Microtek i800 Scanner for color slides

[Rick Turkel]

I bought the title scanner to convert some 2000 travel slides to digital format. I succeeded in scanning the first 5 carousels (about 440 slides) with no problems. I turned both the scanner and the computer off for a day because I knew I wouldn't have time to work on it. When I turned the machines back on and tried to continue scanning, it got as far as the first slide scanned when the computer emitted an ominous beep accompanied by an error pop-up which contained the word "Error," a red circle containing a white "X," and a box saying "OK;" no info on what the error was or what caused it. The glitch must have occurred before the scan was saved, because it didn't show up anywhere on my computer. Any further attempts failed even to even get that far. I uninstalled the software and then reinstalled it 4 times, with no change in the scanner's behavior.

Anyone have any experience with this problem?

[BrianShaw]

I haven' seen that exact problem but mine has sat idle more than its been used because of software (I think) problems. Recently reloaded software but this time from Microtek site not the disk and having better luck. I still think it is slightly out of focus, though.

[Rick Turkel]

Thanks for the quick reply, Brian. I visited the Microtek website, but with limited success. As you probably know, the company has gone out of business, but I saw some software there that seemed like it might work. However, when I tried to run it on my computer, Windows gave me a security warning that the author was "Unknown" and the digital signature was missing, so I never ran it. Another issue was that the software on the website was older than that on the disk that came with the scanner - and that was from 2007! My software doesn't have drivers for XP, although it did work for >400 slides. Did you notice anything newer than 2007 with drivers for XP?

Rick

[Oren Grad]

AFAIK they haven't gone out of business, but they certainly have scaled their US sales and support operation way back.

Have you checked this page for whatever updated drivers you want to try?

http://support.microtek.com/product_...ml?prod_id=139

FWIW, my i800 worked under XP and continued to work when I transferred it to a Vista machine in 2009 and downloaded the appropriate drivers for it. I had a lot of trouble with it early on under XP - Microtek ultimately replaced my first one under warranty - but it's been more or less OK in very limited use over the last couple of years.

Afraid I've never tried scanning slides with it.

[Rick Turkel]

Thanks for the quick reply, Oren. The page you cited looks very good. I'm in the middle of something else right now, but I'm going to check it out as soon as I get done.

Rick

[Rick Turkel]

Oren,

I read through that website and followed all the instructions. Unfortunately, when I uninstalled (for the fifth and sixth times ), the same problem reappeared - the scanner appears to be functioning properly, but just as the first scan is completing I get that same ominous beep and a Mictrotek ScanWizard 5 error box with nothing more than a red circle containing a white "x." Might you have any further suggestions?

[BrianShaw]

Have you tried ScanWizard Pro? I've found that to be more complex than ScanWizrd5 but more reliable.

[al olson]

Have you tried ScanWizard Pro? I've found that to be more complex than ScanWizrd5 but more reliable.

Brian is right, I found ScanWizard5 unreliable as well. I made the mistake of installing both of them and then ignorantly selecting ScanWizard5 to perform the scans. When I wised up, it worked better (not great, but better) with ScanWizard Pro.

This dog has a lot of problems (I sold off a good Epson 4870 to get the 8x10 capability and the fictitious dMax) some of which cause artifacts to be stored in your settings files. Tech support was never great either.

[Oren Grad]

Of the Microtek software I've only ever used ScanWizard Pro, so I'm afraid I don't have anything I can suggest about troubleshooting the non-Pro version.

[Preston]

The following procedure may help:

Uninstall all versions of Scanwizard using the Microteck 'uninstall' routine.
Search for and delete a folder named "Microtek". This folder should be in the root of your primary drive, e.g. C:\ (Do not delete any other Microtek folders, subfolders or files)
Restart your computer
Access the Microtek downloads for Scanwizard Pro Version 7.132 and Color Management System Version 2.32 appropriate for your operating system
Turn off any antivirus software
Download these two files to your desktop.
Unplug your scanner from your computer!
Close any programs that may be running
Install the Scanwizard Pro driver.
Restart your computer
Install Color Management System Version 2.32
Attach your scanner to your computer
Restart your computer
Enable your AV software.
Try making a scan.

I used this procedure to install Scanwizard and it worked nicely. I hope it works for you, Rick.

--P