On 30 Mar 2003, at 21:56, Steve Face wrote:

> Last year I upgraded my PC from an Intel P4 1.5 GHz CPU/MB to a P4 2.0
> GHZ CPU/MB. I cloned my HD and everything is working fine except for the
> scanner. It is on a USB. I uninstalled the software and did a new
> install. I also did a manual uninstall according to directions from HP.
> Lastly, I did a safe install, again following directions from HP. In each
> case, I get a 'device already in use' message following the installation.
> I do not see any application running that could be accessing the scanner.
> I know the USB is working because I have an Iomega zipdisk and a digital
> camera that work fine. I am running Windows 98SE. Any suggestions?

  Some manufacturers -- and I think more often HP than anybody else! --
insist that the driver software for a USB device be installed BEFORE the
device is plugged into the computer's USB bus.  I think that might be the
issue here, that having the device plugged in first causes Windows to load
some kind of default support which interferes with installation of the
manufacturer's software.

David Gillett

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