Can't use old Acer flatbed scanner

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pimpom
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Pimpom

I have a very occasional need for a scanner, so I dug up an old
Acer ScanPrisa 640P parallel port model. By all accounts, this
model never came with a driver for Windows XP. All searches for
an XP driver pointed to the software MiraScan, with a few
mentioning a separate inf file, namely EPP2K.inf. I downloaded
both and tried it out with an old 32-bit Athlon XP machine that
has a parallel port, running WinXP SP2. It worked, though it was
a bit temperamental.

Next, I connected it to my newer PC, also Win XP SP2, which has a
new but untested PCI-Parallel port card. The card driver
installed without a hitch and shows up as LPT3. When tested with
a DMP, the port works flawlessly, but refuses to detect the
scanner.

Adding new hardware using the EPP2K.inf file makes it show in
Device Manager as "Color FlatbedScanner". Properties show it as
an EPPSCANNER connected to LPT3, but the status is always
"Unavailable".

To sum up: The scanner works with a computer that has an
integrated parallel port. It doesn't work with a PCI-LPT card.
The PCI-LPT card works with a DMP. Can anyone help please?
 
Pimpom said:
I have a very occasional need for a scanner, so I dug up an old
Acer ScanPrisa 640P parallel port model. By all accounts, this
model never came with a driver for Windows XP. All searches for
an XP driver pointed to the software MiraScan, with a few
mentioning a separate inf file, namely EPP2K.inf. I downloaded
both and tried it out with an old 32-bit Athlon XP machine that
has a parallel port, running WinXP SP2. It worked, though it was
a bit temperamental.

Next, I connected it to my newer PC, also Win XP SP2, which has a
new but untested PCI-Parallel port card. The card driver
installed without a hitch and shows up as LPT3. When tested with
a DMP, the port works flawlessly, but refuses to detect the
scanner.

Adding new hardware using the EPP2K.inf file makes it show in
Device Manager as "Color FlatbedScanner". Properties show it as
an EPPSCANNER connected to LPT3, but the status is always
"Unavailable".

To sum up: The scanner works with a computer that has an
integrated parallel port. It doesn't work with a PCI-LPT card.
The PCI-LPT card works with a DMP. Can anyone help please?
Click to expand...

Maybe the driver is insistent it be on LPT1 ?

The document here doesn't suggest it is necessary, but it's all
I can think of.

http://www.lavalink.com/dev/fileadmin/manuals/parallel_pci_manual.pdf

Maybe the higher level software, doesn't like it if the hardware
is moved to another parallel port ?

Paul
 
Pimpom said:
I have a very occasional need for a scanner, so I dug up an old Acer
ScanPrisa 640P parallel port model. By all accounts, this model never came
with a driver for Windows XP. All searches for an XP driver pointed to the
software MiraScan, with a few mentioning a separate inf file, namely
EPP2K.inf. I downloaded both and tried it out with an old 32-bit Athlon XP
machine that has a parallel port, running WinXP SP2. It worked, though it
was a bit temperamental.

Next, I connected it to my newer PC, also Win XP SP2, which has a new but
untested PCI-Parallel port card. The card driver installed without a hitch
and shows up as LPT3. When tested with a DMP, the port works flawlessly,
but refuses to detect the scanner.

Adding new hardware using the EPP2K.inf file makes it show in Device
Manager as "Color FlatbedScanner". Properties show it as an EPPSCANNER
connected to LPT3, but the status is always "Unavailable".

To sum up: The scanner works with a computer that has an integrated
parallel port. It doesn't work with a PCI-LPT card. The PCI-LPT card works
with a DMP. Can anyone help please?
Click to expand...


I've found that with older hardware, Win2k drivers typically work in XP
If you cannot find a win2k driver I'd not bother with the device
 
I have a very occasional need for a scanner, so I dug up an old
Acer ScanPrisa 640P parallel port model. By all accounts, this
model never came with a driver for Windows XP. All searches for
an XP driver pointed to the software MiraScan, with a few
mentioning a separate inf file, namely EPP2K.inf. I downloaded
both and tried it out with an old 32-bit Athlon XP machine that
has a parallel port, running WinXP SP2. It worked, though it was
a bit temperamental.

Next, I connected it to my newer PC, also Win XP SP2, which has a
new but untested PCI-Parallel port card. The card driver
installed without a hitch and shows up as LPT3. When tested with
a DMP, the port works flawlessly, but refuses to detect the
scanner.

Adding new hardware using the EPP2K.inf file makes it show in
Device Manager as "Color FlatbedScanner". Properties show it as
an EPPSCANNER connected to LPT3, but the status is always
"Unavailable".

To sum up: The scanner works with a computer that has an
integrated parallel port. It doesn't work with a PCI-LPT card.
The PCI-LPT card works with a DMP. Can anyone help please?
Click to expand...
Is there a way to change the mode of the pci-parallel port card?
Standard parallel ports built-in to motherboards can usually be
set to 'Output only', 'Bi-directional', 'EPP' and 'ECP' modes
in the BIOS.
For a scanner, 'output only' would fail to work and sometimes
you have to try each of the other 3 modes before things start
working.

HTH,
 
Pimpom said:
To sum up: The scanner works with a computer that has an
integrated parallel port. It doesn't work with a PCI-LPT card.
The PCI-LPT card works with a DMP. Can anyone help please?
Click to expand...

Point your browser to a local Craigslist to search for FREE or cheap newer
scanner. That's it! you have a new working scanner for either free or
$5-20
 
Pimpom said:
I have a very occasional need for a scanner, so I dug up an old
Acer ScanPrisa 640P parallel port model.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that it is parallel port?
Or does it jst look like that?
HP domestic scanners were actually SCSI on a D25 port, but they had
their own plugin AT scsi card. AFAIK all proprietary.
 
terryc said:
Are you sure that it is parallel port?
Or does it jst look like that?
HP domestic scanners were actually SCSI on a D25 port, but they had
their own plugin AT scsi card. AFAIK all proprietary.
Click to expand...

I agree with you that most if not all older generation scanners usually
are SCSI scanner, and I have never heard of Parralell scanner.
 
Joel said:
I agree with you that most if not all older generation scanners
usually
are SCSI scanner, and I have never heard of Parralell scanner.
Click to expand...

Maybe there's some SCSI emulation involved, I don't know. But, as
I said in my opening post, it works with my older computer's
parallel port.

The mobo of that computer is a Biostar M7NCG 400 using an nVidia
nForce2 chipset and, AFAIK, a standard parallel (LPT) port.
 
Pimpom said:
Maybe there's some SCSI emulation involved, I don't know. But, as
I said in my opening post, it works with my older computer's
parallel port.

The mobo of that computer is a Biostar M7NCG 400 using an nVidia
nForce2 chipset and, AFAIK, a standard parallel (LPT) port.
Click to expand...

If it works with other system then it's possible that it's Parallel
scanner which I never have to know much about it. I started with SCSI then
later with USB.

Also, you say it doesn't work but you don't give much or any detail why it
doesn't work. In general, in order to get the scanner to be recognized it
will need the minimum requirement.

1. I assume that the power and connection (Parallel connection) is working.

2. NOW, you will need the TWAIN driver for it.

After the TWAIN driver installed, the system should detect it.

3. Then you will need a scanner program, or graphic program with TWAIN
scanner supported (even some word processors support scanner too) then you
should have a working scanner.

And as I have mentioned earlier, scanner is dirt cheap these days which
you can almost get it for free. Some multi-fuctions Inkjet/Laser printers
have built-in scanner, and USB should be lot faster than Parallel.
 
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