Microtek ScanMaker X6 USB Flatbed Scanner

Rating:
Summary: Be sure and do some research
Review: I didn't know what to look for when I bought my first scanner, so I bought this one. Unfortunately, I had to exchange it twice at the retail store where it was purchased because the first two didn't work. I should have known then. But I gave it another shot because I liked the price. I've had it only six months and have had nothing but problems with it. The one thing I liked about it was the software "Kai Photo Soap". Now, I've disconnected it and am searching for a new scanner.

Rating:
Summary: It's Pretty Good
Review: I find The Scanner was easy to set up, but it did give me one problem and that was the twain support in other applications, but I quickly found out what the problem was from Microteks support website and i have had no problems since. It comes with great software and I like the Scansuite interface.On the topic of OCR on my first attempt I recieved almost perfect results, I have yet to try it some more P.S. (they really could have given a More up to date OCR program) But overall I think it has good image quality and I am satisfied with my purchase.

Rating:
Summary: Good quality scanner, great pictures and easy to use...
Review: I got my scanner from Dell along with my computer. Itinstalled easily and has worked fine. I have had absolutely noexperience with scanners. Mine makes great scans in all modes but I normally use it in the scan to file mode. I have had no reason to try to reach the help lines or any thing like that. I like it.

Rating:
Summary: No problems at all
Review: I got my scanner from Dell along with my computer. Itinstalled easily and has worked fine. I have had absolutely noexperience with scanners. Mine makes great scans in all modes but I normally use it in the scan to file mode. I have had no reason to try to reach the help lines or any thing like that. I like it.

Rating:
Summary: Good product - Bad technical support
Review: I have a scanmaker X6 with scsi. I like the product, but my scansuite does not work properly and there is absolutely no troubleshooting information in the scansuite pdf file. I logged on to the website and found very little technical support there as well. The error message I receive is: "Unexpected error! Please quit scansuite then relaunch again. File: TW_Manager.cp. I believe it's probably a simple problem, as I can scan just fine through photoshop, but I will probably have to call long distance and possibly being put on hold for a long time to find the answer. I think Microtek could use a lot of improvement in their technical support on the internet.

Rating:
Summary: Good quality scanner, great pictures and easy to use...
Review: I recently purchased this scanner despite being aware of the bad reviews at Amazon because so many other independent comparative reviews gave it top recommendations.

I found both the hardware and software very easy to install on my Dell laptop using Windows 98, and overall the scanner is well built with a tough aluminium case.

I could not fault the scanning quality, which produced a very clear, sharp image. However, I was a little disappointed in the fax software which, as far as I can tell, can only fax one scan in one call and seems to have to take two passes of each page. Also the word recognition omnipage bundle made too many mistakes (although it has to be said that if you are going to do a lot of OCR then you are probably advised to buy a specialist package such as Omnipage Pro V.9 rather than rely on bundled software that comes with any scanner).

Apart from these software limitations, the actual scanner is second to none. I think that Microtek have recently updated the installation software so that many of the problems encountered by other reviewers are now ironed out.

One annoying thing that I did notice was a faint ticking sound coming from the transformer when the scanner is switched off but still plugged in at the mains. Although this is, according to Microtek, perfectly normal, it can be annoying if you have sensitive hearing and work in a very quiet environment. Most people would never notice it.

In summary: the scanner output quality and build deserves 5 stars, whereas the bundled software, although easy to use, deserves 4 stars. Overall I will give it 4 stars because of the ticking sound which forces me to switch it on and off at the wall socket.

Rating:
Summary: Never got it to work; never got Microtek support to help me.
Review: My previous scanner broke, so I bought the legal size version of this scanner that comes with USB and SCSI connections (V6-USL), and followed the installation instructions to the letter. The system recognized it fine, but when I tried to test/use the scanner, the machine would lock up. After re-installing several times, I took off from work early one day to call support and work through it with them. I called every five minutes for 3 whole hours, and they never once picked up the phone. I returned the scanner and bought a Visioneer instead, and it works fine.

I hear Microtek makes good scanners, but the combination of a non-functional device and a support group that doesn't answer the phone is very frustrating.

Rating:
Summary: A useful tool with not enough instructions
Review: The Microtek Scanmaker X6 is a pretty sharp looking unit and the installation of the unit and its software were straightforward. It will scan in documents and pictures up to 8.5 x 11 inches quickly and with extremely high resolution. Once the picture is taken, the included software will allow you to manipulate the colors, add effects etc. just like a computer graphics expert (well, kinda). The only real problem I had with it stemmed from it being my first scanner. The unit comes with very few instructions. A simple pamphlet on how to scan in nice photos would have been extremely useful. I was able to quickly discern how to adjust the resolution and scaling so that the pictures I was scanning didn't turn out to be several hundred MB large, but I am not sure everyone will realize how to do that. Even now, I am not sure whether it is better to scan in a picture with high resolution and then scale it down with the software or scan it in with a lower resololution and scale it down less. . .see the kind of confusion I am talking about? On the upside, I have been able to augment my website with tons of pictures and scan in some important documents. The software will even allow you to use your scanner as either a fax machine or a photocopier (provided you have a modem and printer, respectively). Generally speaking, I recommend the unit to people who at least have some clue about how to use computers well. The real amateurs will probably never figure it out.

Rating:
Summary: A useful tool with not enough instructions
Review: The Microtek Scanmaker X6 is a pretty sharp looking unit and the installation of the unit and its software were straightforward. It will scan in documents and pictures up to 8.5 x 11 inches quickly and with extremely high resolution. Once the picture is taken, the included software will allow you to manipulate the colors, add effects etc. just like a computer graphics expert (well, kinda). The only real problem I had with it stemmed from it being my first scanner. The unit comes with very few instructions. A simple pamphlet on how to scan in nice photos would have been extremely useful. I was able to quickly discern how to adjust the resolution and scaling so that the pictures I was scanning didn't turn out to be several hundred MB large, but I am not sure everyone will realize how to do that. Even now, I am not sure whether it is better to scan in a picture with high resolution and then scale it down with the software or scan it in with a lower resololution and scale it down less. . .see the kind of confusion I am talking about? On the upside, I have been able to augment my website with tons of pictures and scan in some important documents. The software will even allow you to use your scanner as either a fax machine or a photocopier (provided you have a modem and printer, respectively). Generally speaking, I recommend the unit to people who at least have some clue about how to use computers well. The real amateurs will probably never figure it out.

Rating:
Summary: Good Hardware bad installation under windows 95
Review: We try to install the Microtek X6 USB at Compaq Armada 1500C build April 99 with Win95 latest Version. When we setup Scanwizzard (out of the internet oder from the latest CD germancd17) we get the error-message: "Allgemeiner Fehler bei der Datenübertragung, überprüfen sie das Ziellaufwerk und versuchen sie es erneut, Fehlernummer -42", when the setup startes to copy files in c:\windows\system. The same error take place, by installing on an desktop-pc with Win95, it takes not place with the english version of the scanwizzard setup, but the english version don't works with the german windows-system. We found the following text for the miiscan.file for windows 98: MIISCAN.SYS This file fixes some problems with non Intel USB controllers. Please copy the file,miiscan.sys, into directory <Windows>/system32/drivers in Windows 98. At which place should the files miiscan.sys and msmscan.inf out of the directory germancd17\scanwiz\german\disk1\Win95USB be done? Could you give us any other tip? With best regards Krebs [e-mail] copy to [e-mail]