Scanner trials and tribulations

This morning, I decided to buy myself a scanner. I’m planning on using it for document filing – keeping my credit card statements on CDROM, etc.

I originally wanted one of the slimline Canon scanners, but my local PC World didn’t have any in stock. So, I picked up a Packard Bell Diamond 1200 instead.

Big mistake. Despite claims on the box that it runs under Windows 2000, installing the USB driver kept causing a blue screen of death. Packard Bell’s website claims to know nothing about scanners. As far as I can work out, they don’t know that they make scanners. Life’s too short, so I took it back.

Fortunately, PC World were really nice about it. After I got my refund, they suggested that I nip next door to Currys (why Dixons have two stores next to each-other with an overlap in stock, I’ll never know), to look for the Canon scanner.

They didn’t have the exact model Canon that I wanted, but I managed to pick up a CanoScan N650U instead. Unlike the Packard Bell, the drivers installed easily – not completely automatically, but easily. On the whole, I’m impressed with it. Recommended.

Update: 2002-01-22 Apparently, the Packard Bell scanner is a rebadged Mustek. This information comes from Christine Moore, who dropped me an email this morning. Apparently, the scanner is a Mustek BearPaw 1200 CU, and drivers are available at http://www.mustek.com.tw/Download/driv_scanr/europe/b1200cu.html.