Specifications

If you’ll be using a scanner bundled with a SCSI card and cable, the cable you receive will work
fine, but you must ensure that your scanner’s terminator is turned on and connected to end the
SCSI bus. If in the future, you add another SCSI device to your system by connecting it to the
scanner, turn off the scanner’s terminator and turn on or install the new device’s terminator.
For more information about SCSI, see Chapter 8 in the book.
Scanner Troubleshooting
For a scanner to work properly, the operating system, application, and scanner must all work properly
together. When the scanner won’t respond or doesn’t produce the results you expect, use this list of
typical problems and solutions to get your scanner back into action.
Scanner Fails to Scan
If the scanner’s on a parallel port, make sure you’ve loaded the correct DOS-based parallel-port driver
as well as the scanner driver for Windows. For example, Epson scanners use
EPSN.SYS in the com-
puter’s
CONFIG.SYS file. These device drivers normally require configuration options to indicate the
correct LPT port address.
Also, make sure the parallel port is set correctly. At a minimum, parallel-port scanners require the
bidirectional or PS/2-style port setting. Some might work with the later IEEE-1284 EPP or ECP modes,
but others don’t.
If the scanner’s SCSI-based, make sure the scanner’s device ID isn’t in use by other SCSI devices. If
your SCSI interface card is made by Adaptec, for example, you can use the included SCSI Interrogator
to make sure your scanner and other SCSI-based devices are available.
Make sure terminators are set correctly for SCSI devices; the last device in the daisy-chain needs to be
terminated. If you terminate any other devices in the daisy-chain, devices beyond the terminated
device will be ignored.
If you’ve just updated a Windows 95 system to Windows 98, an important TWAIN driver file might
have been replaced. Use the Microsoft Windows 98 Version Conflict Manager (VCM) to check for a
changed file called
TWAIN.DLL, and replace the one installed during the Windows 98 upgrade with the
one you were using (that worked!).
With newer hot-swap technologies, such as USB and IEEE-1394, make sure that your system is ready
for the scanner:
1. Enable the USB port or install an IEEE-1394 or a USB card.
2. Use an operating system that supports the port type. Windows 98/Me/2000 are required for
IEEE-1394, and USB devices work best with these versions of Windows, although late releases of
Windows 95 do support some USB devices.
3. Make sure the device drivers for the scanner are installed.
4. Attach the scanner to the system and power it up.
If you forgot to plug in a USB or an IEEE-1394 scanner, you can attach it to your system at any time
because these technologies are both Plug-and-Play and hot-swappable.
Can’t Detect Scanner
SCSI and parallel-port scanners must already be turned on when the system starts to be detected. In
some cases with a SCSI-based device, you can open the Device Manager (Control Panel, System,
Properties Sheet) for Windows 9x/Me/2000 and click the Refresh button after resetting or turning on