I recently bought an HP Deskjet 6940 series PRINTER that uses a USB port.  I have an HP Scanjet 5100C SCANNER (purchased in 1999)  that used to be connected through the OLD printer, using a Parallel Port.  I went to the HP website and they had me download and install new drivers for the scanner.  My question is this:  Is there a special cord I need to use from the scanner directly to the computer?  I tried using one of the cords (that was used before to hook up the printer/scanner/computer)  and it shut down the computer repeatedly.  On reboot, the message was to check disk, which I did.  There was page after page of "gobbledegook"  and several reboots, before it was done.  I have NO idea what that was all about.  After unplugging the scanner, the disk checks stopped.    Thank you for your help.  Novice here.
Carol    

Go to this link for information on your HP scanner. They will sell you the correct cable or do a Google search and you will find many other places to purchase one.
This will also give you setup and troubleshooting information.

http://welcome.hp.com/country/us/en/support.html

Just put in the name of your product in the search box and mark the support and troubleshooting entry.

Thank you for your reply, dlwolff0.  Hopefully, it is just the cable since I don't want to buy a new scanner right now.  

what operating system do you use?

I'm using Windows XP.

Carol,
Are you sure that was a parallel printer cable and not an old SCSI device cable daisy chained through the printer? While the HP Scanjet 5100C is listed as an EPP/ECP enhanced parallel device, if you were working in a MacIntosh environment you may have been using an optional SCSI interface rather than enhanced parallel communications between the printer, scanner and computer.  Since SCSI interfaces also used to connect to a 25 pin female port on the back of the computer, it would be easy to mistake one for the other if you have switched to a PC environment. The fact that Mac used SCSI communication for virtually all peripheral devices for so long hints at why you were getting "check disk" error messages... the computer thinks a SCSI device is malfunctioning... of course all this is conjecture based on extremely limited information about your old and current computing hardware. Best of luck.
Dean

oldexars:  Thank you for your reply.  I was not working in a Mac environment.  Since the new printer uses a USB port, I wanted to connect the scanner directly to the computer and that's when I started having problems.    I have since purchased a new computer system with new peripherals.  It was time to upgrade the 1999 scanner anyway.   

Carol