Re: filmscanners: Fast, decent, low res scans

[Phil <phil@nonstock.com>]

List,

I thank you all very much for your information and advice.  My last two days
have been painful and difficult, and I think I really understand now what
Art meant when he wrote that "configuring them [SCSI devices] took years off
my life I'm never getting back!"  I pray for USB and Firewire now.  I would
like to obtain a divorce from SCSI forever.

But at the moment I have an Acer Scanwit 2740S which is SCSI, and I want to
do my best to make this situation work.  So, first of all:

**I've confirmed with Acer technical support that the included SCSI card
DOES NOT work in a Mac.**

I am not accusing Acer of malice, but I do strongly believe that if Acer and
the retailers are marketing the 2740S as cross platform and touting the
included SCSI card as part of the deal, then information should be available
somewhere, even if somewhere buried very deep down, that this SCSI card
won't work in a Mac.  Mac users may be a minority of their target market,
but I'm certain I'm not the only Mac user out there interested in this
particular Acer scanner!  I wasted many hours struggling with that Acer SCSI
card, and malice or not, that was a lot of frustration and high blood
pressure!  I don't want to hold a grudge though- just communicate to us,
Acer!  That's only fair, please communicate.

> There is no need to buy an expensive UltraSCSI PCI card for use with a
> scanner.  Try the Adaptec 2906 for under $50.  Works great for me with my
> Minolta Scan Dual on both my old PowerBase 180 and on my newer G4/500.

Thank you Dean Shough, Pat Perez, Collin Ong and others for you advice on
SCSI cards.  I've obtained a cheaper Adaptec 2906 SCSI card and installed it
in my Mac.  Then I went back to the drawing board and tried installing the
Acer drivers and firing this scanner up to make some fast, decent, low res
scans!!!

I struggled and struggled and struggled for hours.  I reinstalled the SCSI
card drivers.  I moved the SCSI card to another machine, re-installed the
Acer software, still I couldn't make a scan and got nothing but scary error
messages on my screen.

I called back Acer technical support.  THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ
THIS!!!!!

**ACER TOLD ME THAT THE ACER DRIVERS FOR THE 2740S ARE DEFECTIVE AND DO NOT
WORK, CANNOT BE MADE TO WORK, AND THAT ACER DOES NOT CURRENTLY HAVE A FIX,
PATCH OR REPLACEMENT DRIVER.**

I'm serious about this!

Note: the Acer 2720, which is PC only, is known to work and has great
reviews!  (The 2740S is supposed to be the Acer 2720 + ICE + cross
platform).

So the question is: does anyone on this list have an Acer 2740S WORKING on
either a Mac or a PC?  According to the technical support person at Acer,
the 2740S cannot be used with the included Acer drivers, which are
DEFECTIVE.  "Our engineers are working on it" is what the Acer man told me
when I asked him when a working Acer driver would be released.  He suggested
using Vuescan, but when I asked him if he would help me install Vuescan and
get it working with the Acer scanner, he said he cannot, as he is not
familiar with Vuescan.

Now: I KNOW it's not malice or disrespect on the part of Acer, AND I don't
want to be angry or upset- I just want this scanner to work!!!  BUT I think
that Acer really needs to get its act together.

The admission on the part of Acer technical team that the Acer 2740S cannot
work with its own faulty Acer drivers was such a clear cut case of
"defective product" that the retailer I purchased the scanner from actually
gave me an RMA (a code that authorizes the scanner to be returned to them, I
get a refund) with just a short argument over the phone.  Neither Acer nor
the retailers have a leg to stand on here.  The Acer drivers are defective,
and so the scanner cannot be made to work on either platform with these
defective Acer drivers.

I don't want to blast Acer, that's not the point of this e-mail, but please
please please, if you are someone considering the 2740S for purchase, you
may be in for a wild ride, regardless of what platform you're on.  It's not
even a question of the PC-only SCSI card, but of the Acer drivers, which are
faulty and defective (they told me themselves).  It seems that Vuescan is
the only game in town right now, for the Acer.  So:

Can anyone offer me some help on getting this scanner to work with Vuescan?
I've got gray hairs and ulcers now but I've kept my sense of humor,
especially with Arthur Entlich's Z.E.N. philosophies.  I'll offer you warm
thanks and I'll praise you on the list and I'll praise you in this office
here and I'll praise your name all over the streets of New York City (I can
leave out that last bit if you like).

If I can get the 2740S to WORK with Vuescan then I WON'T have to return the
scanner and I can hopefully regain some measure of credibility over here at
work- people have seem me blow all my circuits here these past two days!
It's humorous and sad too.

Phil
phil@nonstock.com