10.4.10 broke all HP ScanJet 8200 drivers. What to do?

Question

10.4.10 broke all HP ScanJet 8200 drivers. What to do?

Is anyone able to run an HP ScanJet 8200 on PowerPC
since the 10.4.10 update? It broke the original driver
distributed with the scanner. HP support painstakingly
supervised my removal of all their original driver
software (more than a thousand files) from my system,
and installation of their latest Mac OS X 10.4 driver
from COL15307.dmg off their support site, dated
26 June 2006 (HP Scan Pro 7.1.8). But it couldn't
see the scanner at all (yes, the USB cable was
connected, the USB port works, and the power
was on. Made no difference whether the scanner
was on/connected or not at system startup time.

The COL15307 disk image's software was compiled
for Universal. After using the scanner's built-in
diagnostic to ascertain its health (it works fine),
removal of the Universal software and installing
instead the earlier PowerPC-only driver from
HP's COL4828a.dmg produced identical results
--complete failure even to detect the scanner.
Attempting to import from the scanner with either
Photoshop or Readiris yields the same result too,
and error message saying "an essential piece of
software is missing."

What's missing? What can be done to rescue
this scanner for use with Mac OS X?

WARNING TO ALL! HP tech support doesn't know
and or/doesn't care what to do about this; beware
buying from companies that say they support Mac
but don't really.

Has anyone had good, troublefree experience
with any scanner with Mac to and including 10.4.10?
What scanner(s) might that be?

All suggestions welcome!

PowerMac3,6 Mac OS X (10.4.10) dual processor, SCSI, G4 system

Posted on Jul 15, 2007 1:59 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 15, 2007 2:25 PM in response to David E. Bynum

Did you try VueScan? <http://www.hamrick.com>
It supports the HP ScanJet 8200c

it has a free trial.

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Answer 2

Jul 18, 2007 2:58 PM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

Did you try VueScan? < http://www.hamrick.com >
It supports the HP ScanJet 8200c

it has a free trial.

Good idea. Installed VueScan 8.4.28 for trial, but:

1. No apparent way to get a trail serial number
(key) from the hamrick website, and

2. Run without a serial number, "Prescan" or "Scan"
returns only an error message "The scanner is not ready.
Insert image into scanner." The scanner is a flatbed,
has an original on the glass, and the error message
can't be eliminated by opening/closing the cover
(to prove to the program that an image IS present).

Email to Hamrick raising these two issues hasn't
(yet) been answered. Should I hold my breath?

Are Hamrick's suggestions of good scanners
(Nikon CoolScans, Epsons) better than VueScan
for Apple users?

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Answer 3

Jul 19, 2007 12:17 AM in response to David E. Bynum

1. No apparent way to get a trail serial number
(key) from the hamrick website, and

You don't need a serial number to try it. It will put a watermark on the scan, though, if it does work, until you buy it.

2. Run without a serial number, "Prescan" or "Scan"
returns only an error message "The scanner is not
ready.
Insert image into scanner."

Did you uninstall the original HP software? It may be in control of the scanner, so VueScan can't see it. You may need to reboot after uninstalling the HP software.

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Answer 4

Jul 19, 2007 3:07 PM in response to Malcolm Rayfield

You don't need a serial number to try it. It will
put a watermark on the scan, though, if it does work,
until you buy it.

Useful info, Malcolm; thanks!

Did you uninstall the original HP software? It may be
in control of the scanner, so VueScan can't see it.
You may need to reboot after uninstalling the HP
software.

Yes, indeed, thoroughly cleaned from /System/Library/Extensions, /Library/Preferences,
~/Library/Preferences, /Applications/Adobe Photoshop/\
Plug-Ins/Import-Export, Dock, /Applications, --everywhere
indeed, not a trace of HP software left on the system.

Also have rebooted system and (re)started scanner in all
permutations of sequence. Scanner diagnostic continues
to be perfect, and System Profiler sees the scanner
correctly. but VueScan just insists there is nothing
present on the glass to be scanned.

Looks like VueScan is insisting on use of the HP
multiple-sheet feeder accessory, and unable to operate
the device as a simple one-pass flatbed. Since what I
need to scan immediately for OCR by Readiris is an old
published article of my own in a bound book (hails from
the age of the Selectric typewriter and needs updating),
I couldn't use the multi-sheet feeder if I had it
(which I do not and will not).

Do you, or anyone, know of a current 8" or 9" X 11" or 14"
flatbed scanner that can in fact be operated successfully
under 10.4.10? My last successful scan was for Readiris
on 16 May '07, so I know it is OS X 10.4.10 that broke
the HP drivers.

Reading all the posts about scanners from the past 90
days, it is clear that Apple needs to do some serious
collaborative work with the commercial scanner driver developers, as they have long done for printer
support, if Apple is to retain its preeminence as the
system of choice for graphic arts. They boast of Power
Macs as ideal platforms for Adobe Creative Suite, but
what good is that if scanners don't work? Are they so
mesmerized with their mobile devices that they can no
longer see such problems with their OS?

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Answer 5

Jul 20, 2007 6:25 AM in response to David E. Bynum

It's the scanner maker's drivers that are the problem (especially HP's) not Apple. I have an Agfa SnapScan e42 from 2001 with OSX 10.1 drivers. Agfa dropped out of the consumer scanner market, so there have been no driver updates, but it still works fine in OSX 10.4.10
If software is properly written, operating system updates will not break it.

Try contacting VueScan again for help. The problem might be that VueScan supports the 8200c, but you have the 8200.

You could try SilverFast. They support the HP Scanjet 8200, and have a demo.
<http://www.silverfast.com>

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