re: scanning problem

[Alam]

I have an IBM flatbed scanner and a canon printer. When I use the scanner it takes up all the processing and I am disabled from doing anything else.

I have a mid range Pentium processor with over 300Mb of RAM.
The set up I have at present is I think called "daisy chaining".

My Centronics printer cabling is attached to scanner and then scanner to computer using Lpt1 port.

Why is this happening?
I should be able to do other things whilst it is scanning?
Please help?

[mjc]

What are you trying to scan (text/photos)?

What do you have running in the background while scanning?

What scanning software are you using?

The amount of memory you have won't have an impact on how many CPU cycles the scanner uses, so some additional specs would be helpful.



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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Alam]

This happens for both text/graphical

Computer is PII 350MHZ

Software used with scanner is Pagis but which came with the scanner.
I have also used alternative utilities like MS PhotoDraw.

[mjc]

A 350 CPU is much more limited as to how many things it can handle at once, so if you have nothing running in the background (this includes virus scanners)and scanning a document takes all the CPU cycles then you can either keep looking for a software package that is compatible with your scanner that has less overhead, live with a single task environment while scanning, or try scanning at a lower resolution. Ideally you should be able to do more than just scan, look to see if your software has a "background scanning" feature (it will take longer to scan but use less of the cycles). Also, if it is chained like you say then you won't be able to scan directly to the printer because you can only use oine or the other at a time.

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Adam Pintar]

How much ram do you have in the system? If lower then 64mb add an other stick of 128mb.

If you are trying to do high quality scans with limited amount of memory the your computer will seem like it cant multitask is because its been overworked.

Lower the resolution to its lowest and keep raising it until either computer multitasks or you are happy with the quality of the scan.


I presntly have a radeon video card PIII 733mhz with 384 mb ram with an Umax scanner and when I put up the resolution I cant multitask.