Resurrection of my SCSI Polaroid SprintScan 4000

[soboyle]

Much to my surprise I'm shooting film again, and the scans from my Epson V750 pro are not cutting it for 35mm and the lovely negs from my Olympus Pen F 1/2 frame. So I unearthed my scsi controlled Polaroid SprintScan 4000. I popped the scsi card in my Windows 10 machine and plugged in the scanner. Windows bios recognized the card and scanner on boot, but Windows 10 is not seeing the scanner, so I assume I need a driver for the scsi card.
Anyone have experience getting scsi devices working on Windows 10?
The Sprintscan 4000 is a good scanner, and I'm not in a hurry to replace it with another scanner of equal quality if this one can work. 

[Joe Towner]

In Windows 10, click the icon in the lower left and type in 'devmgmt.msc' - if Windows sees it it'll be under the 'Storage Controllers' or similar.  It may be the card isn't supported - SCSI2 is REALLY OLD & would have been purged before Win7/8 time frame.  If you want to post the make & model of the SCSI controller or a photo of the cable ports it should be easy to identify if a newer card with cable that can talk down to the older scanner.

If you're in a city that has a computer recycler, I'd suggest going down & grabbing a Windows XP machine - or one that has a XP logo on the front of the case.  Or Craigslist - a fresh XP install on a small SSD should be plenty fast & functional to get images scanned in.  It's stupid, but the best long term solution - Win10 can throw a fit & decide your scanner is no longer supported at any time.

-Joe

[soboyle]

Thanks Joe,
The device shows up under Other devices as SCSI controller with an exclamation point. Under properties is says drivers for this device are not installed. (Code 28)
I've searched for a Win 10 driver for my Advansys ABP-3922 card with no luck so far.
I may have an old XP machine kicking around in my cellar, it just might boot up.

[DP]

I've searched for a Win 10 driver for my Advansys ABP-3922 card with no luck so far.

may be try to search for SCSI drivers for "Polaroid SprintScan 4000" instead ? Vuescan most probably has those drivers

[soboyle]

I did send an email to Hamrick, but no response yet. They say they have drivers on their website for the Polaroid SS 4000. I tried using the demo version of Vuescan but it's not finding the scanner.

[Joe Towner]

I'll state with fair certainty that anything that has NT3.51 drivers will not work in Windows 10.  It's a 20mbps setup, so yes, while the PCI card will show up & enumerate the device, the OS won't do anything with it.

The XP machine should work out of the box though. http://mdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16981/~/advansys-scsi-install-drivers

[Malcolm Payne]

For what it's worth, I have a vintage Umax PowerLook III SCSI scanner dating back to ca. 2002 running with Vuescan under Win 10 v1909 on an old Core 2 Duo PC that I keep as an emergency backup machine and for testing, etc. The SCSI card is an Adaptec 29xxC series.

If I recall correctly I had to dig around a bit for drivers when I first set it up, but it all runs perfectly happily so it can be done. If it's likely to be of any help, let me know and I'll have a ferret around and dig out the exact model of the card and the drivers.

Malcolm

[Joe Towner]

Adaptec 2940UW's are an old fav of mine. So expensive, yet they worked forever!  Still have one in the bin just in case I have to wipe an old 80pin hot swap drive. Dell sold at least half a billion of them with their servers - between tape drives and external arrays, they were needed for something or another.

The LVD v HVD issue was a fun one to learn about - didn't fry anything, but I don't miss those days.  Or the parallel port to scsi adapters that scanners use to run on. So slow, but fit the most systems without having to open the case.

[soboyle]

I found an Adaptec 29160N card that windows does recognize using Windows 7 drivers. Then I realized the pin count on the card doesn't match the cable I have, which has the centronics type on the scanner end, and a 25 pin on the card end. The 29160N has what they call a 50-pin high-density connector. Anyone know if I can go from the centronics to a 50-pin high-density connector with an adapter or a new cable that has those connectors, and expect the scanner to work?

[Malcolm Payne]

It should do. I'm pretty sure that's the cable I have on my PowerLook III, i.e. 50-pin high density to Centronics - will check later and confirm.

[Malcolm Payne]

I confirm that my cable is 50-pin high density to Centronics-50. The drivers that work for me are AdaptecAIC78xx 64-bit dated 2012.

http://www.savagetaylor.com/2018/02/11/scsi-on-windows-10-adaptec-aha-2940-adaptec-29xx-ultra-or-aic-7870-adaptec-78xx/ might also be helpful.

[soboyle]

Thanks Malcolm, appreciate you checking your connections. Now I just need to source one of those cables.