scanner crashes PS

frankg writes …

I have 2 scanners connected via a scsi card to my pc ..
It previews the images ok but suddenly freezes
and crashes PS after starting the scan …
I access these scanners from the PS-file-import menu.
Is the old grey mare just dying and I should toss it
out, or is there a software problem that can be fixed?

I used to have crashes with a scanner accessed via Twain thru Photoshop when I had scanned a couple of large files and I assumed it was a memory allocation issue in that the Photoshop memory allocation wasn’t interfacing properly with the scanner memory requirements … once I stopped scanning via Photoshop and just scanned stand-alone I never had a similar problem and the crashes went away.

So if you have a stand-alone app for this problem scanner you might give that a try. Just a guess …

Bill

From: "frankg"

Any ideas here – I have 2 scanners connected via a scsi card to my pc – the first in the chain is a film scanner – polaroid 120 and that works ok. The second scanner is an old flatbed microtek scanmaker III annd that has been working fine until recently. It previews the images ok but suddenly freezes and crashes PS after starting the scan. And the ‘ready light’ goes out.
I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers and scan software and also the ‘repair’ option re-installion of PS (cs2). I’ve also tried to only have one scanner at a time connected. I access these scanners from the PS>file>import menu. Is the old grey mare just dying and I should toss it out, or is there a software problem that can be fixed?

Hi Frank,

This could be a cable or terminator problems. Try removing the polaroid and using the shortest cable you have, with terminator, and see if you can use the microtek by itself. Then re-add the polaroid scanner and see if the problem appears.
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

"frankg" wrote in
news:Hjy1g.1914$:

Any ideas here – I have 2 scanners connected via a scsi
card to my pc – the first in the chain is a film scanner – polaroid 120 and that works ok. The second scanner is an old flatbed microtek scanmaker III annd that has been
working fine until recently. It previews the images ok but suddenly freezes and crashes PS after starting the scan. And the ‘ready light’ goes out. I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers and scan software and also the
‘repair’ option re-installion of PS (cs2). I’ve also tried to only have one scanner at a time connected. I access
these scanners from the PS>file>import menu. Is the old grey mare just dying and I should toss it out, or is there a software problem that can be fixed?

I will assume that PS means PhotoShop and that you are scanning with TWAIN from within PS.

See "Re: OCR Program?", Oct 18, post from me where I talk a little about TWAIN. You may disagree with some or all I say but I think that if you just scan with your scanner software and only then go to PS, everything will be fine. I could be wrong, of course.

—
thanatoid-Tip

Any ideas here – I have 2 scanners connected via a scsi card to my pc – the first in the chain is a film scanner – polaroid 120 and that works ok. The second scanner is an old flatbed microtek scanmaker III annd that has been working fine until recently. It previews the images ok but suddenly freezes and crashes PS after starting the scan. And the ‘ready light’ goes out.
I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers and scan software and also the ‘repair’ option re-installion of PS (cs2). I’ve also tried to only have one scanner at a time connected. I access these scanners from the PS>file>import menu. Is the old grey mare just dying and I should toss it out, or is there a software problem that can be fixed?
—
Thank you
Frank

Unfortunately, the Scanwizard app for the Scanmaker flatbed scanner isnt standalone, so i cant try it from outside of photoshop.
I did try unchaining the polaroid film scanner (usually 1st in the scsi chain) and connecting only the troublesome Microtek flatbed with a short scsi cable and terminator. No luck, same problem. There is a Scantest utility that comes with the scanner which tests if the scanner is ok – it tested ok, strangely enough.
I also suspected memory allocation problems as when the problem first ocurred, we were able to scan some handwritten pages as line art, but when we wanted to scan a col print, it failed. How oes one fix memory addressing problems ?

"frankg" wrote in message

Any ideas here – I have 2 scanners connected via a scsi card to my pc – the first in the chain is a film scanner – polaroid 120 and that works ok. The second scanner is an old flatbed microtek scanmaker III annd that has been working fine until recently. It previews the images ok but suddenly freezes and crashes PS after starting the scan. And the ‘ready light’ goes out.
I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers and scan software and also the ‘repair’ option re-installion of PS (cs2). I’ve also tried to only have one scanner at a time connected. I access these scanners from the PS>file>import menu. Is the old grey mare just dying and I should toss it out, or is there a software problem that can be fixed?
—
Thank you
Frank

Unfortunately, the Scanwizard app for the Scanmaker flatbed scanner isnt standalone, so i cant try it from outside of photoshop.
I did try unchaining the polaroid film scanner (usually 1st in the scsi chain) and connecting only the troublesome Microtek flatbed with a short scsi cable and terminator. No luck, same problem. There is a Scantest utility that comes with the scanner which tests if the scanner is ok – it tested ok, strangely enough.
I also suspected memory allocation problems as when the problem first ocurred, we were able to scan some handwritten pages as line art, but when we wanted to scan a col print, it failed. How oes one fix memory addressing problems ?

Could be bad memory. As I recall Scanwizard had a stand alone version. you may want to download this from the Microtel support site. < http://www.support.microtek.com/knowledgebase_1/kbdtl.phtml? request=KB-00068&vw=2&kb=STP-00007>

It may be time for an upgrade. I gave away my Microtek some years ago, and bought a 5900 on ebay for a song. It’s faster, higher rez, and does transparencies.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

frankg writes …

I also suspected memory allocation problems as when the problem first ocurred, we were able to scan some handwritten pages as line art, but when we wanted to scan a col print, it failed. How oes one fix memory addressing problems ?

If this is really the issue (and I *think* it is, but could be wrong) all you can really do is minimize the memory used and hope the scan has enough to finish without a conflict. The Photoshop memory allocation works fine with just Photoshop but when using Twain you’re actually using the scanner software indirectly and it appears to me that this software (or at least some programs) doesn’t behave well with Photoshop in managing the memory allocations.

Anyway, to maximize the memory available I’d set my mem allocation in Photoshop as high as I could without getting crashes (I have mine set at 86% and never crash – default is 50%). Close down all other programs. If you’ve been using Photoshop in this session then close it and re-open it before starting to scan. Don’t do anything else (in Photoshop or other programs) while you scan. When the scan is done save it off right away instead of starting a second scan (this is where I would crash with a Nikon LS-8000, after stacking up a couple of 4,000 dpi medium format scans without saving them). You may need to close Photoshop and re-open it after each scan if you’re really short on memory.

If you’re *really* shy on memory you may not be able to scan at the highest rez, if you crash try scanning at lower rez and setting the bottom-left status window to ‘scratch sizes’ to see if there’s a correlation between running out of RAM and crashing. Probably at some lower rez you’ll be able to scan, if it’s a memory issue.

Good luck, this kind of thing is frustrating to deal with …

Bill

Do you mean this scanner ?
http://www.microtekusa.com/sm5900.html

Any ideas here – I have 2 scanners connected via a scsi card to my pc – the first in the chain is a film scanner – polaroid 120 and that works ok. The second scanner is an old flatbed microtek scanmaker III annd that has been working fine until recently. It previews the images ok but suddenly freezes and crashes PS after starting the scan. And the ‘ready light’ goes out.
I’ve tried uninstalling and reinstalling all drivers and scan software and also the ‘repair’ option re-installion of PS (cs2). I’ve also tried to only have one scanner at a time connected. I access these scanners from the PS>file>import menu. Is the old grey mare just dying and I should toss it out, or is there a software problem that can be fixed?
—
Thank you
Frank

Unfortunately, the Scanwizard app for the Scanmaker flatbed scanner isnt standalone, so i cant try it from outside of photoshop.
I did try unchaining the polaroid film scanner (usually 1st in the scsi chain) and connecting only the troublesome Microtek flatbed with a short scsi cable and terminator. No luck, same problem. There is a Scantest utility that comes with the scanner which tests if the scanner is ok – it tested ok, strangely enough.
I also suspected memory allocation problems as when the problem first ocurred, we were able to scan some handwritten pages as line art, but when we wanted to scan a col print, it failed. How oes one fix memory addressing problems ?

Could be bad memory. As I recall Scanwizard had a stand alone version. you may want to download this from the Microtel support site. < http://www.support.microtek.com/knowledgebase_1/kbdtl.phtml? request=KB-00068&vw=2&kb=STP-00007>

It may be time for an upgrade. I gave away my Microtek some years ago, and bought a 5900 on ebay for a song. It’s faster, higher rez, and does transparencies.
—

Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com

"Bill Hilton" wrote in
news::

frankg writes …

I also suspected memory allocation problems as when the
problem first ocurred, we were able to scan some
handwritten pages as line art, but when we wanted to scan a col print, it failed. How oes one fix memory addressing problems ?

If this is really the issue (and I *think* it is, but could be wrong) all you can really do is minimize the memory used and hope the scan has enough to finish without a conflict. The Photoshop memory allocation works fine with just
Photoshop but when using Twain you’re actually using the scanner software indirectly and it appears to me that this software (or at least some programs) doesn’t behave well with Photoshop in managing the memory allocations.

Anyway, to maximize the memory available I’d set my mem
allocation in Photoshop as high as I could without getting crashes (I have mine set at 86% and never crash – default is 50%). Close down all other programs. If you’ve been using Photoshop in this session then close it and re-open it before starting to scan. Don’t do anything else (in Photoshop or other programs) while you scan. When the scan is done save it off right away instead of starting a second scan (this is where I would crash with a Nikon LS-8000,
after stacking up a couple of 4,000 dpi medium format scans without saving them). You may need to close Photoshop and re-open it after each scan if you’re really short on
memory.

If you’re *really* shy on memory you may not be able to
scan at the highest rez, if you crash try scanning at lower rez and setting the bottom-left status window to ‘scratch sizes’ to see if there’s a correlation between running out of RAM and crashing. Probably at some lower rez you’ll be able to scan, if it’s a memory issue.

Good luck, this kind of thing is frustrating to deal with …

Bill

Just me other seven cents…

I personally stopped using PS forever after I did an "undo" in version 4 I think, and the stupid program obediently zoomed back to the previous view. FUCK.

I’ve been using Micrografx Picture Publisher (which had infinite undo/command edit list for years before PS) since then and I am happy as a clam. Of course, I don’t do pre-press for Abrams, but neither do 99.9% other PS users. And MPP never crashes, even with my 64MB of RAM.
Of course, I scan apart, like you suggested above. TWAIN should have never been developed or implemented.

—
thanatoid-Tip

"frankg" wrote in message

Do you mean this scanner ?
http://www.microtekusa.com/sm5900.html

That’s the one – looks like you can get it new for less than I paid at eBay. —
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com