NEED HELP PLEASE - (LONG)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ron Reseigh
  • Start date Start date
R

Ron Reseigh

Greetings all,

I have a most bizarre scanner issue that I'm hoping someone can help with
and/or has had the same problem.

For the last two years I have owned a Lexmark 1150 All-in-one
scanner/printer/copier, etc. It scanned absolutely flawlessly. About 4 days
ago I went out and bought a new Lexmark P4350 A-I-O, and noticed immediately
that the scanning of images gave me a very weird horizontal line
interference on only dark areas of the images. I tried Polaroids, 4x6 matte
prints, glossy prints, etc.....they all did the same thing. HOWEVER....(this
is where it start to get good) when I would do a direct "copy" of the same
photo I was trying to scan to the PC direct from the printer...it would
print out just fine. No interference in those dark spots....nothing. Nice
and clear. When I would scan to the PC, the bright areas of a photo were
110%. it was just the dark areas and anything damn near black - you would
see this clear as day.

Here is where it REALLY gets interesting...! Thinking this was a "defective"
unit, I took it back, and decided not even to give it a second chance. I
returned the unit and bought an HP PSC 1610v (all-in-one) Bought it this
Weds., and immediately took it out of the box, plugged it in, installed
everything...blah blah blah....went to scan..............SAME THING. Went to
print a "direct copy"......SAME THING....it would print a direct "copy"
absolutely flawlessly...but when you tried to scan it to a PC...you get
those lines.

I have narrowed this down to a couple of things (no help from Lexmark or HP
mind you). It can't be a cable issue because I have used this cable for my
ORIGINAL Lexmark 1150 - and I just plugged it in 20 minutes ago - and
Shizzam!...it scanned PERFECTLY. So I know it's not a cable issue. I even
tried plugging both new units into different power sources away from power
strips, mass cords, etc....still did it.

To wrap it all up, I could see if this happened to "one" unit....but the
fact that it happened to TWO - let alone two DIFFERENT brands...this has
thrown me for a loop. I'm very computer literate, have built my own systems,
am an audio enthusiast, and amateur photographer and I have never seen
anything like this before. Why would my original Lexmark 1150 STILL scan
just fine - and yet the NEW printers...plugged in the very same way - in the
same spot - give me that interference.

Enclosed are two attached photos of exactly what I'm talking about. Perhaps
someone has dealt with this scenario before, or knows what I'm talking about
by looking at these photos....! HELP! I need to get a start on my family's
huge photo album (more like archive/monstrosity) and would like to get a
huge start on it before our baby comes in July.

Cheers,
Ron
 
Ron said:
Greetings all,

I have a most bizarre scanner issue that I'm hoping someone can help with
and/or has had the same problem.

For the last two years I have owned a Lexmark 1150 All-in-one
scanner/printer/copier, etc. It scanned absolutely flawlessly. About 4 days
ago I went out and bought a new Lexmark P4350 A-I-O, and noticed immediately
that the scanning of images gave me a very weird horizontal line
interference on only dark areas of the images. I tried Polaroids, 4x6 matte
prints, glossy prints, etc.....they all did the same thing. HOWEVER....(this
is where it start to get good) when I would do a direct "copy" of the same
photo I was trying to scan to the PC direct from the printer...it would
print out just fine. No interference in those dark spots....nothing. Nice
and clear. When I would scan to the PC, the bright areas of a photo were
110%. it was just the dark areas and anything damn near black - you would
see this clear as day.

Here is where it REALLY gets interesting...! Thinking this was a "defective"
unit, I took it back, and decided not even to give it a second chance. I
returned the unit and bought an HP PSC 1610v (all-in-one) Bought it this
Weds., and immediately took it out of the box, plugged it in, installed
everything...blah blah blah....went to scan..............SAME THING. Went to
print a "direct copy"......SAME THING....it would print a direct "copy"
absolutely flawlessly...but when you tried to scan it to a PC...you get
those lines.

I have narrowed this down to a couple of things (no help from Lexmark or HP
mind you). It can't be a cable issue because I have used this cable for my
ORIGINAL Lexmark 1150 - and I just plugged it in 20 minutes ago - and
Shizzam!...it scanned PERFECTLY. So I know it's not a cable issue. I even
tried plugging both new units into different power sources away from power
strips, mass cords, etc....still did it.

To wrap it all up, I could see if this happened to "one" unit....but the
fact that it happened to TWO - let alone two DIFFERENT brands...this has
thrown me for a loop. I'm very computer literate, have built my own systems,
am an audio enthusiast, and amateur photographer and I have never seen
anything like this before. Why would my original Lexmark 1150 STILL scan
just fine - and yet the NEW printers...plugged in the very same way - in the
same spot - give me that interference.

Enclosed are two attached photos of exactly what I'm talking about. Perhaps
someone has dealt with this scenario before, or knows what I'm talking about
by looking at these photos....! HELP! I need to get a start on my family's
huge photo album (more like archive/monstrosity) and would like to get a
huge start on it before our baby comes in July.

Cheers,
Ron
Click to expand...

Hi...

Post a *link* to sample scans. One of a good one, and one of a
flawed one. Both untouched, that is to say no post scan tweaking.

Take care.

Ken
 
Ron Reseigh said:
Greetings all,

I have a most bizarre scanner issue that I'm hoping someone can help with
and/or has had the same problem.

For the last two years I have owned a Lexmark 1150 All-in-one
scanner/printer/copier, etc. It scanned absolutely flawlessly. About 4
days ago I went out and bought a new Lexmark P4350 A-I-O, and noticed
immediately that the scanning of images gave me a very weird horizontal
line interference on only dark areas of the images. I tried Polaroids, 4x6
matte prints, glossy prints, etc.....they all did the same thing.
HOWEVER....(this is where it start to get good) when I would do a direct
"copy" of the same photo I was trying to scan to the PC direct from the
printer...it would print out just fine. No interference in those dark
spots....nothing. Nice and clear. When I would scan to the PC, the bright
areas of a photo were 110%. it was just the dark areas and anything damn
near black - you would see this clear as day.

Here is where it REALLY gets interesting...! Thinking this was a
"defective" unit, I took it back, and decided not even to give it a second
chance. I returned the unit and bought an HP PSC 1610v (all-in-one) Bought
it this Weds., and immediately took it out of the box, plugged it in,
installed everything...blah blah blah....went to scan..............SAME
THING. Went to print a "direct copy"......SAME THING....it would print a
direct "copy" absolutely flawlessly...but when you tried to scan it to a
PC...you get those lines.

I have narrowed this down to a couple of things (no help from Lexmark or
HP mind you). It can't be a cable issue because I have used this cable for
my ORIGINAL Lexmark 1150 - and I just plugged it in 20 minutes ago - and
Shizzam!...it scanned PERFECTLY. So I know it's not a cable issue. I even
tried plugging both new units into different power sources away from power
strips, mass cords, etc....still did it.

To wrap it all up, I could see if this happened to "one" unit....but the
fact that it happened to TWO - let alone two DIFFERENT brands...this has
thrown me for a loop. I'm very computer literate, have built my own
systems, am an audio enthusiast, and amateur photographer and I have never
seen anything like this before. Why would my original Lexmark 1150 STILL
scan just fine - and yet the NEW printers...plugged in the very same way -
in the same spot - give me that interference.

Enclosed are two attached photos of exactly what I'm talking about.
Perhaps someone has dealt with this scenario before, or knows what I'm
talking about by looking at these photos....! HELP! I need to get a start
on my family's huge photo album (more like archive/monstrosity) and would
like to get a huge start on it before our baby comes in July.

Cheers,
Ron
Click to expand...

The first thing I would try, is uninstall of the old scanner software.

My next thought is that you must clean up your computer of the left over
software from the old scanner.

Now, exactly how you do that is very complicated. You may have to work in
the registry and that is very dangerous for a novice.

There is registry cleaning software and there may be software removal tools
from Lexmark.
 
I tried that actually...I did the registry cleaning that Lexmark gave me for
*both* models...and it still does this. I'm almost beginning to wonder if
quite possibly, my original Lexmark 1150 was just simply built better, and
didn't require as much "high expectations" from the USB port as these two
new ones did/does, therefore giving that interference-like appearance when
the new units are connected. Does
that make any sense?

Cheers,
R~
 
Ron Reseigh said:
I tried that actually...I did the registry cleaning that Lexmark gave me
for
*both* models...and it still does this. I'm almost beginning to wonder if
quite possibly, my original Lexmark 1150 was just simply built better, and
didn't require as much "high expectations" from the USB port as these two
new ones did/does, therefore giving that interference-like appearance when
the new units are connected. Does
that make any sense?

Cheers,
R~
Click to expand...


Have you tried just have one connected?

What kind of power supply do the new scanners have?
Do they have the "brick" that plugs into the wall?
Or do they have a power cord from the wall?

If they have a "brick" maybe the power supply is too small (not enough
current).

I did see the posted links in alt.comp.periphs.scanner, I could not tell
what the lines were for sure.

The lines do look like some interference is happening. But another thing I
noticed about the scan, your scan is way too dark, you need some
adjustments.
 
Your problem may be the cable you are using is USB 1 and the new
devices are USB 2 and your computer is USB 2. I had the same problem
before I changed my USB 1 cable for a USB 2. I didn't think there was
any difference but there is, the cables are labled as being USB 2.0.

I think your old Lexmark is USB 1, that is why it works with the cable
you have.
 
Ron said:
I tried that actually...I did the registry cleaning that Lexmark gave me for
*both* models...and it still does this. I'm almost beginning to wonder if
quite possibly, my original Lexmark 1150 was just simply built better, and
didn't require as much "high expectations" from the USB port as these two
new ones did/does, therefore giving that interference-like appearance when
the new units are connected. Does
that make any sense?

Cheers,
R~
Click to expand...

Hi Ron...

Don't know Lexmark at all, so take what I say with a grain of salt,
please... just a little food for thought.

Wondering if your new scanner is scanning at a much higher resolution,
requiring more memory and/or resources, and causing your machine to
resort to using the swap file at regular intervals. A quick test
might be to scan again, listening for (unexpected) disk activity.
Or alternately to try a scan with the new machine at the same
resolution as the older one. It's not possible that you're running
95/98/me with more than 768 megs in it?

And one more idea, that I've been guilty of. New hardware, can't
wait to try it, so putting it place physically in a not so "proper"
position, perhaps on the edge of the desk, or on top of something else.
Scanners shake a bit, wondering if it might be causing the missed
line.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Take care.

Ken
 
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