upgrading hp 5p scsi scanner's scsi card

[staalburger]

Hi

I've got an hp 5p scanner which i use for ocr. I'm very happy with it and as far as I know there isn't anything much faster available in terms of ocr scanning. It uses an isa scsi card and with newer motherboards not having many isa slots or not at all, I wondered if I can buy a new low-cost scsi card and connect my scanner to it. I have very little experience with scsi so I would appreciate it if someone can give me some guidelins.

Thanks

 

[Masked Formatter]

I was running my Epson scanner with an ISA SCSI card. Then replaced it with a PCI one. Works much the same. Main difference is scanning no longer takes 100% CPU time.
As I recall all I did was remove the old card. Boot and shutdown. Then installed the PCI card. Worked first time. Both were adaptec. I did have to get a new cable to fit the new card.

 

[Richard98]

I bought an adaptec 2906 card to use with my HP 4P which I replaced with an HP 4C. Nice thing about the 2906 is that it has the 25 pin adapter which works with the cable that came with the 4C/4P.

If you're thinking of using Windows XP you may want to check compatability with the HP scanners, before sinking money into a scsi card. I know that the 4C and 4P are incompatible; one of the main reasons I chose w2k over XP.

 

[Rhombuss]

I'm also using the HP 5P ScanJet staalburger - its been alive and kicking for about 5 years now, still a GREAT scanner. I ditched that ISA SCSI card a while ago and am currently using an Adaptec 2940U2W card. You can get any SCSI card really, just make sure it has the 50 pin centronics connector (thin trapezoidal connector) and you'll be set. I think you can easily find one of these for sale at the For Sale forums here, probably won't cost you more than $15-$20 for a PCI version.

 

[corkyg]

My H-P IIcx SCSI scanner (vintage 1993 or 4) is built like a Mack truck, and works perfectly in XP Pro with a Siig SCSI III bus mastering PCI card (PCI slot 2). I have also used it with an Adapec 2940AU, and the original ISA card that came with it. SCSI is pretty much bullet proof once you get it locked in and understand it.

I don't think you'll have any trouble with an updated SCSI host adapter. Just try and put it in a PCI slot that gives it a dedicated IRQ. (That's why I put it in Slot 2.)

For software, I found the new H-P generic scanware to work well in XP Pro (H-P Precision Scan Pro ver. 1.02).