Rating: 
Summary: First scanner was DOA, replacement arrived DOA as well
Review: I ordered the first 5950 scanner from Page Computers. It arrived in two days. I couldn't get it to work after several hours of trying and working with the software setup. Called Tech Support at Microtek & they said the glass was warped on the scan bed & to send it back to retailer. I had to pay for return shipping & requested a replacement scanner. Took one month to process the return & get me a replacement scanner. Replacement scanner had the same problem. Now I'm having to return the replacement as well and pay for more shipping. Sent letter and email to Microtek asking for help and didn't receive any reply.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Office Scanner
Review: I own a small business and need something that can scan forms without having my secretary sit there and manually scan each one into Omni Form, or worse yet sit there and try to duplicate them. What we do is use the scanner to scan the documents in Omni Form, make the changes and then PDF them in Acrobat to distribute on the web. Works perfect for this task and I couldn't ask for more. Most of the time she turns on her computer, has it stand scanning 25 pages or so and then goes and gets herself a cup of coffee. Automation at its finest. So far so good.
Rating: 
Summary: Bad ADF
Review: I purchased this scanner to scan documents into PDFs. I rarely scan high resolution color photos so I can't comment on how well it does with those. With black and white documents at 300dpi, the scanner is fast and the images are sharp. The automatic document feeder is quiet and fast too. However it left 3 slight creases on the top half of each and every sheet of paper I fed through it. The creases are located in a 1.5" wide area at the center of the top edge of each sheet. I looked for burrs along the paper path, or any other obvious defect, but everything looked fine. The only thing I noticed was that Microtek used two separate paper rollers instead of one long roller. This 1.5" wide area exactly corresponded to the gap between the two rollers. Since I don't want my original documents damaged, I sent this scanner back.
Rating:
Summary: Does not wok with photos
Review: I purchased this scanner to scan in a large collection of family photo's. The box says "all in one photo and document scanner for the home and office". However, in the fine print of the manual is says that the auto loader can't be used for photo's! Also, the auto crop feature did not work. I returned mine.
Rating:
Summary: Does not wok with photos
Review: I purchased this scanner to scan in a large collection of family photo's. The box says "all in one photo and document scanner for the home and office". However, in the fine print of the manual is says that the auto loader can't be used for photo's! Also, the auto crop feature did not work. I returned mine.
Rating:
Summary: Great scanner - works fine for me
Review: I'm a long-time user of Microtek scanners, and I like this one a lot. It's a shame that so many people have had trouble with it. I've used it on two systems (Win98SE and XP Home) and have had no operational issues whatsoever.
The feed mechanism is not the most robust thing I've ever seen, but it works okay. I expect it to hold up if it's not abused.
The functions controlled by the front panel buttons work perfectly, assuming you have set them up properly in the scanner configuration program.
Some people have complained about the quality of PDF scans, and it's true that the function button approach doesn't offer a lot of control in this respect. However, if you instead use the ScanWizard program to "Scan To" a PDF file, you'll have full control over paper size, cropping, resolution, and every other aspect of the PDF scan.
The one drawback I've encountered in this model is that its photo scanning ability is not quite up to that of the other Microtek scanners I've used. The color rendition doesn't seem as accurate. But I'm still experimenting with the scan settings to see if I can overcome that. (Tip: You can often improve the quality of important scans by using the Descreen option in ScanWizard. Try settings between 100 and 200lpi.)
Bottom line - for a low cost automatic document scanner, the 5950 is great.
Rating:
Summary: Microtek tech support - what a joke
Review: Received the scanner and set it up per their instructions. Scanner was recognized by my PC but would only scan the top 1-2" of the page. I made sure the scanner's scanning mechanism was unlocked and then looked for the tech support information. The tech support note say "Do not return this item to the store" and to call Microtek's tech support at the following telephone number (not a toll-free call). I followed the instructions and waited 25 minutes on hold. Finally got a person on the phone who listened to the problem with the scanner and told me it is broken (no kidding!). He then told me to return it to where I bought it since it was just out of the box. I told him the card with the scanner said just the opposite. No reply. Microtek fails at tech support with a toll call and then they don't send a replacement, they tell me to return it to Amazon. It is going back to Amazon for a refund. I won't spend a penny on another Microtek product.
Rating:
Summary: Microtek tech support - what a joke
Review: Received the scanner and set it up per their instructions. Scanner was recognized by my PC but would only scan the top 1-2" of the page. I made sure the scanner's scanning mechanism was unlocked and then looked for the tech support information. The tech support note say "Do not return this item to the store" and to call Microtek's tech support at the following telephone number (not a toll-free call). I followed the instructions and waited 25 minutes on hold. Finally got a person on the phone who listened to the problem with the scanner and told me it is broken (no kidding!). He then told me to return it to where I bought it since it was just out of the box. I told him the card with the scanner said just the opposite. No reply. Microtek fails at tech support with a toll call and then they don't send a replacement, they tell me to return it to Amazon. It is going back to Amazon for a refund. I won't spend a penny on another Microtek product.
Rating:
Summary: Two out of Two Defective
Review: Scanner lamp would not traverse and the ADF would not feed. It made aloud clacking noise when the scanner bar stalled out. Support said to return the scanner for a swap. The replacement scanner had hardware problems also. As a flatbed, scans were only long vertical lines. The ADF would feed paper, but again only vertical lines were the result. The software would stop the scan, saying "out of memory" "close some applications" (Lots of memory available and no running programs.) I am now awaiting the third (and final) swap from Microtek before I give up and try to get a refund from Amazon.com. Avoid the waste of time and grief and get another scanner.
Rating:
Summary: I have wasted hours, hours, and hours in this piece of crap
Review: The machine is one problem after another.
The machine was working, more or less, mostly less. Just a few minutes ago, the ScanWizard started telling me that it had insufficient memory to start. I rebooted, closed everything down, and it still says insufficient memory. My machine as 512 Meg of memory. It says this whether I start it through Kodak Imaging or directly. It does this repeatedly. Numerous months old postings say the same thing but Microtek obviously hasn't done anything to fix this particular problem.
I need to copy a document for a client and now I have no way to do it.
It claims 5 pages per minute but I have seldom got more than 3 or 4 pages without it misfeeding a page and jamming. Maybe 3 or 4 times it would feed a stack properly.
The driver takes forever to load.
If I scan directly through the Wizard, my tif documents don't get compressed and I get one page black and white pages at over 1 Meg.
If I scan through Kodak Imaging for Windows, I can get compressed documents down to 100 K per page but then everytime you do a scan it seems like the driver has to load completely again from scratch and take forever.
The driver software dialog boxes work mouse only, no keyboard shortkeys.
I have yet to get a response to any of my numerous email support requests. The manufacturer doesn't seem to have any concept of customer support. I haven't found any support anywhere for the ScanWizard software.
I don't understand why a manufacturer spends time and money on a program putting in bells and whistles most people don't need but then doesn't debug it enough to make sure that it will start.
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