[filmscanners] [OT] VuescanX, Mac OS X, Canon N1240U, and burning CDs

["Alan Harper" <list@alanharper.com>]

I am posting the following with the hope that it will spare somebody else
the frustration that I have been going thru. I realize that the Canon
N1240U is a low-end scanner that is probably not used much by people on
this list, at least for photo scanning.

>Experiences Canon N1240U, Vuescan, and burning CDRs under Mac OS X.
>
>I have had similar experiences on two Macintoshes running Mac OS X 10.1.4,
>each with built-in disk burners, using Vuescan and a Canon N1240U.
>
>Note--I only tracked this down on one computer, and have not verified the
>sequence of experiences on the other, and I have only one Canon N1240U,
>so it might be a sample defect on the scanner.
>
>Usually, but not always, when I launch VueScanX 7.5.26 (also 7.5.25), it
>will hang if the Canon scanner is plugged into the USB port. Sometimes it
>succeeds in launching, and occassionally it recognizes the Canon scanner
>after launching (usually not). But usually it just gives the pizza cursor
>and hangs at the splash screen. If it hangs, you need to push command-
>option-escape TWICE to quit the program.
>
>If Vuescan hangs in this way, you cannot burn CDRs until you (a) unplug
>the scanner (and if passed thru a USB hub, also the hub from the
>computer), and (b) reboot. It appears that somehow Vuescan + the scanner
>cause the USB on the computer to hang in such a way as to interfere with
>the CD burner! The symptoms of "not being able to burn" are that when
>BURN is selected, two error messages pop up:
>
>1) "This disk needs to be prepared for burning. Do you want to prepare
>this disk?" With space for selecting a name and a formatting style.
>
>2) Under the above an error dialog titled "Burn Disc" which says
>"Verifying "<disk name>" The operation cannog be completed because one or
>more required items cannot be found. (Error code -35)" Sometimes the
>error code is 6, not -35.
>
>I may have been able to get this error to go away by installing the Canon
>software, booting into OS9, scanning under Mac OS 9, and then booting
>into OS X before launching VuescanX. I have not fully tested this situation.
>
>Note also that VuescanX does not recognize the Canon scanner if Classic
>is running when it is launched. You need to quit Classic in order to scan
>on the Canon N1240U using VuescanX. (If you launch Classic with
>extensions off, then VuescanX does recognize the scanner, leading me to
>believe that the OS 9 USB drivers are interfering with VuescanX's
>recognition of the scanner).
>
>[For non-mac geeks: OS 9 is the "old" Mac OS, OS X is the new OS based on
>Unix, and Classic is OS 9 running simultaneously with OS X.]
>

I have been thinking of switching to Windows--I can't imagine that it is
worse than this. (This is one of about 5 similar problems I am having due
to flakey software and strange interactions between Mac OS X and Classic.)

Now you can resume your discussion about what dynamic range is normal for
photographs.

Alan

[PS--Sorry if this was posted twice. I'm confused about the listserve rules]

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