I'm not sure where the LS-2000 gets the version information but could you
"fool" the scanner into thinking that 1.2 is really 1.4 and has a newer date
than the faulty 1.3 version?

try poking around the firmware file with a binary/hex editor or even a text
editor and see if you can see a date/version number...

There are several shareware programs at www.download.com that will edit hex
(hexidecimal) and binary files.

Best of luck,
Mark