Plustek Opticfilm 7500i, chirping noise, bulb flickering, scanner is going down

[adogsdevotion]

Dear everyone,

a friendly hello to all of you, since this is my first post in the forums. Thanks in advance for your time and knowledge!

The issue at hand is that my scanner started to go crazy all of a sudden. First, I noticed a several second long louder-than-normal electric noise coming from the scanner and, apparently, some static electricity buildup inside the machine, since my scans started to exhibit a certain degree of what looks like newton rings to my eyes. Although I knew something was off a this point, things got worse.
By now, the scanner is producing a clearly audible "chirping" noise for several seconds upon startup and then continues to present me with a fast-flashing bulb on the inside and an evenly fast flicker of the green status LED on the case front. When connecting it to the computer in this state, I get the usb connection sound, but no actual connection as it seems.

I have opened the scanner up and unplugged the bulb to see if the error was reproduceable, which it still was. Although I suspected as much, everything is fine mechanically, which fortifies my suspicion of the issue being of electrical nature. Next, I will try to locate the chirps source more exactly and see if it is one of the parts that I can exchange myself (coil, capacitor) or rather one of the microchips, which would be bad I guess.

Has any of you encountered a similar problem and happens to know a fix, or did the thing just fry itself?

Cheers,
David

 

[Murray Kelly]

Welcome, David. Hope we can help.

My question is: is the noise from the power supply or from inside the scanner itself? Switch Mode Power Supplies run at supersonic levels unless something is wrong and the frequencies are within human hearing range.

Could be you need a new SMPS.

 

[Sid836]

Check with the power supply for any problems. It is most likely the voltages provided to the scanner are not correct.

 

[adogsdevotion]

Dear Murray Kelly,
dear Nikos 72,

thank you for your input! I will try and check with a different power supply. As of now, I have done nothing but given the scanner some rest. Weirdly enough, the sound has reduced itself to a short buzz upon startup for a while. In exchange for this, I get badly distorted scans in nothing but extreme blues and greens even after re-installing Vuescan and fiddling with the settings. By now, the situation has gone back to the original description.

Unfortunately, the noise is clearly coming from inside the scanner :/