Scanning Problems

Most problems are easily solved, and some of the most common questions and their recommended solutions are listed below.

Symptom:  After following the installation instructions, my computer cannot find the scanner.

Cause 1:   Some aspect of your computer system does not support USB.

Solution 1:  Download and execute the file USBREADY.EXE at http://www.usb.org/home to determine the level of your computer’s USB support.

Cause 2:  USB is not enabled in your BIOS settings.

Solution 2:  Enable the USB controller in your BIOS settings. This is typically done by pressing a key5 (usually <del>, <F1> or <F10>) during startup. In the BIOS Settings screen that appears, find the option for USB and enable it. Exit and Save the changes you made. Your computer is rebooted automatically.  Please consult your computer vendor before attempting to do this change.

Cause 3: The USB controller was improperly installed on your computer.

Solution 3: To reinstall the USB controller, click on the Start button, choose Settings and select Control Panel. In the window that opens, double- click on the Add New Hardware icon. Carefully follow the instructions that appear on your screen.

Symptom:   The scanned image looks grainy on the screen.

Cause: Your video mode is not set to show more than 256 colors.

Solution: We recommend that you set your video mode to 16 bits per pixel (65536 colors) or higher. Please consult your video card, computer or Windows documentation to change the video mode.

Symptom:  The scanner scans very slow.

Cause 1:  You are running other applications in the background.

Solution1:  Close all the other applications that are running in the background.

Cause 2: You are scanning at a high resolution (DPI).Please consult your computer manual on how to modify your BIOS/CMOS settings.

Solution 2: Reduce the resolution.

Symptom: The scanner is not in the list of supported scanners in other commercial software.

Solution: Select TWAIN as the scanner.

Symptom:  Unable to scan from other software other than the one that came with the scanner.

Solution:  Enter the Scanner Setup within the program, Select TWAIN and you will see your scanner listed (e.g., Plustek USB Scanner).

Symptom:  Unable to save to a floppy diskette.

Cause 1:  The floppy disk might be write protected.

Solution 1:  Move the write protection tab, located in the back of the diskette, to the closed position.

Cause 2:  Your disk might not be formatted.

Solution 2: Format the diskette.

Cause 3:  There is not enough space available in the disk to save the document.

Solution 3:  Delete any files that you do not need from the floppy disk.

Cause 4:  You might be scanning your document at a high resolution. Documents scanned using higher resolution modes will take a considerable amount of disk space.

Solution 4: Reduce the resolution

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Symptom: The image looks good in the software that came with the scanner but it does not look good when I export the image to another program.

Cause: Different imaging programs use different Monitor Gamma settings.

Solution: Change the Monitor Gamma settings in either of the programs so that they match.  Please consult the help files for each program to find out how to adjust the Monitor Gamma.

Symptom: The image looks good in the screen but is very dark when printed.

Cause1: The Monitor Gamma Settings or the scanner brightness settings are not set properly.

Solution 1: 

1)  Change the Monitor Gamma to a value between 1.0 and 1.5.Please consult your help file for information on how to adjust the Monitor Gamma.

2)  Adjust the brightness control in the TWAIN window before scanning.

Cause2: The printer brightness setting is not set properly.

Solution 2: Adjust the brightness in the printer.  Some printers allow you to change the brightness settings.  Please consult your printer documentation.

Symptom: The scanned image takes too long to be sent with an email message.

Cause1: The image was scanned at a high resolution or is physically large.

Solution1:  Scan at a lower resolution (DPI)

Cause 2:  The Internet might be congested.

Solution 2:  Try sending the message at a later time.

Symptom: The image that I sent through email looks good in my computer but it looks dark in the recipient computer.

Solution: The Monitor gamma settings should be approximately the same in your and the recipient computer.

Symptom: There is a grinding or rattling noise at the beginning of each scan.

Cause: The scanner engages the gears and it initializes itself before scanning.

Solution: This noise is normal to the operation of the scanner.

Symptom: A. -Disk is full- error is displayed when I click on the scan button.

Cause: Your computer is running low in resources. Your computer hard disk drive does not have enough space to process the image. This may be because you are scanning at too high of a resolution.

Solution: Obtain a larger hard disk or rescan at a lower resolution.

Symptom: A -Disk I/O error- message is displayed.

Cause 1: This error is caused if the hard disk drive does not have enough space available to process the image.

Solution 1:  Make some space available in the hard disk drive by deleting any programs or files that you do not need.

Cause 2: Your hard disk drive might be heavily fragmented or it might contain some bad sectors.

Solution 2: Run the Scan Disk utility that came with your Windows computer.Please consult your computer documentation or the Windows help files on how to run the Scan Disk Utility.

Symptom: The error “Scanner not Found” that is displayed.

Cause 1:  The USB cables are not connected properly.

Solution 1: Ma ke sure that the cables are connected tightly and to the proper port.