Bad Scanner Warning - Any Good Ones?

[Deano!]

I haven't been able to post anything here for a few months almost because my old fairly reliable Canonscan died.

So I bought a HP Scanjet G3010 yesterday and its the most unreliable thing I've owned for years. So far, I've managed to get a small corner of an A4 sheet scanned. It stops working halfway through a scan and locks up my computer (also a newish HP which is a great machine). The computer USB ports work on everything else. I even tried installing it on my laptop and its the same story. The software claims everything is fine and the USB ports recognize it as a HP scanner etc but it keeps shitting itself. Load of junk.

Anyway, that's my bad luck but I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for particularly good reliable brands/models of flatbed manual scanners? My old Canoscan took about 30 seconds to scan an A4 sheet at 180 dpi by the time the picture came up for saving. Are they making faster ones yet?

Thanks for any advice and I hope this isn't an old thread being flogged to death - but I did a quick search and couldn't find anything.

[Xxphd]

Here in Holland mainly Epson and Canon scanners have good consumer's reviews really. Especially the Epson Perfection V200 Photo is a very populair machine. Other, more expensive options could be the Canon CanoScan 8800F and Epson Perfection V500 Photo. No HP scanners present in the top five..

[Deano!]

Ahh thank you for the advice. It seems that its not just me that has trouble with HP scanners then. I will investigate the Epson Perfection models.

[Name-Hunter]

Wait.
Before you junk your HP make sure that you are running the latest version of the driver and application software made for your Scanjet G3010.

Here is the page:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=1849438&taskId=135&prodTypeId=15179&prodSeriesId=1849437&submit.y=9&submit.x=9&lang=en&cc=us

Make sure you choose your OS first.

I am no apologist for HP.
I currently have an Epson 3490 and it works fine.

The reason to confirm if its a driver or software issue is this:
Hardware may be in the inventory chain for a long time before the unit is sold.
Long enough for the software to be out of date by the time of the sale.
This is very common!
The best strategy when installing any new application software or hardware is to go to the vendors site and download the latest version for your particular operating system before you intend using it.

[Deano!]

Thanks for the advice Name-Hunter, but I tried the driver update. I agree its best to go straight to the maker's site and get the latest software. I've got an Epson scanner coming in the next week and getting the HP to work might just be a project for rainy days.

[AEKara]

I've had an Epson 1250 for years, still good enough for me. As mabaline says it can be used directly from Photoshop. I used to sell them but I left retail 4 years ago so I don't know much about recent models.

[glamourfan]

I currently have an Epson 3490 and it works fine.

Another happy Epson 3490 user here. Scans negatives/slides as well as prints and if you want to know what the results are like, every photo I've put up on this forum so far has been scanned with it so there's an easy way to find out. ;)

[ripchord]

What's all this HP bashing? I've used a see through HP Scanjet 4670 since 2004 or so and it's been really reliable. It does get confused once in a while and the software is a bit clunky, but the upside of being able to lay the scanner flat on a page and look through it to make sure its straight, and that you have the edges square (important if you're going to weld a few scans together) far outweighs the clunkiness and the odd lockup. And I've probably scanned hundreds of mags, so its been used quite a bit. No real complaints.

Cheers, Rip

[Oudezijds]

Over the years I have owned a large number of HP printers, scanners, and combos, pc's square wave and test signal generators, waveform and vector monitors which were oft times treated mules. Superb performance, high reliability, fair cost. I don't have the model you are talking about. Particular to scanners I have had numerous driver problems which had to be resolved before I could get satisfaction from the product. Once fixed they run and run.

You could be a dunderhead. What I mean is that AHA! moment when you realize you have been skipping over the one note in the instructions that would solve your issue. I hate it when it happens, but confess. I know you put your pants on one leg at a time. This has happened to you hasn't it.

I would have expected your issues to be with a product like Canon. Most Canon productsI have tried have been clunkers. Usually they are the product given away with the computer as a come on. Their products always seemed cheesy to me (especially their crappy cameras and lenses). They seem to have a race to the bottom strategy with price. Mentally I extrapolate that low cost products ...

Anyway good luck with your problem. Another scanner/poster is always welcome online.

- Oudezijds van de Wallen

[Leprechaun]

Epson Perfection 1650.

Older model but good scan quality. They bargain it away at Ebay regularly. Driver package on the Epson website seems to be up-to-date - I still use XP Pro but I reckon that the latest Perfection drivers are also compatible to Vista.

[sunairco]

The older Epson 1640 series is the workhorse of the archive and documentations industry. Probably the only older scanner that's refurbished. After consulting with Kodak's professional color management division, the company I work for bought many Epson photo 4990 scanners. The V5000 is nearly the same scanner in a different looking case. Very rugged and built for volume use

[Gryffon]

I have a HP colour scanner on the HP1522 laser multifunction printer I brought to replace an ageing non networkable Brother all in one, I wish I hadn't bothered. The Brother scanned very good images allbeit in B&W only.

The HP has been nothing but trouble and although it is supposedly a colour scanner if I try to scan in colour it creates a rainbow with the image in the background. I have tried everything to get HP to deal with it but they have not resolved the issue despite them having the thing back on two occasions and numerous hours on the telephone with dozens of e-mails. They point blank refused to replace it or refund my money as did Mac Warehouse (Part of Dixons Currys group). Personally I wouldn't give HP another penny of my money or rely on them to resolve any issues you have with anything they manufacture.

Good job my Xerox 2400 does a superb job, despite being 6 years old.

[Sid ney]

Whip out the HP software - if you're on XP, windows should be capable of doing a basic scantest. At least you'll get a better idea of whether the fault's in the device itself. You could also try a demo of Vuescan (http://www.hamrick.com/). Less bloat. But costs maybe $30 or so.

(P.S. My HP scanjet 4850 has been brilliant.)

[beutelwolf]

I am using an A3 printer/scanner, BROTHER MFC-J5910DW. I really only wanted an A3 scanner, but none of my local shops had one, and the on-line ones had often bad reviews.

It's a bit over-engineered for what I'm using it for, but I am quite happy with the thing - as you can see from my increased posting rate in the last few months. Cost me £250 when I bought it; since then this has become more widely available, and prices have gone down to £200.