Silverfast won't launch on new iMac intell machine.

[brett]

Hi all,

Just bought a new iMac 24" core duo intel machine. After connecting my trusty Nikon LS4000 and installing silverfast, I get the following message:

"There was no scanner found!"

The error message asks me to check the "SF_LogFile" which I did. It wants you to check and see if your scanner is showing up in the "supported scanner" field - it is not!

I know the firewire connection is good because the scanner shows up in the system profiler as being connected. Also, the scanner works fine under Vue Scan, but will not run using Nikon Scan or Silverfast.

After reading several postings it looks like many of you are using the new intel macs with Silverfast, so what do I need to do to get Silverfast to run on my machine.

[brett]

Update to my post.

I found this reference:

http://www.silverfast.com/faq/2001/en.html

It shows how to reset Silverfast's preferences from the startup launcher. Using the step for the Mac there I was able to reset my preferences and now my scanner works using Silverfast.

Yes I'm happy. :lol:

Brett

[brett]

Well here's an update:

I tired installing the 6.5 demo of silverfast ai studio and guess what? It doesn't work.

I've tried uninstalling all silverfast software and resetting the preferences as I noted in my earlier post and nothing works.

I keep getting the message that the "scanner is not found".

Any ideas?

I really want to like this software but I just can't when it has so many problems. Can anyone help?

Other scanning programs work just fine.

Frustrated,
Brett

[Mallen]

You might check this post on this forum not long ago and see if it answers your question:

nikon-scanner-freezes-when-ejecting-film-t4947.html

[brett]

Thanks Mallen,

After reading that thread, I think the answer is beginning to reveal itself: If you have a Nikon LS4000 hooked up to an intel mac running mac os software, you are out of luck. I've spent the last week emailing silverfast technical support and nothing they've suggested has worked.

In fact, they keep asking me to do the same procedural steps over and over again. It's as if they don't want to admit to that this is never going to work.

After doing many google searches, I find that to be the case. Many, many people are having this same problem. The Nikon Maid software for the coolscan LS4000, that Silverfast uses too, just will not run on an intel mac. I think it's high time that Silverfast recognizes and publicly admits this. This would save everyone a lot of time and anguish, not to mention free up a lot of forum space.

I don't know if this problem affects the Nikon LS5000 scanner as well, but I'd hate to spend a $1000 just to find out.

There is a small ray of hope here: You can, using bootcamp, reboot your intel mac and startup using a Windows OS, if you have Windows installed. I have Windows XP pro and I'm able to use Silverfast for windows and successfully run my Nikon LS4000. But then you give up the beautiful Mac OS interface.

For myself, I'm going to drop Silverfast for Nikon all together and just use v**s**n for Mac and do any needed post processing in Lightroom and photoshop. v**s**n always works with all of my scanners (including the LS4000) and I'm tired of dealing with this problem.

[degrub]

Don't blame SF. Nikon is the one that provides the driver level software and they are not updating for the newer OSs. All of us are in the same boat - Vista, OSX on Intel Macs. SF would have to reverse enigneer the drivers to get around it and not use the Nikon libraries which they are contractually obliged to do by Nikon. It stinks, but that seems to be the reality. There has not been an update to the Nkon libraries for several years now and several well known bugs have not been addressed since the release of 4.02 NikonScan in 2004 IIRC.

[brett]

That's an interesting statement degrub. Who should I blame for a $300 program that is now dead to me?

As I said before, why doesn't Lasersoft just say, "Silverfast won't work on an Intel mac connected to a Nikon LS4000"? That would have saved us all a lot of time. That's something I don't have a lot of.

If you've seen my posts in other threads, you know that I've struggled with this program for years. It has always been buggy and never returned the excellent results I've been getting with v**s**n right from the start.

I've really wanted to like Silverfast because I wanted to justify the amount of money and time I've spent with it trying to get it to work correctly. The interface is clunky and not intuitive, the instruction manual has always been a example of how not to translate something from German, even Taz Talley's book while entertaining doesn't fully explore film scanning for silverfast, and don't even get me started on technical support. They have lost my requests for assistance so many times I've lost track. And then when they do respond, they ask me to do the same thing over and over again.

The only real help I've ever gotten is through this forum.

So thank you to all who have responded and degrub, I mean no disrespect to you and I appreciate your response.

But like I said before, I don't have time to try and fix something that's never going to work. Silverfast may be contractually obligated to Nikon, but they also have a contract with their customers who bought their product. It's high time to come clean and admit that silverfast just won't work with and intel mac and the LS4000. Whomever is to blame doesn't matter to me, I'm done with Silverfast for Nikon scanners.

Brett