Visioneer OneTouch 8900 USB Scanner

I was leery of purchasing this scanner because of these reviews. But I thought the price was right. The scanner was basically dead on arrival. After it was installed I kept getting an error message that the scanner was locked. It was not locked. Visioneers automated support web site brought this issue up with the first search, so it must be a common problem for this model. Their only recommendation is to ensure you have the right drivers ( I did) and to plug the unit directly to the wall outlet and not a power strip. Tried that. Their next solution is to return it to the dealer for exchange. I would say definitely do not buy this model.

I no longer have this scanner as I donated it to the church for their use - but when I did have it I used it quite often and had good results, especially for oversized items that could not be scanned by other means.

Dont Waste your time or money that you think your saving, spend a little more on quality like an Epson. The age old saying You get what you pay for applies double here. The worst drivers/Quality Etc. You cant unplug it (USB) without it wanting to reinstall the drivers again,

I have the 8920 which is the same scanner with a slide scanner...it is entirely possible that they have COMPLETELY different hardware under the hood, but I doubt it. No problems...but one curious issue. The glass lid is not designed for being pushed on, and the holders (on the left side as you look at it) can come loose. If they do, or if you press down on the glass...like if you are scanning a book...that can stop the scan head, and of course the computer will assume the lock is still on. This has happened to me a couple of times. If you shake it (gently) you will hear the holders (little plastic pieces) on the bottom. Yes it is a silly and sloppy design, HOWEVER, put them back in place and press on...mine didnt drop loose until after 2.5 years of use.

First of all, if youre a Mac user, dont even bother. Move on. This is not a Mac (OSX or 9) friendly scanner. When I tried it just out of the box, I was very happy with its performance. Now, however, I cant even get it to scan--this machine will only operate with its original power supply (although Visioneer will happily send you a new one for only [more money). This product is not for those with a tendency to lose things! It boils down to this: Decent hardware. Software is lacking. Very bulky scanner. Tech support is a bargain at $2 per minute (on this model).

For about $100, I got the Visioneer One Touch 8900 USB flatbed scanner, have used it on my older computer for many years running, and have been satisfied with its performance. My operating system is Windows ME (yup, there are a few of us still around) and Ive utilized the PaperPort Twain software bundled with the scanner. While it takes some getting used to and you may have to repeat the scan several times, by then you know what youre doing without making further mistakes and the results obtained are acceptable most of the time and occasionally downright excellent. A high quality print obtained with film technology is usually not going to yield anywhere near the same result when transferred to digital information because some degradation is unavoidable, but if you up the resolution from the preset level, adjust exposure and color balance as needed, sharpen with restraint, then crop and size carefully, you can do pretty well. In the darkroom, particularly the color darkroom, youll put far more effort into making a high quality enlargement and the results obtained will be eminently superior in several ways, but thats to be expected. In the last few months, I used this unit to scan a number of high quality photographs, several of which were decades old, in order to embed them in the text of desktop published books. In so doing, I achieved pretty darn good results, considering the limitations of the equipment. Im now looking for a dedicated film scanner to scan medium format and 35mm color negs directly, hopefully giving me darkroom quality results, but nonetheless, this workhorse economy flatbed scanner has more than paid for itself over the last several years and I therefore must give it an enthusiastic thumbs up. Ill agree with the critics who point out that Visioneers support leaves much to be desired because I tried to contact them regarding a software upgrade (for scanning film -- obviously bundled with the 8920) and couldnt get anywhere at all, but a bad attitude in the computer world combined with lackluster or nonexistent support is hardly unique to Visioneer.

This is by far, the biggest piece of garbage that it has ever been my misfortune to buy. If everything Visioneer makes is like this, they deserve to go out of business. I cannot believe they can foist off this kind of junk and get by with it. I will never buy another product with Visioneer on it. Period. This scanner was a HUGE waste of money, not to mention a very good source of frustration. It worked long enough to scan about 5 items...but none of those consequtively. It will scan one, then if youre lucky you might get another scan out if after about 25 hours of fooling with it and its pathetic connections, (lots of luck getting any decent drivers or updates) and countless reboots of your computer. Buy a real scanner, send this one to your enemies.

Out of the box it had an intermittant problem. You get an error box that says the optical module is locked. Only it isnt. Go to the web site and they have a virtual troubleshooter that is absolutely of no use. Call the company customer service and they tell you to call tech support,(at $2.00 per minute on a 900 line. Because this is out of production, they dont care. Definitely dont buy this for a quarter. It would be a waste of a good quarter

I bought it from a reseller and was easy to install and worked great for about 6 months and one day for no apparent reason I started getting The scanner optical module is locked error. Since then I have tried reinstalling drivers as well as software with no results. People I have read recommeding reisntalling OS. But to me if you have to reinstall the OS to make a scanner work, the piece is not worth having. I will just look for another scanner.

One star is too good for this product.. ive had a visioneer 8700 USB about a year.. it just died..the scanner keeps telling me to unlock the scan head.. i physically removed the lock.. despite restarting the pc, reinstalling etc etc.. the fault persists.. The online help is useless, there are no specific references to the fault though i have found a large number of references ( but no solutions to it) on the web.. I cant reccomend the scanner.. there are equal and better second hand scanners on the market.. that dont suffer this fault. I cant recommend the visioneer online support.. i still have a dead scanner.. I cant really think of anything good to say about visioneer.. i wish i had never wasted money on it...