SCANNER MATTER

         This week I promised someone in a business deal that I would scan some documents and send them by email.   Well, did I ever get a big surprise.

        On my old computer I did scanning, With the new laptop I set up the printer and assumed the scanner went with the printer as it did on the old computer. Well, big surprise . When I went to scan the documents , I didn't have a scanner set up. I  knew  that I had to download something but what. I called my neighbor and he happened to be 500 miles away driving through the Kicking Horse pass.

       Well what do I do? Well, it has to be one of my kids. I'll have to call my daughter. Time at my daughters is one hour ahead of mine. I phoned my daughter and she had already gone to bed! So I told her what my problem was and probably shed a few tears so she said give me ten minutes and I'll send a zoom number and we'll split the screen.

    Well after spending time checking to see what was what, She started looking for an appropriate app to down load. 

       After an hour and a half when said download was done she asked me if I needed help with scanning. I said, "Would you mind ?" At that time I was about done. Then she sensed that I would need help in sending the scans.

      So an hour and a half after I got her out of bed, I had a scanner and my documents were sent.

     So a few months ago I bought a laptop and started using windows 11. It's had some challenges.

     I did learn a few things working with my daughter the other night. I also want to thank her very.   much. I hope I don't get her out of bed again to help me.

THAT PRINTER AGAIN

      Looking back I can see that I've written at least six posts about my printer not working. Well, I shouldn't accuse the printer of not working. Mostly it was the operator who didn't know what he was doing. 

     This time it's the scanner. I've never used the scanner very much . It always seemed like a guessing game to get the scanner to work. Brother has very poor directions as to how to use things. This last while, I knew the scanner wasn't working. Brother directed me to  program to install new drivers.

     Now I'm pretty scary when it comes to downloads and installation. I admit that I don't know what I'm doing. So we'll download this. I'm not sure if this downloaded or not ! Well , hell, I'll down load it again. There doesn't seem to be any good information for Dummies. 

    Well after trying everything I know my scanner isn't working. It worked one evening and then it died again.

    So I'm going to have to ask Mr Brother again for some advice. 

    While I've been doing all this messing around , I've learned a few things, if only I could remember what I've learned. 

My Conversation With a Scanner

       I have many slides and photos which I have been thinking about scanning. I've really only been thinking about it. You know, "It would be nice to scan them."

       My friend Mitch has a scanner and he offered it to me to scan my slides. Now Mitch bought the scanner a few years ago and never used it. He said I could figure out how to use it and tell him what to do.

     Well, first with the scanner you have to load the program and drivers from a disk. So click icon the scanner icon and we should be in business. You guessed it. I got messages that the camera couldn't be found. I uninstalled and installed again and nothing happened. I looked for help on the Internet. It sounded pretty bleak. 

The miserable beast!

    Well, my number one plan when dealing with stress...leave it for a while.

    A few days ago I was looking in the "all programs" on the left of the computer screen and I saw "image scan tool". I thought, "What is this? Could it be the scanner?" So click and yes the page came up that gave me the scanner and processing the slides. Wow! What blundering luck!

    I scanned one photo and the thing went dead. Several more attempts and the scanner dies. Aha, this thing needs more power so I unplugged the web cam. Now the scanner stays on and I can follow the page the find out what to do.

     There's a manual, but it tells very little . Once I discovered some things by trial and error , I went back to the manual and things made sense. The manual doesn't help as far as instructions are concerned.

    I scanned some slides . The product was terrible. I would not keep anything so poor. So I still have more to do. I have to find out how the calibration of the image tool works.

    So I've been having a rather poor conversation with a scanner. I've learned some things. I think one has to buy a much better quality scanner if you want acceptable results.

    How have you found scanners? Frustrating? Awesome?