scanner software causes lockup

Hi,
I have an Astra 1220P ( serial port) scanner which I am using
on a Dell XPS R450 with Win98. It has the VistaScan software. When I try to click on any part of the program, my computer totally locks up. I have to CntrAltDel to get out of it. I tried to scan in Windows Safe Mode ( I learned about safe mode on this site, thank you !) and it is able to communicate and scan fine. The
printer will not operate in safe mode, though. (works OK in normal mode)
I tried uninstalling and re-installing the VistaScan software via the control panel and it did not help. Still locks up.
One thing I did recently, is to upgrade my video driver to the NVidia 30.82. Could this have anything to do with it? Everything
else seems to work OK, with nice video detail.
Would appreciate any advice.

Thanks!!
mechanic (old)

 

Hi mechanic
How much ram are you running? When you do a fresh boot...do a ctrl/alt/del......and list for us what you have in the close program dialogue box?

Daizy

 

Hi,
When I do CrtAltDel close program I get Explorer,
Realplay, Systray, AOLtray, and right now Alogserv, MdM,
Rnaap, and AOL also.
I tried the approach of CtrlAltDel-ing and turning off everything that was running except for Explorer and Systray.
Trying to run the scanner program still caused the system to
lock up.
I am running 256K RAM, and have a Dell Nvidia Riva TNT2
M64 with 32MB video card.

If nothing else comes to mind, would it be a worthwhile
experiment uninstalling the new video driver and putting back
the old one? It is the only thing I have changed recently, ( although stuff does just seem to happen sometimes for no reason ). It works so well otherwise I hate to mess with it.

Thanks,

 

Hi mechanic
Sorry I didn't get back to your post earlier. Did you try uninstalling the new video driver? Do you have any exclamation marks in the device manager?

Daizy

 

Daizy,

You get an A+++ this time. I uninstalled the new video
driver, and reinstalled the previous version. There now is
no lockup, and the scanner works fine.
While there may have been some error from installation or
in the download, I am wondering if the new driver doesnt like
my primitive parallel port approach to scanning?
Appreciate your feedback. BBS is an excellent site.

Best Regards,
Mechanic

 

Hiya mechanic!
Congratulations on getting it sorted out! I'd like to give you a definitive answer, but I don't have one. It sounds to me like it just plain didn't like the driver it was given. If it worked tickety poo on parallel before....then there's no reason it shouldn't now?

Daizy