Brother DCP 7020 Scanner Driver Problem

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Level 1

10 points

Brother DCP 7020 Scanner Driver Problem

Hi,

Hadn't used the scanner on my Brother DCP 7020 in 6 months and couldn't remember how to do scans. Called Brother Tech Support and they reminded me that the icon for scanning is in the Menu Bar at top of screen. For reasons not clear to me at the time they also suggested I delete the Control Center and scanner drivers and download the latest ones from the Brother site. Alas after I did this when I attempted to install the scanner drivers I got the error message "The chosen volumn contains software newer than the software you are attempting to install." The tech said to ignore the message and press continue so I did. When I continued with the installation process I got the message "There is nothing to install."

The tech asked me to reboot but this did not solve the problem so he mumbled something about it being a Operating System problem and told me a higher level person would call me within 4 hours. You guessed it! nobody every called.

Today I tried reloading the drivers that came with the printer but when the process was complete Control Center was nowhere to be found. I tried calling Brother Tech Support again but they never called back.

Having no idea what the problem might be I tried Repairing Disk Permisions but that did not help. Next I booted from the original OS X disk and tried Repair Disk. The utility ran and said that there were "No repairs needed."

Does anyone have any idea what's going on here and what I can do to fix things?

Thanks,
Winston

After I did this he talked me through the install process

Mac mini 1.25 Ghz, Mac OS X (10.4.2), PPC

Posted on Jun 18, 2008 9:32 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jun 18, 2008 11:48 PM in response to Winston Shaw

Hi Winston,

The reason it said nothing to install on the 1st one is because it checked for the existence of some file(s), normally this would be some brother *.pkg in Library>Receipts, but could be others.

I'd get EasyFind...

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/11706

Search for Files & Folders of brother, with hidden, case insensitive & packages checked.

Might even find the Control Center that way.

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Answer 2

Winston Shaw Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 20, 2008 6:58 AM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

Not sure I follow you. I downloaded the new drivers from the Brother site and when I went to install them I got the error message "nothing to install" or some such thing. Given that the dmg was on my desktop why would the computer not be able to "find" something to install?

I found a thread on this site that said that many folks had printer problems soon after installing the 10.4.11 update and on checking back I found that I haven't used the scanner since I installed 10.4.11. Since the tech guys at Brother mumbled something about it being an operating system problem I am wondering if Apple screwed something up in the 10.4.11 update and is ignoring the problem because of the recent release of 10.5?

Some folks on the other thread said that when they reverted back to 10.4.10 their printer problems went away so I'm wondering if that's what I should do to be able to reinstall the scanner drivers? Or are there worthwhile improvements on the 10.4.11 update that I should not throw away?

Must say that as some one with a technical background (ex race care mechanic) I never cease to be amazed at how Apple, Brother, and other computer companies simply walk away from their problems rather than deal with them. If the folks at Ferrari tried that back when I was in racing old Enzo wouldn't have been too happy. Wonder why ole Bill and Steve don't seem to mind?

All best,
Winston

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jun 20, 2008 11:47 AM in response to Winston Shaw

Given that the dmg was on my desktop why would the computer not be able to "find" something to install?

It's not that it can't find the stuff to install, it's because it thinks it already IS installed.

Unfortunately it may just be looking for one file to determine that, like the pkg I mentioned.

Lets say you can't remember in your steps if you torqued the Head Bolts down... you put the Torque Wrench on one and sure enough, it's torqued properly, sorta what the Installer is doing... we may need to remove every trace of Brother to be sure we can install.

Wonder why ole Bill and Steve don't seem to mind?

Who's gonna stop them!? Never understood myself how Software producers have so many rights, and the user doesn't even get a guarantee that it works! 😟

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Answer 4

Winston Shaw Author

Level 1

10 points

Jun 21, 2008 8:00 AM in response to BDAqua

There is an old saying among race car mechanics that says: "It's not what you know that hurts you, it's what you think you know." This is meant to indicate that when a car pulls into the pits and the driver screams "It's not running right!" it pays to ask some questions before jumping to conclusions as to what's wrong. Apparently - from what you say - my computer is jumping to an incorrect conclusion regarding the status of the Brother scanner drivers due to a file that was not deleted by the Brother tech guy. Thanks for explaining this to me and soon as I get a moment I will download the app you mentioned and see if I can find and delete it.

Thanks,
Winston

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Answer 5

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jun 21, 2008 11:17 AM in response to Winston Shaw

Yeah, that presuming can kill ya!, let us know how it's going! 🙂

PS. It sometimes can be heck trying to find them all, or what it's looking for, as it may not have "brother" in it at all... could be a strang thing like "br1025io.kext" or something.

"It's not running right!"

LOL, sometimes we get "My Mac isn't working right, how do I fix it?"

Sometimes tempted to say "Check System Preferences to see that 'Work Right' is checked", or... Jack up the Radiator cap & drive a new car under it! 😉

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Answer 6

Winston Shaw Author

Level 1

10 points

Jul 8, 2008 4:30 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

Well it took about three weeks for the Brother Tech Support to get back to me regarding the scanner driver problem but I got a call from them today. As you suspected it turned out that there was a file that had to be deleted at MacHD/Library'Receipts/BrotherTWAIN.pkg.

Once I'd deleted this file, downloaded the updated scanner drivers from Brother and installed them all worked well!

Must admit, however, that having to go 3 weeks without my scanner while Tech Support figured things out was a dissapointment...but I guess all's well that ends well.

Thanks again for the help!
Win

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Answer 7

BDAqua

Level 10

250,259 points

Jul 8, 2008 4:39 PM in response to Winston Shaw

Well, good news anyway on it working! 🙂

Yeah, 3 weeks for Brother's "Techs" to find out the fix is incredible!

Thanks for the tip & feedback though.

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Answer 8

Oct 6, 2008 3:12 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

I have installed the drivers for the brother DCP 7020 but I cannot configure it to scan on a network.

The printer is fine through the network, however, when I open the Brother Control Center it asks me to select a device. I choose Network and then I have to type the IP address of my machine, as it says in the manuals.

When I put my IP adress it says there is a network communication error and prompts me back to the Device Selector.

If I choose the option of Specifying my machine by name, it doesn't show any computer on the network when I try to browse my machine.

Is there any special configuration I have to do for the network? Anybody has an idea of what might be the problem?

thnks

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