Canon LiDE 20 Scanner fried my keyboard!

[David Grupp]

I was wondering if anyone else has had any major incidents with this
scanner? I purchased one last week at Fry's for cheap ($30). I
immediately brought it home and hooked it up to the USB port on my
keyboard. I installed the CanoScan software and my computer froze. I
rebooted and after some struggle was able to successfully install the
software and even got some scans out of it. Aside from the struggle I
was pretty impressed with the scan quality and was willing to forgive
the headache of cheesy install software for the price that I paid.

After the install though my system became unstable. It would lock up at
seemingly random times anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours after a
reboot. I uninstalled the software and removed the scanner. That
didn't help. After trying some of the obvious things with no success I
reluctantly wiped the hard drive and did a reinstall. While booting off
the 10.2 CD and getting about 2 minutes into the reinstall the computer
still froze. So now I'm suspecting a hardware issue. After another day
of trouble shooting I tracked it down to the keyboard. I bought a new
one, the system is solid as a rock, and I'm in the process of returning
it to pre-ordeal working order.

I'm a little at a loss as to what to do now. I'm convinced that the
scanner burned out my keyboard in some way. However, I've used the
scanner in the directly in the MOBO USB port and a PCI USB card port and
they don't seem to be damaged (only the keyboard was fried) - so I'm not
convinced that this scanner is faulty. Returning it for a refund or an
exchange probably won't do me any good. Its hard for me to say that
Apples keyboard is faulty because its worked with other USB devices
flawlessly since I purchased the computer.

It seems that in my case the two just didn't like each other... I'm not
sure it's worth anymore of my time trying to get either Apple or Canon
to replace my keyboard. I'm just making this post in case others have
experienced similar problems and can use this to hopefully make their
troubleshooting easier.

Has anyone else experienced any hardware problems with this scanner?
Hopefully my experience is atypical...

[Jennifer Mullen]

In <bercp8$2d4$2@woodrow.ucdavis.edu>
David Grupp <gruppdREMOVEALLCAPS@yahooSPAMSUX.com> wrote:

> I was wondering if anyone else has had any major incidents with this
> scanner? I purchased one last week at Fry's for cheap ($30). I
> immediately brought it home and hooked it up to the USB port on my
> keyboard.

The keyboard can't provide enough power for the LiDE 30. Both are USB
bus-powered devices, meaning that they both draw their power from USB
rather than from an external power device. It's entirely possible that
plugging the LiDE30 into the keyboard's USB hub and leaving it there for a
long period of time damaged the keyboard.

[url]http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58649[/url]

> Hopefully my experience is atypical...

Likely not. Plug the scanneer directly into the USB ports on your Mac, or
purchase a powered USB hub. They're rather inexpensive these days.




J.

[David Grupp]

I agree with you, that's what I also figured after the fact. However,
I'm sure there are thousands of people who do in fact plug it into the
keyboard port first like me. I checked again and the instructions never
warn people against this. I'm a bit concerned that the result was a
fried keyboard (instead of just a non-working configuration.)



Jason Parrish wrote:

> The ports on the keyboard should be used either very low power devices
> like mice or trackballs, or with devices that have their own power
> supply. A bus powered device like the Canoscan scanners should be
> plugged into one of the ports on the computer or into a powered hub.
>
> J-

[Steven Fisher]

David Grupp wrote:

> I agree with you, that's what I also figured after the fact. However,
> I'm sure there are thousands of people who do in fact plug it into the
> keyboard port first like me. I checked again and the instructions never
> warn people against this. I'm a bit concerned that the result was a
> fried keyboard (instead of just a non-working configuration.)

I've certainly done things like this. As you did, I assumed the worst
that would happen is the result would not work. I never imagined
something could get blown! I'll be more careful now. Small consolation
for you, I suppose, but thank you for the warning. :)

[Gordon B. Alley]

In article <NXuQa.431477$ro6.10417629@news2.calgary.shaw.ca >,
Steven Fisher <sdfisher@spamcop.net> wrote:

> David Grupp wrote:
>

> > I agree with you, that's what I also figured after the fact. However,
> > I'm sure there are thousands of people who do in fact plug it into the
> > keyboard port first like me. I checked again and the instructions never
> > warn people against this. I'm a bit concerned that the result was a
> > fried keyboard (instead of just a non-working configuration.)

>
> I've certainly done things like this. As you did, I assumed the worst
> that would happen is the result would not work. I never imagined
> something could get blown! I'll be more careful now. Small consolation
> for you, I suppose, but thank you for the warning. :)
>

I got an LiDE 30 several months ago. IIRC, I tried plugging it into my
iMac G4 800's keyboard, and got some sort of "insufficient power"
message. I then plugged it directly into the iMac, and have had no
problems since.

--
Gordon Alley <*>
<mailto:galley@texas.net>
<http://galley.home.texas.net>