NikonScan over the years -- but I've had excellent
luck with it. Maybe that's because I've worked
with it a lot, and learned to deal with its quirks.

Back to VueScan... if you rely on a product for
critical work, you don't necessarily update at every
opportunity -- particularly with a product like
VueScan, where updates are frequent.


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

 

[Terry]

FWIW I don't have any confidence in HP products and their software.

A few years back I bought a very expensive HP scanner. I had problems
with it from the start, I thought it was the scanner warming up,
sometimes it would work and others it wouldn't. I would have to power
down the scanner and start it up again. Wouldn't work all the time.
Eventually it just quit working and the computer wouldn't recognize it.
It turned out to be the usb interface failed. I trashed it.

I just purchased a HP 4600 scanner just because it was cheap and
unique. Installed all the overblown software and tested it, worked
fine. I then downloaded the updates which were very large and bloated.
After the updates were installed the scanner wouldn't work. Problem
software. Uninstalled all the HP software and reinstalled what came
with the scanner and now everything is fine.

Moral of the story is to stay away from HP scanners.

 

[Ronald Bruck]

As a point of information, Ed Hamrick (I didn't realize it's just one
guy) did e-mail me back, suggesting that I try Vs. 8.3.31. I
downloaded the file, which is a .tgz (never heard of it) and could not
open it. I downloaded a program called PicoZip, which claimed it would
open the file. It unzipped it, but there doesn't seem to be an exe
file in the bundle. Now I'm stuck with two versions of VueScan AND a
version of PicoZip and I still can't scan anything. Isn't 8.3.31 for
Linux, anyway?

Oh, jeez. This post fully explains your problems: you're incompetent
to even be USING software.

..tgz stands for ".tar.gz". And it's for Unix. And you downloaded the
wrong file. (Yes, I know it's only on the Unix file that Ed identifies
the version number. But it DOES say "for Unix". Download the Windows
version.)

--Ron Bruck

 

[Kennedy McEwen]

Don't mess with your ini. You'd open yourself to a world of hurt at the
suggestion of a troll.

Ed Hamrick is no troll!

While he was posting in these parts that was Ed's standard opening
gambit for debugging problems - check the archives of the group for
yourself if you question that. It puts Vuescan back into a known
default condition, all the tinkering that the user has done to attempt
to resolve a problem is discarded in one simple sweep-up operation.

 

[Roger S.]

Hi Djon, why do you say "Don't mess with your ini?"
I thought Ed recommends doing this if things go wrong. The only
downside is that you lose any custom settings, right?
To my knowledge, if you delete the INI and load vuescan.exe it creates
a fresh .ini file. What downsides do you know about?
I think your advise to reinstall the HP software (and try to see if
there's an updated version) is a good place to start.

 

[rafe b]

Ed Hamrick is no troll!

While he was posting in these parts that was Ed's standard opening gambit
for debugging problems - check the archives of the group for yourself if
you question that. It puts Vuescan back into a known default condition,
all the tinkering that the user has done to attempt to resolve a problem
is discarded in one simple sweep-up operation.

Ed's no troll and neither is Kennedy.
What Kennedy has stated above is fact.

Here's a snip from Ed Hamrick's site
<http://www.hamrick.com/sup.html>
on how to report problems:


a.. Turn off power to scanner and computer
a.. Turn on scanner, wait till scanner ready
a.. Turn on computer
a.. Delete vuescan.ini *****
a.. Run VueScan
a.. Turn on "Output|Log file"
a.. (do the bare minimum number of steps to reproduce the problem)
a.. Exit VueScan


rafe b
www.terrapinphoto.com

 

[Andy Salnikov]

Apart from two or three known trolls, who drove Mr Hamrick from
participating in theses Scanner groups, everyone using VS is quite
happy with its results...

Don't speak for everyone, speak for yorself, please. While after
alot of experience I can make Vuescan to produce good result it does
not make me happy. I still firmly believe that this is one of the
clumsiest applications installed on my computer, which has a good
probablility to break after the next upgrade (as it happily did
in version 8.3.30), occasianally hanging here and there, with
a crappiest user interface, and bugs not being fixed for years

Now I'm happy

Andy.

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

SNIP

Uninstall/reinstall/update is a standard fix for scanner/printer
problems. Somebody should have mentioned that earlier.

It is quite unnecessary for VueScan though. All that the VueScan
'installation' does, is to copy the relevant files to a
directory/folder in the Root of C:\ , and (if not present) add a key
(place holder for serial number) to the Windows registry (don't know
about what happens in the other OS platforms).

Re-installation of a VueScan version basically consists of (in the
case of Windows) renaming/deleting the 'old' directory and installing
the other/newer version. Renaming willl allow to revert to the older
version by calling the relevant version.

If a certain version's settings cause a 'malfunction', just delete the
VueScan.ini file and get a new start at setting parameters.

Bart

 

[TDMedia]

With a good amount of help from Mr. Hamrick (my regrets if I jumped the
gun and said anything offensive about him) I finally got VueScan to
work with my HP ScanJet 3970. Downloading Vs. 8.3.31 and tweaking some
settings seemed to help. However, I think what really did it was
disconnecting one of the other USB devices on my system (I have quite a
few) to free up some power for the scanner itself. The reason I think
THIS was the real fix is that now my HP software is working, too! And
I like the HP software much better, sorry to say.

Man, I could've used that fifty bucks. I guess that'll teach me not to
act out of emotion.

TM

 

[Bart van der Wolf]

Hi Djon, why do you say "Don't mess with your ini?"
I thought Ed recommends doing this if things go wrong.

Well, he doesn't really recommend to not mess with it, but rather to
delete it all together.

That simple action will restore VueScan to a known default state which
also helps in getting a clean baseline installation which is much
easier to debug (choose between user, or software, or OS error).

The only downside is that you lose any custom settings, right?

Yes, although renaming the vuescan.ini will have the same effect, with
the possibility of restoring the user's settings.

To my knowledge, if you delete the INI and load vuescan.exe
it creates a fresh .ini file.

Correct, simple and quick, and if renamed it's also reversible.

Bart

 

[Maris V. Lidaka Sr.]

When you've done that, send the Log file to Ed. That's why he provides for
creating the Log file.

Meanwhile, Vuescan will automatically create a new "vuescana.ini" file.

Maris

 

[One4All]

Anyone to second my nomination of the above for the grand prize for the
biggest nonsense uttered in this newsgroup in a very long time?

I shouldn't have added those last 3 sentences. My experience with my
Epson 4870 & Epson Scan has been excellent, so I shouldn't have
generalized. I don't know whether the ScanJet is a flatbed or film
scanner, but after reading many posts in this group, I get the
impression most problems with scanner software relate to Nikon, HP,
Canon, Microtek, and maybe even Minolta scanners. BTW, I wonder why
Epson never entered the film-scanner market.

Ralf, if you buy a scanner that has software that can't perform and
have to go to a cheap third-party software, itself fraught with
problems, you're a sucker. Suckers abound in this newsgroup.

 

[Wilfred]

SNIP

It is quite unnecessary for VueScan though.

Yes, but for some scanners, VueScan depends on components of the
manufacturer's software that have to be installed first. In that case,
if things don't work it at least seems to be a good idea to uninstall
and reinstall the manufacturer's software. Then first try with the
version that came with the scanner. If this works, try VueScan. If
either doesn't work, try an update from the manufacturer's website. If
this works, try VueScan again, etc.
I agree that deleting VueScan isn't strictly needed.

 

[Ralf R. Radermacher]

Ralf, if you buy a scanner that has software that can't perform and
have to go to a cheap third-party software, itself fraught with
problems, you're a sucker.

No, not quite. Suckers are those lamers who never realize how poor the
quality is that they turn out with those rotten drivers supplied with
most scanners. They never even see how much better their work could be
if they'd use decent tools. Then again, with their art it probably
wouldn't make much of a difference, anyway.

Where on the web can we see the great results you're getting?

Suckers abound in this newsgroup.

You can say that again. Don, meet One4All...

Beati pauperes spiritu.

Ralf

 

[Neil Gould]

With a good amount of help from Mr. Hamrick (my regrets if I jumped
the gun and said anything offensive about him) I finally got VueScan
to work with my HP ScanJet 3970. Downloading Vs. 8.3.31 and tweaking
some settings seemed to help. However, I think what really did it was
disconnecting one of the other USB devices on my system (I have quite
a few) to free up some power for the scanner itself. The reason I
think THIS was the real fix is that now my HP software is working,
too! And I like the HP software much better, sorry to say.

Man, I could've used that fifty bucks. I guess that'll teach me not
to act out of emotion.

Sounds like a pretty cheap price for education to me...

Neil

 

[Ralf R. Radermacher]

My experience with my
Epson 4870 & Epson Scan has been excellent

Let me guess: You're getting great scans from 35 mm slides and negs with
this combination.

Ralf

 

[Don]

With a good amount of help from Mr. Hamrick (my regrets if I jumped the
gun and said anything offensive about him) I finally got VueScan to
work with my HP ScanJet 3970.

Actually making public noises is probably what did it! (The author
reads this group religiously.) If you just complained quietly you
would've been ignored or worse...

On the other hand, if one justifiably complains in public on a regular
bases about recurring VueScan bugs which the author can't fix, he
sends them hateful emails telling them they've been "blacklisted" (but
keeps the money, of course).

I like the HP software much better, sorry to say.

All's well that ends well, as the saying goes. Enjoy!

Man, I could've used that fifty bucks. I guess that'll teach me not to
act out of emotion.

Nothing wrong with making an impulse purchase.

If not satisfied (for whatever reason) a *reputable* company would
give you your money back. That's why they call this program: VueSCAM!

Don.

 

[Don]

Don't mess with your ini. You'd open yourself to a world of hurt at the
suggestion of a troll.

Oh boy... Do we have egg all over our face, now!

Thank you for so comprehensively demonstrating the massive amount of
ignorance rabid VueScan "defenders", bent on spewing indiscriminate
abuse, are blessed with.

Don.