Raymond A. Chamberlin wrote:
On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 13:53:26 GMT, Ken wrote:


I did a lot of clipping of old text.

What I mean is even if NO software was loaded the lamp would come on.
Once the software is loaded for the control of the lamp, it should turn
off and on the lamp if you follow the procedure I described using WATCH.EXE.


Well, in its present condition, the lamp stays on no matter what.
When the scanner was working right, the light was always ON as long as
power was applied to the scanner. However, I never tried, at that
time, to see what would happen if I double-clicked Watch.exe.

The reason it stays on presently, is the scanner is not recognized and
therefore the software (watch.exe) is unable to control the lamp. Since
the lamp will come one even if the scanner is not connected to the
computer, it will always be on. Remember, to make the lamp go OFF once
the icon exists in the lower right corner of your screen, you must do
the "Right click on it and choose EXIT, YES" routine. It is NOT working
that way now because the software is unable to see the scanner. The
software is loaded by virtue of the icon being present, and there not
having been an error message saying that a file could not be found
during the loading of that program.






The power input at the scanner's main board measures 15 v.

That is correct for the wall wart.


Other reasons could be corrupted software, bad parallel port or cable

from the port, or defective logic in the scanner.





I located two components on the main board that appeared to be power
regulators. I don't know their pinouts, but the only pins that
measured significant voltages other than 15 v showed 3 and 12 v,
respectively.

One of the outside pins (the left one if I recall correctly, but don't
hold me to this) should be the input voltage. In this case, 15v. The
center pin is Ground. The right terminal is the output voltage, 12v.
You might not be placing your common lead of your DVM to true ground
when you measured the center terminal. Sometimes these circuits do not
use the same ground as your computer uses.

The other regulator should work the same way, but the output should be
+5v. (I think) The marking on the regulators should read something
like 9805 and 9812 indicating the +5 and +12 volt output.





See above.




If I were to guess, (and I don't care much for guessing) that is what I
would guess. For what it is worth, you could open up the scanner and
see if you can reach the two regulators. A simple DVM should allow you
to measure their output as they are both three terminal through-hole
components if my memory serves me.


See above.


I agree however, that you are more
likely to find software or the port to be the problem.




Now this would seem to indicate that the software loaded properly
and that all the files necessary were OK.


How would that assure that ALL the files were loaded properly?

If the software were NOT loaded properly, there should have been an
error message saying that a file was not found or could not load.
Nothing is 100%, but that would be the case most of the time.




This is probably due to the fact it cannot see the scanner. It should
have gone out if everything was working.





It stayed on.





Since you do not want to test the parallel port (and I understand why),
removing ALL the software and reloading it is about all you can do.
Remember to delete the directories created by the current installation
so that no file such as the initialization files remain.





This is a little surprising in that I would have thought there would
have been no scanner listed there. Who knows, it might be placed there
even if it was not detected?





That portion of my file reads:

[Watch]
Model=A4S2600_Watch
LampStatus=0
ActiveTime=4923599
GreenTime=20
CoverDriven=1
Timer3=500
ShowStartup=1
HasIcon=1
HasCoverDriven=1
HasStartup=1
HasMustUI=1

[CaseInfo]
SettingSectionName=1200 III EP
DSSectionName=A4S2INFO_600
NewSetting=1
UsePrivateSettingFile=1


This file, in my case, now reads the same as before, except for a
different value of 'ActiveTime'.


Is that a correct setup? If I set 'LamStatus' to '0' and save that,
the lamp still stays on. I have no idea what the other three settings
relate to.

That does not appear to be a complete setting as compared to mine.


Well, I have no idea how to get there from here. But I guess that
would indicate the problem is not hardware in the scanner. I don't
find any file by that name (with or without its extension) on the CD
for my scanner. Is it somehow generated during installation?

The text I posted is NOT a new file, but part of the one you posted.
mtwm.ini I would think much of that segment is not in your file of the
same name due to the scanner not being detected. I simply pasted it to
show you more was needed in that file besides the segment you cited.


Listed below is another significant portion of that file. Notice the
LPT1 setting. My guess you have no such setting?


Where, in my case? As I mentioned, in my case, my BIOS is set to
"Bidirectional", not EPP.

If your setting in CMOS is bidirectional, that should be FINE.
Different computers have different settings and verbiage. It is just
important that it is able to communicate both ways, and either EPP, ECP
or Bidirectional will do that.


[A4S2INFO_600]
Language=English
DSLanguage=English
Brand=Mustek
DSName=1200 III EP
UITitle="Mustek 1200 III EP "
ScanSetting=NMLSPD
Version=V1.0
DriverVer=2.02
F/WVersion=None
Interface=EPP/LPT1
TestMode=0
MemBufSize=256
PreScanDpi=36
PreScanWidth=306
PreScanHeight=414
TAPreScanWidth=216
TAPreScanHeight=252
PreScanFile=MSTC0000.BMP
TAPreScanFile=MSTC0001.BMP
X_OptiMaxRes=600
Y_OptiMaxRes=1200
WtimeTick=60
Bbricon=0
BcolorMatch=0
CMTable=A32PCM.INI
SupportResCount=13
SupportRes=72 100 150 200 300 400 600 900 1200 2400 4800 7200 9600
SupportCustomRes=0
CustomRes=72 9600
ResetRes=300
ResetResIndex=4
TextMaxRes=600
TextMaxResIndex=6
SlideInstall=1
MaxBufSize=672768





When I was working as a technician years ago, we used to say we were
about to call in an Indian to dance with feathers and beads when we
could not figure out the solution. Needless to say we did not do that,
but it is a little frustrating to have tried many things and still not
have succeeded. Rest assured, that the answer is there. You just need
to ask the correct question after having eliminated other potential
problems. It is NOT magic!! Look at it as a challenge.


I'm not really into challenges anymore. I suppose Mustek, either US
or Taiwan, would really laugh if I asked them how to make one of their
scanners bought in 1998 work. ;-) I couldn't find any answers to my
problem on the Web anywhere.

Hell, they would laugh at you right after you bought the scanner. All
they wanted to do with me is sell me a scanner. Two of the shipments
arrived broken and I had one hell of a time getting it straightened out.
There is NO WAY they will help you with this scanner.

Incidentally, after Murphy got loose once and a bottle fell off a
shelf above this scanner and broke its glass, I had the glass replaced
at a glass shop, but the double-sided tape that held it didn't work
very well thereafter, particularly when I would place a heavy book
over the copy in order to keep it flat (the carriage even would hang
up); so I improved that flaky method of securing the glass with four
screwed-down metal clips. That totally did the job. I wonder if they
still use sticky tape for this purpose in Taiwan.

Ray

I sort of enjoy challenges, since I am retired and have time for them.
Even when I was a tech, I always viewed a problem as a puzzle. It was
like a game, in that the problem was hiding and my job was to find it.
True, there is frustration along the way, but it is also rewarding when
you succeed. You also become a LITTLE smarter in the process.

If I were you, I would first go back to your measurements of the
voltage regulators making sure of their values with respect to the
scanner ground. A good place to pick up ground would be on one of the
electrolytic's negative lead. If they measured properly, I would assume
your scanner was OK. Next since it doesn't sound like you will test the
parallel port, I would COMPLETELY remove the software and load it again
making sure the scanner is powered up while doing so. Be sure to delete
the directories created by the current load of the software, because
removal of software sometimes keeps files such as INI files. That might
screw up your next installation.

Finally, I saw your pasting of the install log in another message, but
the install log is probably of little value and hard to decipher. Try
the re-installation of the software as mentioned above.

Ken


Ken