Old scanner driver S/W

[aameden]

Hi. I have an HP 6200c flatbed scanner. HP no longer supports it. I am looking for an original driver for it (misplaced my own; my fault). I see some places on the web offer old drivers. Can anyone recommend a site that is reliable? I want to keep the HP 6200c since it has an attachment for scanning color slides. I tried the attachment on a later HP all-in-one, but no luck. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Andrew Ameden

 

[COLGeek]

The original drivers won't work if they are not compatible with your operating system. Assuming you are using some version of Windows, what version are you running?

 

[aameden]

Hi COLgeek.
Thank you for your response. I realize that the drivers will only run on earlier Windows. I keep several "legacy" machines around "in case". I believe I even have an old Packard Bell running Windows 95. In this case I have a Windows XP machine to use and I have all the appropriate hardware for the scanner, including Adaptec SCSI card. I realize this seems like more trouble than it's worth, but years ago I went into an old theater that was about to be destroyed and photographed everything before they bulldozed. I was trying to get community interest to save it, and I decided to shoot in color transparencies which I used for a presentation at the local historical society. Unfortunately, I lost. It's a parking lot now.
The 6200c did a really decent job of scanning the slides, but I did not scan them all. I would like to scan them all now and get them to some friends who also wanted to save the theater. Getting the old scanner, which was low mileage, up and running seemed like the most cost-effective way to do it. I have too many slides to do it commercially, and I don't see any other cost-effective scanners out there that will do slides.
I am wary of going to one of the websites that advertise obsolete drivers. I generally don't go to websites that don't have some reputation with me. That's why I picked this website to ask questions, as I am familiar with them due to references from other technical sites that I have come to trust.
Anyway, my apologies for the long winded response. I do appreciate your response to me, and I am sure that if I can get an original driver for it, I can find enough of hardware in my "Museum" to make it fly.
Thank you very much,
Andrew Ameden

 

[COLGeek]

Good to be cautious with those sites. I'll do some digging later today to see what legit sources I can find (can't do from current location).

We should be able to find applicable XP drivers from a safe source.

 

[COLGeek]

BTW, have you considered using the Vuescan drivers?

http://www.hamrick.com/

 

[aameden]

Hi COLGeek.
I had looked at the Vuescan drivers, but not installed them. From what I had read, it looked like they would run the scanner "generally".
I may be remembering it wrong, but I think that when using the slide adapter on the 6200c, you selected something in the original HP software. The adapter looks to be a simple plastic piece with two mirrors in it. The two mirrors would reflect the scanner light up, over, and down through the slide and that would then be "received" by the scanner hardware. I tried the adapter on a later HP all-in-one, but it doesn't work. Since the adapter is supposed to go in a particular corner on the HP 6200c, I am thinking that the scanner might be turning off the light from underneath the bed as it passes under the slide, so as not to interfere with the light which is being reflected through the slide from the top using the adapter.
I have been looking on eBay at 6200cs for sale, even some as parts, and I have sent inquiries as to whether the original CD is included. So far three swings, three misses. Some of the scanners were going for basically junk parts prices, in one case $24, and at that point if the original disk was there it might be well worth it to buy the hardware to get the software.
If all else fails I may try the Vuescan drivers, but I think it unlikely that they would do any better with the adapter then the other HP scanner I have does. I was wary of them when I first saw them mentioned (some time ago) since they seem to be a "one-size-fits-all" solution, but I now see that they appear to be well known and I have not seen any negative comments about them.
Anyway, I genuinely appreciate your efforts on my behalf, win lose or draw. It probably sounds like I am making a bigger deal out of this than it should be, but the slides I have are the only record in existence of what was once a beautiful old movie palace. I was a working projectionist at the time, and I actually showed the last movie ever in the theater before the wrecking ball came. Sad.
Thank you again COLGeek.
Andrew Ameden

 

[COLGeek]

I have been unable to locate a source I would trust. Even spent some time perusing HP FTP sites. Seems HP made some effort to actually remove the legacy device drivers as they indicated on their support website.

I have used Vuescan before and they simply worked. Full feature support could be an issue, in your case. I really don't know.

You can certainly try one of the MANY driver sites. Just be sure to download on a secure system (updated anti-virus/anti-malware) and fully scan the files before using.

Good luck.

 

[aameden]

Hi COLgeek.
It appears I have found a solution. I went looking on Ebay for the scanner to see if anyone had the original disk. I would have bought the scanner to get it. No luck. I did stumble on a guy selling old HP disks, and he had it. Twenty clams, but worth it. Got it, and it loads on the legacy rig. As soon as I find the SCSI cable I'll see if the whole package flies. If I wouldn't have been sloppy typing the Ebay search, I would have missed it.
Thanks again for your efforts on my behalf.
(I guess you really can find anything on Ebay. )
Andrew Ameden

 

[COLGeek]

Well done. I applaud your persistence!