Brother MFC-9700 scanner

Question

Level 1

4 points

Brother MFC-9700 scanner

I have an older Brother MFC-9700 and I just got a new MBP with 10.8.3 and I cannot get the scanner to work. It works find on my old MBP running 10.5. I have tried both the Apple image scan and the Brother Control Center, and neither one can talk to the priner over USB. I have tried multiple cables, and differnt ports. I've deleted everything related to the device and re-installed multiple time. Spend 2.5 hours on the phone with Brother this morning, and they say it must be something odd with my system and they cannot help me. I've read some posts here about people having the same problem but I didn't see where anyone solved it. Any suggestions as to what I can do are welcome

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Apr 16, 2013 12:05 PM

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Answer 1

Paul_31

Level 6

14,172 points

Apr 16, 2013 12:12 PM in response to LarryMartell

Have you tried resetting the printing system?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1341

And downloading the Brother software from Apple:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL894

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Answer 2

LarryMartell Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 16, 2013 6:13 PM in response to Paul_31

No joy. I had not tried resetting the printing system. I did that, then I went to the other link. The scanning column for my printer does not have a 'S'. I guess that means Apple does not have a scan driver for this. So I went to the Brother site and installed their TWAIN driver (for the 5th time), still can't scan. But Brother says they can scan from this model with 10.8.

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Answer 3

Paul_31

Level 6

14,172 points

Apr 16, 2013 10:51 PM in response to LarryMartell

If all else fails, and it looks like it has, you could download the paid-for VueScan to see if that works. You can use it in demo mode to test it before committing to purchase.

www.hamrick.com

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Answer 4

LarryMartell Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2013 6:11 AM in response to Paul_31

Thanks for the suggestion, but that did not work either. It sees the scanner, and says it's scanning, but nothing happens. Guess I'm going to have to buy a new scanner. And it won't be Brother.

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Answer 5

Paul_31

Level 6

14,172 points

Apr 17, 2013 6:24 AM in response to LarryMartell

You've probably tried all this - before chucking it out of the window, have you tried resetting the Brother to factory defaults and setting up from new.

Also, I saw a thread on here a while ago where someone couldn't get their HP to work. They ended up deleting the HP folder from Macintosh HD>Library>Printers, restarting and connecting the printer anew. On connection the printer discovered it needed software and downloaded directly from Apple support and they were sorted.

Worth a try? You could move the Brother printer folder to the desktop before actually deleting so that you can restore it to the original place if it doesn't solve the problem.

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Answer 6

LarryMartell Author

Level 1

4 points

Apr 17, 2013 6:30 AM in response to Paul_31

Yes, when I was on the phone with Brother tech support they had me try both of those things. They spent 2.5 hours with me, and escalated the call 5 times to the 'top level support' but they were stumpped and gave up. In the end that said it must be something with my machine or OS and they could not help me.

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Answer 7

avic11

Level 1

0 points

Oct 10, 2013 1:11 PM in response to LarryMartell

This might not be related, but the Twain driver was not seeing my Brother MFC9840 on the network for scanning (though I could print). I had downloaded and installed the twain driver from the Brother web site.

After some searching, I found this article on the Brother site: http://goo.gl/8idg6N

I did the following, and after that my Twain driver could see my printer.

: Open Macintosh HD -> Library -> Printers -> Brother -> Utilities -> DeviceSelector.

Select the connection type from this menu item.

-avic

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Answer 8

LarryMartell Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 10, 2013 1:30 PM in response to avic11

Thanks for the reply, but I've long since gotten rid of that printer/scanner and got a new one.

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