Took me 6 hours to install a driver for a 2004 scanner

Picked up a Canon CanoScan 8400F at a thrift store for 8 bucks and thought I had a steal. But getting it to work on Windows 10 was a nightmare, spent a whole Saturday afternoon fighting with unsigned drivers and compatibility modes. Finally got it going by using a modified INF file from some forum in Germany. Anyone else waste a whole day on old hardware that should just work?

2 comments

2 Comments

viola_cooper6220d ago

Those 6 hours were probably the BEST time you could have spent. You think that scanner was going to just magically work on a system that's 15 years newer? That's called character building. I've got a drawer full of old hardware and every single time I fight with it I learn something new about how Windows actually works under the hood. You now know more about driver signing and INF files than 99% of people, that's a VICTORY. Plus an 8 dollar scanner that works is basically free compared to the 150 dollar ones at Best Buy that break after a year.

christopher_singh9220d ago

You know what @viola_cooper62, I used to be the exact opposite. I'd get frustrated and call those 6 hours a total waste. But you're RIGHT. Every time I fought with some old piece of junk I learned more about how Windows really works under the hood than any tutorial could teach me. That driver signing and INF file stuff you mentioned? I never even knew what that meant until I had to mess with it myself on a scanner from 2008. Now I can actually fix stuff for my friends and family when their printers or scanners act up. So yeah, you totally changed my mind on this. That 8 dollar scanner is practically a cheat code for knowledge.