Don't buy a umax scanner

[Kc7mxo]

Damn umax. They do NOT support xp! They have no drivers for my scanner on XP. What kind of lazy @$$ bs is this?

I installed XP about six months ago, but this is the first time I've desired to use my scanner. Its a fricking umax2000P. Damn thing won't install, and umax's webpage says it doesn't support XP. What a crock. The damn soundblaster that came with the first cdrom drive my family ever bought 8 years or so ago STILL works, but this couple year old POS doesn't even run in windows?

Argh!

[Static Universe]

I'm surprised at this. Umax makes fairly good scanners for their price range.

[SirTweek]

Always make sure you check the XP compatibility list on microsoft's site before you buy any new hardware.

As for Umax the bastards should at least provide XP drivers by now.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Why, there definitely are drivers for it, at http://umax1220p.sourceforge.net/ ... well... except that SANE doesn't run on Windows, either .

[Kc7mxo]

It was a great scanner until I upgraded, though kind of slow. What kind of company doesn't upgrade their drivers when new operating systems come out?

[SirTweek]

My mom got XP and had to buy a new CD-RW drive since hers was to old. No drivers for XP and the company response to her email was that she needed to upgrade her drive, and to contact Microsoft Read: Buy a new one. Microsoft just told her that she needed to contact the company for drivers.

[Static Universe]

Here's a possible work around if you don't use the scanner much.

http://www.sysopt.com/userreviews/scanners/reviewhtml/UMAX_Astra_2000P1.html

You are probably wondering why I rate the scanner so high. I guess I am the exception it works great for me. Also, this is the fist scanner I have had, so I have little to compare it, too.
Anyway, listen up folks - it DOES work wiht Windows 2000 and XP. You use the Win98 driver. But here is the trick:

IT CREATES A CONFLICT WITH THE PRINTER. SO, WHEN YOU WANT TO USE THE SCANNER, REBOOT THE COMPUTER IF YOU HAVE PRINTED TO THE PRINTER, AND MAKE SURE YOU DON'T PRINT BEFORE SCANNING.

It's that simple. Well, on XP, I guess because it does periodic hardware checks, if you don't unplug the scanner, you will get periodic crashes that seem to come from nowhere.

But on Win2K, you will only crash if you have already printed during that session (since you booted).

Otherwise, for me it works great. Great color, easy to use. Maybe slow? But it doesn't bother me too much. I look at the benefit I am getting for such a low price. [/

[Provost Harrison]

It seems incredibly lazy, and shockingly bad practice, not to support the new MS operating system, an operating system which it and it's successors will be dominant in the OS market.

Sometimes, I wonder how these cretins get jobs

[Harovan]

UMAX is utter trash. I made your experience a couple of years ago (with another OS, that is) and won't buy any product of this company anymore.

[Asher]

Xerox refused to update a network laster printer we had from them (which was just a bit over a year old at the time) to support Win2K/XP instead of just NT4.0 and 98/Me....

[Provost Harrison]

Why do these companies shoot themselves in the foot? The executives of these companies get paid a kings ransom (in fact, more than most kings ever would have got!) and yet they still have their heads so far up their own arses and can't make a rational decision to save their lives. I tell you, all they seem to do is spout trendy buzzwords, tell other people to do their job better without having a clue what they do, and play f**king golf on company time...

[Urban Ranger]

You can always use a older driver. Most of them do work under XP.

[reds4ever]

i know it's not much of a solution, but i keep a small (5 Gig) Windows 98 partition on my HD, and scan and print using that (i have an unsupported Xerox printer)