Yesterday, I was asked by my father to look at his scanner to printer connection.  He has a Visioneer 6000 scanner connected through his PC to an laser printer.  The button on the scanner that allowed him to perform a “Copy” of a document no longer worked.

After spending about 40 minutes checking settings, config files, insuring that the DLL’s needed were present, rebooting the computer a couple of times (Windows XP SP 2) and reading the sparse manual provided by Visioneer, I decided to go back to basics.  I turned the printer off then back on – magic!  Everything worked as it should. The printer had not been cycled for months – causing some handshake/comm error.

Lesson: Cycle hardware, check all input/output cables, before delving into a software error – no matter how much we know, the basics of troubleshooting should be followed to save time and effort.

Have a great week!