I have been trying to get my scanner working - and all that I get when I scan anything is a black screen.....suggestions?

Paint the screen a different colour.

are you going to post a picture?

i'm totally useless with electronic things, so i can't help you, apart from to suggest you turn everything off and then turn it on again.

I assume the lamp is working ?

If so, is it a new scanner just out of the box ? If it is you may find that there's a little plastic dongle on it somewhere that needs to be removed before it'll work.

AsylumUtopia said:

a dongle ? are they really called that?

that's a great word.

AsylumUtopia said:

No Dongle anywhere on the unit - and the lamp comes on and it moves like it should - but the pic comes up black.

Is it plugged in?

TheFrog said:

Yes I was hopping to post a picture.

cocogrille said:

There ya go!

LittlePill said:

Yes it is - and I check to make sure that hardware was recognized -

TheFrog said:

that word definitely makes me laugh.

couldn't believe it was real when i first heard it.

cocogrille said:

Did you install the drivers?

Cloudbuster said:

How do I paint the screen a different colour?

LittlePill said:

oops - I think I hoping.

LittlePill said:

I tried to run as a plug and play - and then to install from disk - but it never seemed to bring up the name of my scanner as a choice.

cocogrille said:

Did you try rebooting?

God I hope 2the9s doesn't see this thread!

LittlePill said:

exactly what i was thinking.

cocogrille said:

With some paint.

LittlePill said:

Yes, I just tryed rebooting - why shouldn't 2the9s see this?

Cloudbuster said:

Some of these people are kinda dense, huh?

cocogrille said:

Did it work?

LittlePill said:

No it is still all black - I even tried to use it as a copier and it is printing a full black sheet also.

cocogrille said:

have you looked through the trouble shooting section of the manual? At this point I'm stumped. I'm thinking there's either something wrong with the scanner or one of the setting needs to be ajusted.

Is it a HP scanner ?

When I first got my HP scanner I couldn't get it to work - I wasn't getting blank scans, but a stupid "An error has occured" type message. I eventually figured out that it was the drivers provided by HP on the accompanying CD - They were arse. So I just went through the install process again and instead of using the drivers on the CD I did a browse and picked up the driver from Windoze. After that it worked.

A few other trouble-shooting questions :

1. I assume you are actually using the correct scanner software to accompany your scanner ?

2. When you've got your scanner software open and you start a scan, do you see the scan feeding onto the screen bit by bit ? If not then I would suggest resetting all your scanner software options to the manufacturers settings and try again.

3. Try a different USB port. My scanner only works in some of my (allegedly identical) USB ports.

4. Did you at any point drop the scanner ? Scanners seem to be very fragile (I'm sure that's by design, so we all break and buy loads of them). If you've dropped it there's a good chance it's fucked - even if the lamp is still working.

And finally :
Yes Frog, it really is called a dongle ! Great word, but crap invention.

4. Did you at any point drop the scanner ? Scanners seem to be very fragile (I'm sure that's by design, so we all break and buy loads of them). If you've dropped it there's a good chance it's fucked - even if the lamp is still working.

And finally :
Yes Frog, it really is called a dongle ! Great word, but crap invention.[/quote]


I bet it is toast - I Have tried everything else and this started after I had moved - so I be the move cause the problem.

Thanks so much.
[This message was edited Fri Jun 18 2:19:33 2004 by cocogrille]

cocogrille said:

I've just noticed that you said in one of your posts "I tried to run as a plug and play - and then to install from disk - but it never seemed to bring up the name of my scanner as a choice."

So does this mean you don't have the software and drivers installed correctly ?
If you've installed a driver for another scanner model because you couldn't find your model listed, then I'd almost guarantee that that's the cause of the problem. Drivers are absolutely specific, and 'similar' ones just won't work. You need the specific driver for your specific make and model of scanner. If it's not on your provided CD (which it probably won't be if it's a stupid HP) then pick it up from windoze which more than likely will work. In fact, I would suggest just using the windoze version even if you do find the manufacturer provided ones. Certainly with HP anyway, their drivers seem to be designed to work perfectly with their hardware, but not with any known software, whereas at least the windoze provided drivers are guaranteed to work with windoze (even if they don't necessarily work with your hardware).

On the other hand, if you've decided that it probably is fucked, then you could take it apart to see how it works ! You might find a loose wire or something, you may even be able to fix the problem. At the very least, you can have some fun destroying it. I took a mouse apart last week (after spilling coffee into it which made it sort of sluggish) and when I opened it up all these little springs and oddly shaped pieces of plastic came flying out all over the place. I have no hope of ever getting all the bits back in the right place, but it was great fun taking it apart!

I have a similar problem with my scanner.
If the image has been scanned he will save this on my computer, but when i try to open it it's just a blank image.

madartista said: