[filmscanners] Re: Scanning Software Quality

["" <HMSDOC@aol.com>]

I am using a Firewire card (two of them, one of which
was supplied with the scanner and one of which was pur
chased separately...both Plug 'n Play and both operati
ng other devices flawlessly including the scanner when
 using Polaroid Insight scanner software).  I switched
 the scanner to the original card that came with it an
d the same thing happened using VueScan (the latest ve
rsion).  Let me be more specific to see if that will h
elp with diagnosis.  When I first download and use Vue
scan it seems to work normally, though a scan does tak
e longer with it as compared to the Polaroid software.
  After doing several other things...ie looking at the
 scanned image in Photoshop and /or closing Vuescan an
d using the Polaroid software to make a comparison sca
n and then retrying Vuescan (this ultimately always se
ems to happen, so I am not really sure if it is relate
d to doing these other things with the computer or not
) I try to use Vuescan and it crashes.  What seems to
most frequently happen is that the scanner will start
to focus (it says focus 0%) at the bottom right of Vue
scan and then it locks.  Nothing happens and all is fr
ozen.  If I try to shut Vuescan down it says that Vues
can is not responding.  Then I try shutting it down wi
th the Task Manager, but it will not close using task
manager either.  Ultimately, the only way to shut it d
own is to turn off the computer...and if I remember co
rrectly I can not do this through Windows either...Win
dows will not shut it down....I have to push the power
 button and hold it in until the whole  system shuts d
own.  I then reboot and it takes some doing to get eit
her Vuescan or Polaroid Insight to recognize the scann
er....I have to pull out the slide holder, shut the sc
anner off, turn it on and sometimes reboot.  Then it a
ll seems to work well, including Vuescan until the sam
e thing occurs again.

I know I can go through the Vue
scan diagnostics using Vuescan.ini (I believe) but I g
et the sense that this is going to take a whole lot of
 time and effort (time is at a great premium) and stil
l lead to not being able to use it without it crashing
 on my current system.   So, a few questions.....

1.
 Does the above description of what happens provide an
y clues as to what the problem is?

2.  I rarely scan
more than an image or two at once, so I could use Vues
can as is...it seems to work fine once or twice if I l
imit myself to just doing a scan and nothing else and
then closing Vuescan down.  I do wonder though if it i
s working 'correctly' in all respects under these circ
umstances, though the scan looks OK.

3. I could conve
rt the scanner to USB and tolerate much longer scans.
 As I recall from when I first tried Vuescan under Fir
ewire about 6 or 8 months ago and gave up for the same
 reasons as now...I believe it was working OK with the
 scanner on a USB connection.

Any ideas from these de
scriptions?

Howard

<<Are you using a firewire card,
on-board firewire, or the controller which
came with t
he scanner?>>

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