filmscanners: new Minolta Scan Dual II not working after one day.

[Rome <adnixon@tin.it>]

Hi,
I've just a bought a new Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II a couple of days ago.
I plugged it into my Mac G4 and installed the software. I did a couple of
test scans and it worked. Beautifully! I was very impressed and excited.
Then I turned off, shut down and unplugged it, as I don't enough spare USB
sockets on my Mac, or enough space on my desk for the scanner when I'm not
using it.
Next day I spent the morning setting up ColorSync profiles on my Mac for
Photoshop and my monitor, then plugged the Minolta in again to do some more
scanning with ColorSync now in operation - But now the little green light on
the front won't come on, and when I fire up the Minolta driver utility on
its own, or from within Photoshop, or use the Easyscan utility, all I get is
an error message saying:
"Could not confirm scanner connection"
If I open the door of the scanner, I can see that the white light inside is
working okay, but that's all. The green light will still not come on.
I tried restarting the Mac, trying different USB sockets, and finally
reinstalling the drivers, but nothing works. I also tried to feed it the neg
carrier, just guiding it in as far as the arrow like normal, but it won't
take it. The manual mentions a similar fault to this in the troubleshooting
section, but the remedy (restarting) does not work. Weird, and very
annoying.
Anybody else have this problem, or do I have a lemon?
I need to know as soon as possible please, so that I can take it back to the
store for an exchange for one that works, as soon as possible next week. I'm
really dreading this though, because I bought it here in Rome, Italy, and
the Italians are really shitty about exchanging goods, and I don't speak
good Italian. There's no customer-protection laws like there are in England
or the States and Italian storekeepers make no attempt to please the
customer.

Thanks,

Adam