Scanner Causing Kernel Panics

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Level 4

1,660 points

Scanner Causing Kernel Panics

I have an old Agfa SnapScan 1212u USB scanner and up until today it has worked fine. Then suddenly it started causing Kernal Panics. It happens about 30% of the time. It scans the first 10% then throws up the Kernel Panic message and I'm forced to restart. I have run the Disk Repair Utility, repaired permissions, reinstalled the Agfa Scanwise driver, deleted all scanner related preferences and disconnected all other USB devices but nothing seems to work. The only software update I've done recently is the August and Java Security updates. Could either of these things be the problem? This is the first time I've had Kernel Panics on my Mac Mini. I doubt it's caused by the ram. It has worked flawlessly since I put in the 1GB module in July.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Cheers
djon

Posted on Oct 5, 2005 11:02 PM

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Answer 1

Nick Holmes

Level 7

30,018 points

Oct 6, 2005 2:45 AM in response to djon

The SnapScan driver and Scanwise software has comptibility problems with later versions of Mac OS X. They were last updated around 2002.

I still have one of those 1212u models and it works quite well with VueScan software.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/7610

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Answer 2

djon Author

Level 4

1,660 points

Oct 6, 2005 1:25 PM in response to Nick Holmes

Nick

Thanks for the VueScan link. I knew there was another alternative to ScanWise but I couldn't remember what it was called. I'll download it and give it a try.

Thanks again
djon

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Answer 3

djon Author

Level 4

1,660 points

Oct 7, 2005 12:47 AM in response to djon

Well, I downloaded Vuescan and set it up but now I have another problem. Vuescan constantly crashes. Sometimes it crashes when I'm changing settings and sometimes is crashes after a scan. I set the memory settings very high so it shouldn't be a memory issue. I've tried just about everything to get this scanner working with Vuescan. I even installed a fresh copy of Panther on my Firewire drive but it only reduced the crashes not eliminate them. I'd like to get Vuescan working because it seems to make better scans than Scanwise did. At least it doesn't cause Kernel Panics. Does anyone have any idea what's going on? I'm beginning to think that it might be a hardware problem with the scanner.

djon

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Answer 4

Oct 7, 2005 5:28 PM in response to djon

I'm beginning to think that it might be a hardware problem with the scanner.

Kernel panics can be caused by either hardware or software. I suppose the same is true of application crashes but that's much more likely to be a software issue. Have you read any of the crash logs? If you open your Console utility (in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder), you can find some logs of the events that lead-up to both the application crashes and kernel panics. While the contents of the logs don't always mean much to the user, they can be very helpful for the software developers. Sometimes something just jumps out at you too!

-Doug

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Answer 5

djon Author

Level 4

1,660 points

Oct 7, 2005 10:22 PM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Doug

I hope it is a software issue but I'm not too sure. I installed a copy of OS 10.3.7 (2 versions earlier than what I'm using) on my Firewire backup drive and Vuescan still crashed but just not as much.

I took a quick look through the system logs and nothing really jumped out at me. I think I'll take a closer look at them tomorrow and see if I can figure anything out.

djon

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Answer 6

Oct 7, 2005 10:26 PM in response to djon

I took a quick look through the system logs and nothing really jumped out at me.

Mac OS X creates quite a few logs. There is a Console.log and a System.log but there should also be a crash log for each application that has crashed. There should also be a separate panic.log which contains information about the kernel panics...

-Doug

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Answer 7

djon Author

Level 4

1,660 points

Oct 9, 2005 4:18 PM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Doug

Well after reading the panic log I think I have figured out what was causing the Kernel Panics with Scanwise. It appears to be the software that came with my Logitech mouse. After uninstalling it the Kernel Panics have stopped. However, it hasn't stopped Vuescan from crashing. Vuescan's crash log doesn't give any indication of why it's crashing. I'll have to do some more experiments to see if I can get it working properly.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction on this. I would never have thought to look in those logs for the answer.

Cheers
djon

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Answer 8

Oct 9, 2005 4:36 PM in response to djon

Great! Thanks letting everyone know of your progress. 🙂

-Doug

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