Choosing a Scanner

[nedah]

I have a Microtek ScanMaker 4800 connected to my computer via a Belkin USB2 hub. The scanner has its own direct power supply. My OS is XP Home.

I cannot get the scanner to work. It simply freezes my computer. I shall not bore you with the whole sorry tale of trying to get help from Microtek support!!.

A Google search shows that I am not alone in failing to get this particular scanner to operate with XP. Therefore I have decided to cut my losses and invest in a new scanner. However I want to avoid making the same mistake.

My scanning requirements are quite modest. No photographs or complicated graphics. Mainly text documents photocopied or scanned to edit with OCR programme.

Here in UK the price of popular scanners seems to be about £70 which is just about within my budget.

What do you suggest as a good buy?

Thanks for all suggestions.

[ErnieK]

I prefer to stay away from usb scanners because of problems like this.

You will pay a wee bit more but look for a SCSI scanner, this is what I have. They are a bit faster than USB anyway, and IMHO more reliable. When buying there is usually a SCSI card supplied. If not the card can be bought for about £20.00.

If you cannot afford to get a SCSI scanner look for one that has a Paralel Port connection.

[palkot]

If anything, it's the particular model. I have my parent's PC running Win XP home with a Microtek on a USB. I've never had any problems with it, however I'm not sure which model it is.

[david eaton]

Almost any scanner will do what you require. If OCR is the main use, then resolutions (optical) of over 600 DPI would be wasted. I have a HP 5400, which is USB, and the setup was troublefree, and it has never given any trouble at all. Used for scanning photographs, and very old newspaper articles. These were scanned and recognised with very few errors. There are, I think, other HP scanners in the price range you specified, and I would recommend them from experience.

Others will no doubt be along to offer totally contrary opinions, so "yer pays yer money.........."

David

[Paul Komski]

Have been using an el cheapo bottom of the range USB Visioneer Scanner for 18months, with no problems whatsoever on W98/ME/2K and WXP. It does me absolutely fine since I do no fine photo editing etc. If you are using the scanner like little more than a photo-copier then there's no point whatsoever in shelling out big bucks.

Prior to that I had had a high-quality Microtek scanner that connected to a dedicated card; every OS upgrade created problems. Depends what you want your scanner for.

[cyber_surfer]

I use the canon Lide 30 on XP
It does everything I need very well
It is very small and can be stored on its side.
Big on my list is usb powered. One less adapter to have pluged in.
Draws 1 1/4 W at idle and 2 1/2 W in use.
You want to have usb 2.0 on your machine to take full advantage of the scanner

[Budfred]

I currently use an HP multifunction which includes a scanner and it is fine. I have a MicroTek sitting on a box behind me until I figure out what I want to do with it and it worked fine when I used it. Both are USB scanners. Before that I had a Visioneer (parallel port) and it is still working fine for the friend I gave it to. For a while I had a SCSI scanner (forget the brand) and it worked fine. Essentially, I have found each scanner to be more than adequate and especially when it came to scanning text. The OCR software actually makes more difference for converting and using text than the scanner does. I would do a little checking of reviews just to make sure I didn't buy a dog, but I think you will find any scanner you pick up will be fine for text and probably even good for full color photos....

[nedah]

Thanks for all your comments. They will be very helpful when I eventually manage to get into town to see at first hand what is on offer in the computer shops. Thanks again.