LaserSoft Imaging

I installed Silverfast SE Plus on my mac OS 10.4 system and it worked like a charm until left idle for a few hours. Now the interface seems completely messed up. The scanner is not found. I had similar problems with minolta dimage software which was why I switched to silverfast. (note: v**s**n works reliably, so I know the hardware is basically working, but silverfast has better features for my needs.) Is this a standard problem? Can anyone suggest a fix?

Please note: there are no other USB devices operating and no other programs running.

Ben

and you are coming straight off the USB port - not through a hub of any kind?

It is coming straight off a native powerbook G4 USB port.

benl,

Do you leave SilverFast open during this idle time or are you closing and re-opening the program? When the scanner is not found by SilverFast is it found by v**s**n without restarting the computer? If it is found by v**s**n are you able to close v**s**n and then open and use SilverFast again?

When it went down, it was left open for a while. After that silverfast crashed and then cannot be used because the program does find the scanner. Instead on startup it puts me into a file dialog which seems to be the default if there is no scanner found. Remarkably though, v**s**n starts up, finds the scanner and scans perfectly normally. After v**s**n is closed, the silverfast program still cannot be used. The silverfast program seems to have the same defect as the Minolta DS standard software (I have the most recent reversion, which is pretty old). Both of the latter two programs seem to have permanently lost the scanner. But v**s**n will find the scanner every time.

Interestingingly, the same problem appears to have happened on a second computer with the same scanner unit. Initially scanning is successful then a lock up then the scanner not found in the minolta and silverfast packages as a permanent issue. It might be the scanner is doing something unexpected, but it is certainly surprising that the v**s**n software can always know what to do.

I think you should complete a LaserSoft technical support request on this one if you have not already.

One difference may be that SF and Minolta are using TWAIN interface. v**s**n does not. Look for the twain, twain32 directories and delete everything including twunk* , twain* etc.

Then restart and see what happens

I found the answer to these problems in a Google user group. The Dimage works perfectly on USB 1 and is eratic on USB 2. I installed an old USB 1 card in my computer and now both SilverFast and the Minolta software works.