canoscan lide 500f USB scanner does not work with Snow Leopard-why?

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157 points

canoscan lide 500f USB scanner does not work with Snow Leopard-why?

It has been my impression, ever since USB was introduced as the new solution to universal connectivity, that a Mac - particularly a new Mac - was going to be able to run pretty much use any piece of USB equipment without causing massive connectivity hassles.

My CanoScan Lide 500F USB scanner has always worked great..... that is, until I bought a new Mac Mini with Snow Leopard. Now my scanner is a paperweight.

That's strange, because Canon even offers a version of CanoScan Toolbox for use with Snow Leopard. I downloaded that, and it launches and runs fine...except it won't scan anything. Whenever I try to scan with CanoScan Toolbox, I get the message "unable to open a driver".

I tried Vuescan, and it works great too, but I can't scan anything...it advises me to download a driver from Canon.

When I go to Canon Support driver downloads, it says "no drivers are available for this selection - the OS may not require a driver, or in the case of older operating systems, may no longer be supported".Since Snow leopard is NOT an older OS, it would appear that the latter comment makes no sense, but then again, no drivers are there to be downloaded, either.

The Support site lists just two files available for download: CanoScan Toolbox ver 4.9.3.4, and DelDrv Ver 1.3.2.0.

I downloaded both and even tried running DelDrv just for laughs, but all it does is offer to delete my nonexistent driver - which explains why it generates an endless spinning ball.

It's really strange to see Canon offering "Driver Downloads" software that can delete a driver that doesn't exist and is not available anywhere for download.

I'm beginning to suspect that Canon doesn't want me as a customer any longer. The feeling is mutual!

Mac mini, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 19, 2011 6:02 PM

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Answer 1

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kostby

Level 4

2,940 points

Nov 19, 2011 9:49 PM in response to autochthon

A popular search engine led me to the Canon Europe site.

They still list a driver, ScanGear 11.251, compatible with OS X 10.6 (and earlier) for your scanner:

http://software.canon-europe.com/software/0035086.asp

It's about 7.5Mb and available in several versions, by language, including English.

Your scanner dates from 2007. I know that doesn't seem very old, but in dog years or computer generations, that's approaching ancient. Not making apologies for Canon, but maybe it's time to invest in a new scanner to accompany your new computer. For US$129.99 you could probably prevent several hundred dollars of frustration.

Or buy a nice all-in-one that includes lots of other features.

Message was edited by: kostby

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Answer 2

autochthon Author

Level 2

157 points

Nov 21, 2011 6:13 PM in response to autochthon

Many thanks kostby, I never thought of looking in the Canon Europe site! And you are right re: the age of the scanner...I think I only paid about $80 for this one, and I've so far scanned about 10,000 pages with it. I definitely got my money's worth. I do wonder however why Canon doesn't make this software available on the USA site...or at least provide a link there, to what you found. Again, thanks for taking the time to find this and post it for others' benefit.

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Answer 3

kostby

Level 4

2,940 points

Nov 22, 2011 1:21 AM in response to autochthon

Glad I could be of assistance, and thanks for the acknowledgment. I also wonder why that driver is no longer on the US site, especially since they still have the uninstall tool as you pointed out. Probably an oversight.

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