Cable for Scanner - Print Topic

Posted by: Carol, January 7th, 2007, 4:08pm

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

Posted by: dlwolff0, January 8th, 2007, 4:14am; Reply: 1

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.

Posted by: Carol, January 8th, 2007, 5:22am; Reply: 2

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

Posted by: jcm3008, January 15th, 2007, 7:24pm; Reply: 3

what operating system do you use?

Posted by: Carol, January 16th, 2007, 5:12am; Reply: 4

I'm using Windows XP.

Posted by: oldexars, January 24th, 2007, 12:45am; Reply: 5

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

Posted by: Carol, January 28th, 2007, 5:07pm; Reply: 6

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