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You just bought a Umax scanner, and now your Mac won't boot up...
Working at a newspaper and running a Mac Users' Group has exposed me to every Mac problem imaginable. But today I am going to focus on one--my personal pet peeve--the Umax scanner.
When the USB interface was introduced into the Mac world about two years ago, it brought with it an explosion of related peripherals--including cheap scanners. These cheap scanners have allowed the average Mac user the affordability to buy a home scanner. But don't be fooled, cheap scanners are cheap for a reason--the hardware usually being up to par, but the scanning software really biting the big one, at least in my personal experience.
For example, if you go out and buy an iMac DV SE tomorrow (any Mac actually), and you order a scanner to go with it, it will probably be a Umax scanner of some sort. When USB came out with the iMac, Umax manufactured about a bajillion of these scanners, which is why they are so cheap. However, bear in mind that when the iMac came out it was shipping with MacOS 8.5.
So the scanner you just ordered with your iMac DV SE is going to instruct you to run the installer CD, usually common practice with new hardware, but this time the installer is going to cripple your iMac. After running the installer CD, and then restarting, your bran-spankin'-new iMac will crash sometime during the startup process. As you may have guessed, it is because the software for the scanner that you just installed was written for MacOS 8.5 and your iMac is running MacOS 9.
"Why the heck haven't they fixed this problem?" you ask. Well they have, but only through downloading the newest software. The bad part is, most people don't figure this out until it is too late.
Your next question: "Why the heck are companies still selling these scanners?" Answer: Because Umax manufactured billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of them (in the immortal words of Carl Sagan) and sold them for peanuts to your favorite catalog company. Now the catalog is stuck with them and will do anything to sell them.
So buyer beware--some Umax scanners are still shipping with inferior USB drivers that are written for Mac OS 8.5. If you are using a Bondi Blue iMac with OS 8.5 and you have your head stuck in a non-upgrading hole, the Umax scanner is just the thing you need. But if you are using MacOS 8.6 or higher, DO NOT install the software that comes with it. Jump online and download the newest drivers, please, unless troubleshooting your system extensions is some sort of demented fun for you.
-Andrew McVinnie is a contributor to MacMilitia.com.
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