PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-05-17, 05:30:

kikendo wrote on 2025-05-16, 13:11:

This is all great info, who would have thought it could be so problematic.
I am not entirely sure, though, that my Pentium III machine will be able to run Windows 3.11 though. My other option is a PII, so I am shit out of luck. I have long gotten rid of my 386 machines.
Need to see how to figure this out.

Pretty sure this woks fine on some flavour of Win 9x...checked my archives and I can still see my scanner program group from Jan 96 (long since stopped using 3.x by then) with links to the FotoTouch Color (ftcolor.exe) and FTGRAY (touch.exe) apps.

I'll be checking mine in the next day or two, so will throw it on a 9x test rig and report back.

Ah yes, I remember.. There are certain differences between Windows 95 and 98. And Windows 98 and 98SE.

Windows 95, for example, still uses system.ini/win.ini mainly and uses /system folder for most things, rather than /system32.
It's more like Windows 3.1 in this respect.

Windows 98 vs Windows 98SE differs in handling of multimedia support.
A lot of the work of legacy APIs are transfered over to DirectX DLLs.
Support for joysticks, for example.
Or built-in WinG support, which was dropped in favor of DirectDraw/Direct3D (WinG runtime or SDK can be installed manually).

Also, small GDI glitches.
16-Bit WinTrek had black text background in Windows 3.1 (correct), but a white one in Windows 95.

I was looking again at this problem and realize by staring at this pic I posted befiore:

kikendo wrote on 2025-05-14, 19:20:

https://i.imgur.com/NslGEjJ.jpeg […]
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Besides the wrong green color all over, there's a lot of weird patterning going on, on parts that are supposed to be a flat color, like the background.
Maybe the scanner is broken after all, not sure if that has anything to do with software.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-05-17, 05:30:

I'll be checking mine in the next day or two, so will throw it on a 9x test rig and report back.

Have you made any progress with this?

in the meantime, I couldn't control myself and ordered another scanner 🤣 it's not as pretty, but it may be a bit easier to get working with my rig, especially because it's a parallel port unit. That means I can install it on the machine where I don't have any more free ISA slots, and also I don't have to fuck around with ISA IRQ issues or whatever. Also it specifically says "for Windows 95" so I am hoping I don't have to deal with janky-ass Windows 3.x drivers at all.

Still unsure what to do with the other scanner, it's just so pretty, but I probably shouldn't keep it, unless I am totally sure it isn't faulty.

kikendo wrote on 2025-06-09, 14:53:

Have you made any progress with this? […]
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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-05-17, 05:30:

I'll be checking mine in the next day or two, so will throw it on a 9x test rig and report back.

Have you made any progress with this?

in the meantime, I couldn't control myself and ordered another scanner 🤣 it's not as pretty, but it may be a bit easier to get working with my rig, especially because it's a parallel port unit. That means I can install it on the machine where I don't have any more free ISA slots, and also I don't have to fuck around with ISA IRQ issues or whatever. Also it specifically says "for Windows 95" so I am hoping I don't have to deal with janky-ass Windows 3.x drivers at all.

Still unsure what to do with the other scanner, it's just so pretty, but I probably shouldn't keep it, unless I am totally sure it isn't faulty.

Yeah sorry, I promise I'll get to it soon(ish) if only what passes for life would stop getting in the way 😀

Apart from my modern printer / flatbed combo, the only scanners I have left are the Logitech ScanMan Color and their later PageScan USB.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-06-09, 18:59:

Yeah sorry, I promise I'll get to it soon(ish) if only what passes for life would stop getting in the way 😀

Apart from my modern printer / flatbed combo, the only scanners I have left are the Logitech ScanMan Color and their later PageScan USB.

No worries!

I just bought a Scanman Color 2000 myself. Hopefully it isn't another brick.
I'm also hoping to grab a 486 computer in the short future so I can test the other Scanman and see if the problem is my particular hardware/software combo or the scanner is just faulty.

The other scanner just arrived!

New, sealed, never opened since 1996. It always feels special to open up a package like this that has been untouched for almost 30 years!
Hoping that this one will be easier to setup and work better, although I am still not giving up on the other Scanman, I'm hoping that setting it up in a 486 will make it work properly.

The Scanman Color 2000 works a treat!

This is definitely more hi-tech than I wanted but I am still very happy. I started twisting my wrist at the end to do weird stuff 😝
The older model will be put on the backburner for now, until I can cough up a 486 setup.
Still interested to know anyone else's experience with the older model and Windows 9x.

Talking to myself here, but I thought, after battling with my installation of Windows ME, why not try to install Windows 3.11 on my Pentium III? What could go wrong worst than the heart-tearing antics of Windows ME?

And it was such a breeze, it's incredible! I got it to run in almost no time, and even set it up with nice drivers for my videocard and all.

Anyway, the news are not good - I installed the Scanman software and tested the good old Scanman again, and I get the same results as I did in Windows 95 - Greenish colors on everything, lots of wavey noise patterns.
I think by now that there's something wrong with the device, either the scanner itself or the interface card. I have no idea how to diagnose or fix this, so this is probably going to be aa case of having a -very- pretty paperweight 🙁

If anybody else has any idea, now that I have the 256 color Windows 3.11 setup running, I'm all ears, but I am pretty sure there's a hardware malfunction here. At least it's sort-of OK with greyscale images...

Timing issue? ISA bus speed? Back in the day, I had a 286 at 12 MHz.
Windows 3.1 was running Standard-Mode.

Other users of the time might have had a 386 or 486 PC.
The requirements should be on the box..

Edit: Maybe the interface card needs -5v, has bad caps etc?
It's just a wild guess, of course. The waves in the image aren’t good.
Maybe interference from power supply?

Edit: Other ideas. Are the DIP settings on the interface card correct?
Maybe there are resource conflicts? IRQs, Port adresses etc.
An ordinary 486 PC without PCI and ATX features did have more free resources than a Pentium and up.
At least when it comes to legacy stuff (ISA bus, little to no on-board devices etc).

Jo22 wrote on 2025-06-18, 00:10:

Edit: Maybe the interface card needs -5v, has bad caps etc?
It's just a wild guess, of course. The waves in the image aren’t good.
Maybe interference from power supply?

I have no idea, if this is the case, it could be problematic. But there's one more thing I didn't try that I have to try, before I start recapping the interface card or something.

Edit: Other ideas. Are the DIP settings on the interface card correct?
Maybe there are resource conflicts? IRQs, Port adresses etc.

All that is sorted, otherwise the card wouldn't work at all.
But yeah I cannot entirely discard that the thing could be incompatible with a newer machine.
I ran out of time (and patience) to make more tests now but I will try the last thing I can try and then give up for the time being, until I get a 486.

kikendo wrote on 2025-06-21, 14:35:

I have no idea, if this is the case, it could be problematic. But there's one more thing I didn't try that I have to try, before […]
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Jo22 wrote on 2025-06-18, 00:10:

Edit: Maybe the interface card needs -5v, has bad caps etc?
It's just a wild guess, of course. The waves in the image aren’t good.
Maybe interference from power supply?

I have no idea, if this is the case, it could be problematic. But there's one more thing I didn't try that I have to try, before I start recapping the interface card or something.

Edit: Other ideas. Are the DIP settings on the interface card correct?
Maybe there are resource conflicts? IRQs, Port adresses etc.

All that is sorted, otherwise the card wouldn't work at all.
But yeah I cannot entirely discard that the thing could be incompatible with a newer machine.
I ran out of time (and patience) to make more tests now but I will try the last thing I can try and then give up for the time being, until I get a 486.

Did you try opening the actual scanner part to see if anything relatively obvious might be visibly amiss ?

kikendo wrote on 2025-06-11, 21:07:

No worries! […]
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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-06-09, 18:59:

Yeah sorry, I promise I'll get to it soon(ish) if only what passes for life would stop getting in the way 😀

Apart from my modern printer / flatbed combo, the only scanners I have left are the Logitech ScanMan Color and their later PageScan USB.

No worries!

I just bought a Scanman Color 2000 myself. Hopefully it isn't another brick.
I'm also hoping to grab a 486 computer in the short future so I can test the other Scanman and see if the problem is my particular hardware/software combo or the scanner is just faulty.

So, finally got my finger out and set up the test system (P3 1GHz on a P2B-DS, 384 meg of ram, S3Trio3D/2X with latest drivers & 40 gig hdd with basic 98SE install) with my ScanMan Color (buscard version). Installation / setup was a breeze and....IT DOESN'T WORK! 🙁 Same problem as you, with the distorted scan image and green-shifted palette.

Dug through some of my old support notes and found reference to an old user support site (actually for Storm Technology who bought the Logitech scanner business Jan 98 and promptly went bust by Nov that same year). It lists the ScanMan Color as 95 only (ScanWare v2.2) but FotoTouch Color app as 95/98, but the ScanMan Color 2000 package as fully 95/98.

Now planning to tweak the setup with a 95 install till I get it working properly again.

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-06-23, 03:52:

So, finally got my finger out and set up the test system (P3 1GHz on a P2B-DS, 384 meg of ram, S3Trio3D/2X with latest drivers […]
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kikendo wrote on 2025-06-11, 21:07:

No worries! […]
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PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2025-06-09, 18:59:

Yeah sorry, I promise I'll get to it soon(ish) if only what passes for life would stop getting in the way 😀

Apart from my modern printer / flatbed combo, the only scanners I have left are the Logitech ScanMan Color and their later PageScan USB.

No worries!

I just bought a Scanman Color 2000 myself. Hopefully it isn't another brick.
I'm also hoping to grab a 486 computer in the short future so I can test the other Scanman and see if the problem is my particular hardware/software combo or the scanner is just faulty.

So, finally got my finger out and set up the test system (P3 1GHz on a P2B-DS, 384 meg of ram, S3Trio3D/2X with latest drivers & 40 gig hdd with basic 98SE install) with my ScanMan Color (buscard version). Installation / setup was a breeze and....IT DOESN'T WORK! 🙁 Same problem as you, with the distorted scan image and green-shifted palette.

Dug through some of my old support notes and found reference to an old user support site (actually for Storm Technology who bought the Logitech scanner business Jan 98 and promptly went bust by Nov that same year). It lists the ScanMan Color as 95 only (ScanWare v2.2) but FotoTouch Color app as 95/98, but the ScanMan Color 2000 package as fully 95/98.

Now planning to tweak the setup with a 95 install till I get it working properly again.

If you are getting similar distortion to what kikendo is getting under both Windows 9x and Windows 3.1, my first guess would not be that the issue is related to Windows 95 vs 98. Of course, it could be (sinilar symptoms can have different and/or multiple causes), but my guesses as to a potential common cause would be either
- speed sensitivity
- hardware degradation/failure
- some weird incompatibily with something that isn't yet obvious