Scanner drops off the radar

[Gordon]

A friend of mine asked for my help, and so far I struck out. He has a scanner on a USB port, and all is fine until he prints (the printer is on LPT1), then the scanner is "lost" to the computer and he has to reboot to get it back. He has had this problem with three scanner models now, so it is not likely a problem with the scanner installation. He is running Win98SE and has two USB ports on his 3 year old HP computer with a Celeron processor. The only USB device he runs is the scanner. Anyone ever see this problem before? Any ideas? It would seem to be some sort of resource conflict with the printer, but I didn't think USB devices had that problem.

[muckshifter]

Update your drivers to the latest available version. Always check for updated drivers before installing new hardware. Rule of Thumb: The drivers in the box with the new device are obsolete.However ...From the very moment Microsoft introduced Windows98 SE (Second Edition), problems with the Operating System were apparent. The update that was touted as the cure-all for USB initially created more problems than it fixed. Shut Down maladies, new USB headaches and driver incompatibility issues topped a long list of new and unique difficulties for end-users and technicians alike.Some dam good info can be had here ...http://www.usbman.com/win98seusbguide.htmHappy hunting. Mucks

[Stryder]

Good call muck!!!The only other thing I would add to do is instead of rebooting is to just unplug the USB cable from the PC and plug it back in. It should recognize it then. Still a pain, I know....but at least it is not a full reboot. I had the same problem with an old scanner of mine and that trick always worked. It was like that for almost 6 months until they released a new driver that solved the problem.