LaserSoft Imaging

SilverFast Ai will not work on my new PC. When I click the Prescan button, the scanner starts a scan, but then everything goes dead for several minutes. Finally I get an error message saying "An error occurred at the start of the scanning process. Cannot calibrate scanner". From then on the scanner will not work. Device Manager shows the scanner is not operating correctly. After powering the PC off and on, the scanner is OK again.

The new PC has Windows XP Pro (old was Win 98SE) and Photoshop CS (old was 7.0).
The scanner is a Microtek ArtixScan 1800f using a Firewire connection and the latest version of ScanWizard Pro (6.13).
ScanWizard Pro works fine. So does the Scanner Test.

Things that have not worked are:
Loading the latest version of SilverFast Ai (6.2.3r3)
Changing the mode from reflective to transparency
Making sure Prescan Draft is not checked.
Uninstalling and reinstalling the scanner.
I'd be grateful for any ideas on how to solve this problem. After repeated failures, I'm ready to trash SilverFast.

Dear Bobfin

please don't haste to the trash can so fast...

SilverFast 6.2.3 has been tested to work fine with Win XP Pro SP2, Photoshop CS and that scanner of yours.

You want to contact LaserSoft Imaging support staff: http://www.silverfast.com/problemreport/en.html
I would appreciate if you could paste a fresh copy of the SF_Logfile in the problem report.

On a Windows XP system the SF_Logfile is placed within /Documents and Settings/(your username)/Application Data/LaserSoft Imaging.
If you haven't yet changed the standard setting of the Windows Explorer you won't see any folder "Application Data". You then want to open the folder options dialogue (from "Extras" the menu) and go to the "View" tab. There you can enable the Explorer to show you hidden and system files and folders as well as displaying the contents of system folders.

On older operating systems like Windows 98/ME or Mac OS 9 you will most probably find the SF_Logfile within the the program folder of Adobe Photoshop /Plugins/Import-Export/(SilverFast).

You could of course also you the search function of your system to find the "SF_Logfile". Please make sure that you will be shown hidden and system files. The SF_Logfile is always created anew when SilverFast is started up, even if no scanner can be found, it will be created.

Simply open it with your text editor (double clicking the SF_Logfile) and select all the text (Win: CTRL+A; Mac: CMD+A). Then copy the selection to the clipboard (CTRL+C / CMD+C).
Go back to the problem report and click inside the text field. Move the text cursor to the end of your problem description and insert the SF_Logfile from the clipboard (CTRL+V / CMD+V).

Thanks in advance for your co-operation.

Kind regards
Sonny Noack
- technical support, LSI AG -