Scan Multi Diagnosis?

[Duncwarw]

Hi All,

I hope this is an approriate place to post this question.
I have a Minolta Scan Multi film scanner and it has developed a problem.

Though I can scan a 6 X 7 slide, only a narrow band of perhaps 1/8" displays good color. The rest of the frame is dark.

Sony has now gotten this end of the product line from Minolta (thank the gods) and their repair center says $181 to fix whatever's wrong. I suspect the lamp and I's bet the lamp is a lot less than 180 bucks.

Any guidance much appreciated.

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Are you talking about a Minolta Multi Scan Pro?

I have one. No problems so far. If you're getting at least some section of good scan, the lamp may be fine. I am not a repair tech. Make sure your scan area frame is set right. Try scanning a 35mm slide. $200 to fix a $3K unit is not bad these days.

[Duncwarw]

Thanks Jeffrey,

It's the original Scan Multi but the same basic design as the Pro.
I'll try a 35mm scan and see what happens but I'm not hopeful.

Though $180 probably isn't a bad deal overall, if the lamp is the problem
I don't have to send it away for a week and can fix it in seconds once I have the part in hand. The lamps used to sell for under 30 bucks as well.

I suppose if they'll fix anything for the 180, there's not much harm done if I end up tinkering with it.

[Ed Richards]

> I suppose if they'll fix anything for the 180, there's not much harm done if I end up tinkering with it.

Do not count on it. If you mess up anything, expect the repair bill to get more interesting.

[Hiro]

Did you try uninstalling/reinstalling the driver? It may not be that simple and didn't work for me, but that's what the Sony/KoniMino tech support told me to do when my low-end DiMage Scan Dual IV started misbehaving.

As a likely cause of my problem, a friend of mine suggested the "processing circuit." A/D converter, among other things, is as important as the sensor and optics in scanning, so something gone wrong there could ruin your scans (and your day).

My scanner wasn't worth sending in, so it just sits on a side table.

[Duncwarw]

Thanks Hiro.

I'll try it.
I took the thing apart and cleaned it a few times. The results are pretty much the same. Your suggestion makes sense as in Vuescan, I get the results I mentioned in my first post. In Minolta's "Dimage Scan" the images are almost white with nearly no visible colors at all.

Sorry for the delay in responding. For some reason, I got no notification email.

Thanks again, I'll post my results.

Fingers crossed!

[Duncwarw]

Hiro you're a star!

Thanks for the memory jogger. Though the Minolta software (not surprisingly) still doesn't work after uninstall/reinstall, Vuescan does.

Oddly, now Dimage Scan produces black scans now instead of the nearly white from before. Also, I managed to tear the thing apart and give it a good cleaning.

As an aside, Minolta was the absolute worst company I ever sought support from.
At one point, about two years after they released the Scan Multi, the manager of the digital department at Minolta HQ tried to tell me they didn't make the scanner and nobody there had ever heard of it.

Thanks again, I hope this helps somebody else.