DualScan IV Jitters and Stutters

Frank Petronio

Frank Petronio

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So mid-way through scanning dozens of 35mm frames using my Konica Minolta DualScan IV w VueScan, I push the carrier in and it jerks and vibrates and stutters and freezes VueScan. Makes an ugly racket too.

On-off, restarted everything several times... still getting the shakes after the first 20 seconds of doing a preview... anyway to reset these and get them back on track? Or is it curtains for this unrepairable dead end device?

Thanks
 
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Frank Petronio said:
So mid-way through scanning dozens of 35mm frames using my Konica Minolta DualScan IV w VueScan, I push the carrier in and it jerks and vibrates and stutters and freezes VueScan. Makes an ugly racket too.

On-off, restarted everything several times... still getting the shakes after the first 20 seconds of doing a preview... anyway to reset these and get them back on track? Or is it curtains for this unrepairable dead end device?
Click to expand...

Big burning question: Does it do this both on negatives and on slides?

Reason I'm asking, is that something very similar happened to me and it about gave me heart failure. All of a sudden, in the middle of a scanning run, the scanner made a horrible grinding noise and refused to load in the carrier any further.

I didn't see anything obviously wrong, but I did check it with the slide carrier and it worked normally. Then I inspected the negative carrier closely. The negative strip I was using was cut too long, and was keeping the carrier from fully closing. It would go in part way, stop, and make and awful racket!

Yes, this is a true "orphan" device, but there's a thread in here somewhere about a company which provides support on these. Search and I'm sure you will find it. (I haven't had to use it -- yet -- knocking on wood.)
 
I have been running Vuescan on a Minolta SD IV since December 07, and have not had any problems so far, or none as troubling as you describe. I have noticed that the machine gives off an irregular grating sound occasionally, in contrast to the smooth whirr that it normally makes. I never noticed this using the original Minolta software, but have noticed it with the Vuescan.

I have probably run close to 10,000 scans on this machine, and wonder if the new noise is because the scanner is simply starting to wear out. Also, I can concur with a previous poster- it is important that the negs are loaded so that the holder closes properly. I loaded a strip incorrectly one time, and it took a lot of finagling to get the holder out of the machine after it jammed.

Good luck with your scanner. I have been really pleased with mine, but have started to consider buying a Nikon 5000, only to ensure that I have scanning capacity in the future when the Minolta finally dies. I have to wonder how long anyone is going to produce quality 35mm film scanners given the declining use of film.
 
Is the IV much different to the II?

I worked my II almost literally to the death. The problem you described sounds similar to mine. The neg carrier wouldnt' 'feed' and the scanner made an awful noise of gears slipping on it. It could be avoided by carefully pushing the carrier a bit to the left so it would feed again.

This all lead to misalignment when doing multiple passes with the help of Vuescan. I bought a Nikon Coolscan V instead. Built like a tank compared to my old Minolta. But I don't complain, the Minolta gave many years of faithful service. It just didn't survive my comeback to film.
 
good to hear your problem is solved!

my DS IV did that in the summer (rattling gears, refusing to draw in the holder) and I too thought it´s at the end of it´s life. I had about 15000 scans on my HDD back than and I thought that´s a good workload for the price. I was about to dump it and get a new scanner but surprisingly the problem disapeared after about a month and it works fine ever since (now at 21000 scanns...hope it keeps working for many frames to come 🙂

cheers
fred
 
Frank Petronio said:
doh

I tried it again and it worked fine. I just tried the slide holder, then reset-up the film holder.

I almost through it in the trash!
Click to expand...

Glad to hear that it worked!

When it happened to me, it almost sounded like a Martian attack!

It may be an orphan product, but it's a very good scanner. I've made some stunning 13x19 prints off of scans from it!

I will dearly miss it when it finally quits on me.
 
Just about every dual scan IV does it. Mine does, and it hasn't had a whole lot of use before I bought it. It's a horrible noise isn't it. I have my computer and scanner in my room, and often to a lot of scanning late at night - my poor girlfriend sleeps through it, but when it jams like that it nearly wakes up the whole neighborhood.

I searched through konica minolta tech documents and forums a while ago and discovered its usually actually a software error. Something to do with the scanner lodging an error file in the root drives of the scanner itself on the computer. You have to delete some sort of log/file and it works perfectly again.

I have no idea where that bit of information I found is now.
 
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