Canon LID50 not working in W2000

[Nico]

Hi there,

I have a Canon Lide50 installed on Windows 2000 SP4 along with Canoscan
Tolbox 4.1 and Arcsoft Photostudio 5.0, and its behaviour is *very*
erratic...
(my chipset driver is up to date, by the way)

The scanner was working more or less ok, until I recently moved the PC (and
probably changed the USB devices connections)
Previously, the scanner was sometimes not starting the "preview" mode. I
noticed from the task manager that a strange entry "wowexec" appeared under
NTVDM.exe (indented). When i killed the task, the scan would start properly.
Anybody knows what this wowexec is about, and why it interferes with the
scanning process ?

Now the scanner first got stuck in the calibration phase. I shutdown and
restarted, and now the scan locks up in the middle of the preview, and
photostudio eats up 99% of my CPU time. If i kill the wowexec task again,
then photostudio, and restart, I get a ScanGearCS and TWAIN error.
Has anybody encountered a similar problem in W2000 and have any idea how to
debug this problem ?

 

[CSM1]

Hi there,

I have a Canon Lide50 installed on Windows 2000 SP4 along with Canoscan
Tolbox 4.1 and Arcsoft Photostudio 5.0, and its behaviour is *very*
erratic...
(my chipset driver is up to date, by the way)

The scanner was working more or less ok, until I recently moved the PC
(and
probably changed the USB devices connections)
Previously, the scanner was sometimes not starting the "preview" mode. I
noticed from the task manager that a strange entry "wowexec" appeared
under
NTVDM.exe (indented). When i killed the task, the scan would start
properly.
Anybody knows what this wowexec is about, and why it interferes with the
scanning process ?

Now the scanner first got stuck in the calibration phase. I shutdown and
restarted, and now the scan locks up in the middle of the preview, and
photostudio eats up 99% of my CPU time. If i kill the wowexec task again,
then photostudio, and restart, I get a ScanGearCS and TWAIN error.
Has anybody encountered a similar problem in W2000 and have any idea how
to
debug this problem ?

The first thing I would do is scan my computer for Virus, Adware and
Spyware.

After I got a clean bill of health from the cleaning software, I would try
the scanner again, If you are still having problems. Remove all of the
Scanner Software, Reinstall all of the scanner software and try again.

An easy way to find free scanning software is to Google for "virus", "search
destroy" for Spyware and "adware" for Ads. All without quotes.

I like and use http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ for virus scanning.
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/home/ for Spybots.
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/ for Ad-Aware.

 

[Bruce]

Quotes from:

http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/wowexec/
http://www.iamnotageek.com/a/wowexec.exe.php
and others

Description:
wowexec.exe is a part the operating system, and supports the use of
16-bit processes. This program is important for the stable and secure
running of your computer and should not be terminated.

What does it do?
In addition to the 16-bit applications, each NTVDM process includes a
heartbeat thread that interrupts every 55 milliseconds to simulate a
timer interrupt, and the Wowexec.exe thread, which helps to create
16-bit tasks and to handle the delivery of the 16-bit interrupt. This
thread supports 16-bit Windows applications in a 32-bit Windows
environment. The WOW subsystem provides an NTVDM where all Win16
applications run. You will see the heartbeat and Wowexec threads when
monitoring 16-bit applications.

Occasionally wowexec.exe will remain in memory after the 16-Bit program
has terminated, as windows is waiting for you to start another 16-bit
application. If this is the case, you can safely terminate this process
as windows will restart wowexec.exe when you next run a 16-bit application.

-But there is a trojan that hides itself as wowexec.exe, except with a
space before the first w in wow.

 

[Nico]

The first thing I would do is scan my computer for Virus, Adware and
Spyware.

After I got a clean bill of health from the cleaning software, I would try
the scanner again, If you are still having problems. Remove all of the
Scanner Software, Reinstall all of the scanner software and try again.

Hello,

I tried the whole stuff to scan & remove spywares, used the Canon deldrv
utility, reinstalled the driver, removed all USB peripherals but the
scanner, and Scangear still hangs.

Would some other software be responsible for this ?

 

[Nico]

Occasionally wowexec.exe will remain in memory after the 16-Bit program
has terminated, as windows is waiting for you to start another 16-bit
application. If this is the case, you can safely terminate this process
as windows will restart wowexec.exe when you next run a 16-bit application.

-But there is a trojan that hides itself as wowexec.exe, except with a
space before the first w in wow.

My understanding is that ScanGear is a 16-bit process running inside NTVDM.
Would Canon not be able to provide modern driver architectures ???
I assume that the "heartbeat" stuff is not working properly, causing
scangear to hang.

My NIS/NAV scan did not find a wowexec trojan ; however the wowexec appears
in my task manager with a blank space before the name and no PID, right
after NTVDM. Is this normal ?

Besides, how can I monitor those 16 bit applications & heartbeat ? any tool
to do this ?

 

[CSM1]

Hello,

I tried the whole stuff to scan & remove spywares, used the Canon deldrv
utility, reinstalled the driver, removed all USB peripherals but the
scanner, and Scangear still hangs.

Would some other software be responsible for this ?

Yes, USB can cause problems, Open Device Manager, Remove the USB
controllers. Reboot.

A processor that is running too hot can cause hanging problems also.

A not optimal Windows OS can have problems, that are unexplainable.