Did I break it?

A couple months ago I edited my registry in order to to disable wmpnscfg.exe

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=205444

Everything seemed to be working fine so I deleted the registry back up. Sometime after I noticed, although I can print fine my All-in-One A940 won't scan. Anyway these can be related?

Anyone know how to get my scanner back working. As I said the printer works but I get an error message when scanner to check my cables. The Dell forum hasn't been much help. Could it be the cable even though the printer works?

 

Probably not, since the printer is still functional. If you re-install the drivers that should restore the registry settings if you did somehow touch it by accident

 

Without being a real expert at this stuff, although I've done some wading through the registry and played with some of the entries, I'd have to say that I doubt your addition to the registry bears any relationship to your problem with not being able to use the scan function on your all-in-one.

First, have you gone into the device manager to see if Windows is reporting any problems with the device? If Windows is reporting a problem, that would be a good place to start. Second, have you added any new software or devices that interact with the printer functions? If so, that might be the source of your problem if it damaged the driver for the all-in-one. Third, it's possible that an MS update to Windows somehow created an inconsistency with the driver firmware you have for the all-in-one (particularly if that driver is well-aged, i.e., the manufacturer really hasn't done a proper update in a long time).

If Windows doesn't give any clues as to what's wrong, check on the website of the all-in-one's manufacturer to see if either (a) they've found an inconsistency and have provided a fix or work-around, or (b) there's a newer version of the driver firmware (which you should download and install in any case).

If that still doesn't help, uninstall the driver for the all-in-one completely (i.e., all functions, including the ones that still work) and then do a fresh re-install of the driver. It's possible that somehow the module that drives the scanner got damaged or corrupted, and the simplest way to fix that is to uninstall and re-install.

 

Yeah, I tried re-installing the drivers and everything else I could thing of. Somene else on the Dell site is having scanner problems with the same All-in-One. Must be a unit problem. Although the unit still works, it's 5 years old. Built in obsolesce?

 

I suggest trying the printer on a different computer so you know if its your laptop or the printer

 

Shyster, I looked in the device manager and under imaging devices it shows the 940 with an exclamation in a yellow circle. What's tha mean exactly? I tried updating the driver using Windows and the CD but it says up to date. I've also uninstalled the printer and drivers and tried to install Dell's from their website. At this point it says printer not found make sure it's turned on and cable is connected. It was. I thn re-installed using the CD, printer worked, scanner didn't. I again tried to install firmware update (no the driver one) from dell and it could find the printer. That's why I thought it may be the cable.

I'll look around and see if I have a similar cable. to check but since the printer does work, i have my doubts.

 

Yeah, a PITA but I could try that.

 

That missing device just might be your scanner, unless you have a missing webcam driver or something.

 

Hmmm, I had a Logitech webcam and the software was buggy as ****. I uninstalled/deleted anything I could find with the name. It would n't surprise me if that was the culprit somehow. I'll try adding the printer to a desktop in the house and see what happens.

 

Well, I tried the printer on another computer and it half worked. It would scan OK but I got a Virual C+ error message when trying to copy. I'm not sure what that was all about.

I think I'll do a Windows reinstall in the next couple days. I'll start a new topic if need be.

Thanks...

 

Basically, it means that Windows recognizes that there's a problem with that device. Try right-clicking on the item to get to the properties window for the device and see what it has to say. Also, if it's available, try running the Windows diagnose or repair function to see what happens (don't hold your breath, however). Also, you might check the event logs under the administrative tools control panel to see if anything shows up in the logs. If you can't find anything that looks relevant, disconnect the device from the computer, uninstall the driver(s), then plug the device back into the computer (I'm assuming its plug-n-play) and let the system go through the discovery process. If you have your event logs going, that should throw up an event log if the computer has a problem setting up the device properly.

In terms of uninstalling the drivers, make sure you uninstall all of the drivers for the entire device, including the print and fax drivers, basically any firmware that is associated with that physical hardware should be uninstalled. It's possible that the scan module is corrupted but that when you try to reinstall the drivers, the installer sees what look like perfectly good drivers for the print and fax functions, and decides that nothing needs to be installed or fixed, including the corrupted scan driver.

 

I wouldn't do a Windows re-install just on account of the issues with the all-in-one. The fact that it did strange things on an entirely different computer is a strong indication that the problem is in the all-in-one itself, not in your OS.

Did you hunt around on the _Dell website to see if they had a diagnostic utility for the all-in-one? Basically something that'll get down into the guts of the device and check to see if it has any internal errors. Since the device is 5 years old, it's entirely possible that something physical inside the all-in-one has broken, e.g., a short on one of the printed circuits on a PCB.

Now, I don't know if devices like all-in-ones have CMOS batteries like computers do to maintain a nonvolatile memory, but if they do, that battery might have run down, which could cause all sorts of strange behaviour by the device.

If you haven't already cracked it open and inspected the guts of it, that might be a useful exercise if you're so inclined.

 

Ok here's what it says when I open properties for imagoing device/scanner

I also noticed the printer driver was a hidden device so I never uninstalled the driver. I'll try to uninstall both and reinstall.

 

Well, deleting the printer and scanner drivers and cleaning my registry didn't work either. Install appeared to go OK but I have the same error message with the scanner driver. I know it works, or it did on another computer.

I'll hunt for a diagnostics tool.