Basic Scanner Troubleshooting Tips
Troubleshooting a scanner can be tough, particularly if you aren’t familiar with computers and technology. Fortunately, at Large Document Solutions we are here to help out our customers, along with any large format scanner or plotter enthusiasts!
Apart from issues with obvious causes – “I accidentally dumped my scanner in a lake, why won’t it turn on?”, “Why can’t I scan my bowling ball?”, etc. - there are a number of seemingly complex issues which we’ve come across which have surprisingly simple solutions. Here are a handful of the experiences which we’ve recently encountered which may or may not help you in your day-to-day scanning:
How are you feeding the document into the device?
Are you running any programs which might be interfering with the scanning software?
If you’d like to share a simple solution you’ve discovered for an issue with your large format scanner, feel free to send the Large Document Solutions team an email at info@largedocuments.com
Go Back Apart from issues with obvious causes – “I accidentally dumped my scanner in a lake, why won’t it turn on?”, “Why can’t I scan my bowling ball?”, etc. - there are a number of seemingly complex issues which we’ve come across which have surprisingly simple solutions. Here are a handful of the experiences which we’ve recently encountered which may or may not help you in your day-to-day scanning:
How are you feeding the document into the device?
- We recently helped out a customer who was having issues calibrating his Colortrac SC36 – when he inserted the calibration sheet into the scanner, he explained, it would only scan part of the paper. After doing some investigating, we were able to determine that he was inserting the calibration sheet into the SC36 width-wise instead of length-wise. Rotating the calibration sheet 90 degrees solved all of his issues.
Are you running any programs which might be interfering with the scanning software?
- Another customer we recently spoke to was having a rather perplexing issue – when scanning, most of the files which she attempted to save were securely stored on her computer without any issues. For some strange reason, however, PDF files would always cause the scanning software to crash. After turning off the customer’s antivirus software, the PDF files were successfully saved to the computer without a hitch. It’s important to note that, while antivirus software is one of the most common culprits, many different types of software can conflict with other software. One example is that the Scanning Master 21+ software which we provide for our Graphtec devices is not able to recognize a scanner if the accompanying Scanning Adjustment software is running at the same time. To be safe, close out all unnecessary applications while scanning to ensure maximum output and security.
- While we don’t have any specific anecdotes to share, this is another common issue which tends to pop up from time to time. Whether a scanner is flashing unfamiliar lights on the front face, or failing to be recognized by the connected computer, checking to make sure that all of the connected cables are securely fastened into their respective sockets can be a surprisingly simple fix to a seemingly unresolvable issue.
If you’d like to share a simple solution you’ve discovered for an issue with your large format scanner, feel free to send the Large Document Solutions team an email at info@largedocuments.com