Nikon Scan 4 crashes on 10.5.5

I sorta gave up on Nikon Scan as it hasn't been updated in, what, 3 years? It's still a PPC application.

I've been using Vuescan, and it works quite well. Note it also supports the Digital ICE or whatever, but it's renamed as something else (forget what it's called right now).

I am also driving my Nikon scanner with VueScan.

Nikon has always offered terrible Mac support in NikonScan. When I had an LS-2000, Nikon would not support one of their SCSI scanners under OS X, but VueScan did. You have to invest some time learning your way around VueScan's interface to find out where all the advanced features are and how exactly they work, but it can be just as powerful as NikonScan.

FWIW a few observations on this.

Recently purchased a Nikon 5000ED for use with various Macs but for the short term I'm using it exclusively with a 2.4GHz Intel Core Duo white MacBook running 10.5.6 to scan my Dad's large slide collection.

Nikon Scan 4.0.2 installed OK under 10.5.6. I am finding that it generally works OK for scanning single transparancies with the MA-21 adaptor but it does tend to crash regularly (so far the best I've managed is about two hours without a crash) and it is also prone to occasionally hanging after completing the scan but before displaying the scanned image (this is a weird one because although Nikon Scan hasn't crashed and I can stop and restart the scan the same thing will happen unless I go and adjust the crop slightly!!!). On average I'm crashing at least once every half hour. Not too bothered about it just right now 'cause this is obviously "personal" useage for the time being but I'll need to rethink how I'm going to use this thing professionally cause it is wasting a lot of time.

There is a fair bit of info about the current problems with Nikon Scan on the web (try a Google search for "Nikon Scan 4 Mac OS 10.5" and you'll get a fair number of useful hits.

In summary it's still a PPC application and never been recompiled as a binary or optimised in any way for Intel Macs and OS 10.5.x. The most recent supported configuration is 10.4.11 running on PPC hardware.

The general concensus is that Nikon Scan 4 under 10.5 and/or Intel Macs will NOT work with any of the motorised adaptors.

But my experience does tend to support those who say it does work up to a point under 10.5.6 with Intel Macs albeit with the caveats noted above. I hedged my bets when I read about the problems people were having with Intel Macs and/or 10.5.x and also loaded the Windows version of Nikon Scan onto my Boot Camp partition but so far I haven't felt the need to revert to using the scanner under Windows (but I may need to re-evaluate my position on this when I start to use it for paying work) .

When it works, it works beautifully -- the scans are top notch. There is no doubt IMHO about the quality of the Nikon hardware but their support for their Mac scanning software is truely appalling -- very, very disappointing.

MasaMan wrote:
I couldn't even find a place to set dpi of a scan, or any function like the Digital ICE...I guess I will have to learn and find out those options.

The thing about VueScan is that while it supports Nikon hardware directly, its user interface is genericized since you can drive almost any scanner with it. (This is one reason I like it...I have multiple scanners of different brands, but a single, same VueScan user interface to drive any of them.) This means the options you want probably won't have Nikon names, but names that can be used to describe the option on similar scanners. So Digital ICE won't be called Digital ICE, it will be called by what it actually does on any scanner with the same technology, which is Infrared Cleaning (under the Filter tab).

The scan dpi is displayed on the Input tab when you've set Scan Resolution to Custom, not Auto, and when you've displayed the advanced options (click More). This sounds odd, but it's an attempt by the application designer to keep VueScan easy for simple uses (Auto options) yet powerful enough for pro users (click the More button to see every last obscure feature useful to pros).

I know, it's tough. I've spent years learning and keeping up with VueScan, but I don't regret it given that NikonScan continually lets me down.

Meanwhile, before I invest, I would like to know if the VueScan truly produce the highest quality scans out of the Nikon 5000ED scanner. All I want is to digitize slides for maximum quality for archiving. Do you think the VueScan is up for the professional task?

Yes. VueScan is technically able to provide this quality. But it will take some time to understand how to get all the options to produce the result you like.

However, relative to NikonScan, not all of VueScan features are quite the same. VueScan uses its own algorithms for the infrared cleaning, grain reduction, and color restoration features. It is possible that NikonScan may perform these differently or better using Digital ICE/ROC/GEM.

I've just finished day five. The worst so far. Nikon Scan 4's been hanging and crashing much worse today than the previous four days -- probably the law of averages catching up with me 🙂

I think, on balance, a reasoned summary would be that Nikon Scan 4 isn't compatible with 10.5.6 and Intel Macs. When it works, it works perfectly -- but it's definitely not a viable long term solution since far too much time is wasted recovering from crashes and hangs.

I'll soldier on here until I head home on Thursday but I'm not going to get nearly as much done as I hoped. Once back at base I think I'll be hooking the 5000 ED up to a dual 500MHz G4 desktop we have that runs 9.2 and 10.3.9. I'm going to spend some time timing the 5000ED and Nikon Scan 4 with these two OSs on that machine cause I have a suspicion that it's probably going to run fastest on OS 9. I'll post the results up if anyone's interested.

Really, really, disappointed about this personally. The 5000ED and, in fact, the larger 9000 are sold as Mac compatible in spite of the fact that, in Europe at least, Nikon acknowledge that their bundles software isn't compatible with the latest Mac hardware and OS software and that they have no intention of doing anything about it:

Nikon Europe

<Edited by Moderator>

Another option if you have an older mac.

I had same problem on iMac24. Scan 4 runs, but buggy. I had a old G4 iMac sitting around running 10.4. Set it up as a scanner station with coolscan and epson flat bed. I can be working on files in photoshop on the iMac24 and run scans on the old iMac G4. G4 is slow (around 800 megHz), but I don't think it matters much when scanning. Seems like computer sits and waits for the scanner most of the time.

Just another idea.

tj

I installed it in 10.5.6 in the first place, not 10.5.5

I don't understand why I would need to create a second admin account. I already have one. Wouldn't trying to create a second one mess up my computer? I'm afraid of creating a "second" admin account.

Also, I have all my old discs in storage right now because of moving. I need to learn how to uninstall it without using a 'disk' and they should be able to tell me. I have hopes of it working from reading what you wrote but am worried about this "second admin account".

I get a spinning ball when I try to connect my coolscan 4000 to NS 402 last I tried.

MasaMan wrote:
I've got a reply from Nikon. I followed the instruction and reinstalled the software. Well...it worked!!! I didn't even need to create another admin account as mentioned below.

Here is the instruction from Nikon.


Hello,

Thank you for contacting Nikon Technical Support. Other users seem to be running the application fine under Mac OS 10.5 and so the program may simply need to be reinstalled. To un-install NikonScan you will need to put the CD back into the drive.
When the install program comes up we want to go to the custom install menu and select just the NikonScan program. Now click on install. In the new window there will be a drop-down menu in the upper left - choose un-install from this and then click on the un-install button at the bottom.
When that finishes we can quit out of the install program.

To trash the preferences, we want to click on Go - Home. Now navigate to Library - Preferences and delete any Nikon Scan files located there. Next empty your trash and restart your Mac. Now please reinstall the software and after a reboot try it again and see if that works.

If it does not please uninstall it once again following the same steps and then try creating a new Admin account and installing the software into the new account.


Click on the Apple Menu
Click on System Preferences
Click on the Accounts
Right below Login Options you should see a + and -
To create a new account click on the + sign
Then fill in all the information, including assigning a picture and ensuring it has full Admin rights
Once ever thing is filled out click on one of the existing accounts, this well save the account you just created.
Now we want to log out of your current account and into the new account.

Install the software and give it a shot.

Thank You
Scott


This worked for me running 10.5.6, so it should work for everyone. Make sure to delete ALL the NikonScan or Nikon related prefs files.

No other software or hardware is necessary. That's the way should be. I am very happy now.

Can you tell me if it is ok for the machine to create a second Admin account when I already have one?

Also, is it possible to do this uninstall without a disk? My disks are all in storage because I moved. I usually do these installs from downloaded current updates anyway. So if uninstalling requires a disc I would have to wait a few weeks to have access to my storage. There should be known steps a person can use to get something uninstalled. When I wrote Nikon, they just ignored my question.

rivmo wrote:
I don't understand why I would need to create a second admin account. I already have one.

Note that you are asked to do this only if reinstalling with your normal admin account does not work, so you may or may not need to do this. If it works OK when installed with the second account but not the first, it indicates that your normal account loads something that interferes with the installation, for example an old preference file or login item. It is sometimes easier to create the second account than to chase down the interfering item.

Wouldn't trying to create a second one mess up my computer? I'm afraid of creating a "second" admin account.

You can have many admin accounts if you wish. This will in no way "mess up" your computer.

I've heard silverfast works great with the Nikon 5000 and 9000. I have used silverfast on a polaroid for five years and it is fantastic.