Canon Microfilm Scanner USB / Win 7 Issue

We have a Canon Microfilm Scanner 300 with a usb interface in our family history center. It worked fine with the old Windows XP machine, but when we upgraded to Windows 7 (the new Lenovo all-in-ones), it does not appear to be compatible. I tried installing the Windows XP driver, but it would not work. Anyone have this same scanner or issue? Any workarounds? Thanks in advance.

Have you tried going here to get the Windows 7 drivers?

According to the Cannon Microfilm Scanner 300 support site "[t]here is no driver for the OS Version you selected [to download]. The driver may be included in your OS or you may not need a driver." To me that sounds like they have no clue whether the scanner will work with Windows 7 or not.

Did you use the Scanner and Camera Installation wizard to manually install?

russellhltn wrote:Have you tried going here to get the Windows 7 drivers?

The link you gave is to the Canon Microfilm Scanner 300II. That is not the same as the Canon Microfilm Scanner 300.

jdlessley wrote:

russellhltn wrote:Have you tried going here to get the Windows 7 drivers?

The link you gave is to the Canon Microfilm Scanner 300II. That is not the same as the Canon Microfilm Scanner 300.

Huh. I thought I clicked the right model. Fixed the link, but as you've observed, there's no driver.

Since it appears that Windows 7 isn't dealing with it, it looks like there may be no choice but to stick with XP. You could run XP mode in Win7, but I'm not sure as that buys you much.

Yes - I tried installing as a generic Win 7 scanner. No luck. Tried installing the XP drivers. No luck. I should have mentioned the bit on their website - it's classic isn't it. I agree they should have put, "we have no idea whether this will work or not, but we're done supporting it."

I suppose I should call FHC Support to at least raise the issue so they are aware of it. I'm just not in much of a mood to talk to a service missionary today...

Sammy, I totally get that Service Missionary dread If you haven't tried it, and it's on the site, you might try vista. When I upgraded to Win 7 64bit on my clerk computers I had to setup a couple of very old printers that didn't have Win7 64bit drivers, but did have Vista 64bit drivers. There is a trick sometimes, but it is a possible option.

I just did a search and in the fhctech mailing list there was mention that the win7 image from FHC came with the driver installed on the system. Maybe it's still there... do a search on the local hard drive for canon, that might get it.

If that is the one with a SCSI interface also, call FamilySearch support and tell them you need a Full of half height SCSI card. We did and ours does work with windows 7.

After the card is working, you really don't need to do much other than install Xnview program. Simple program and it runs the scanner perfectly as long as the scanner is on BEFORE you boot the PC.

Post a picture of the machine and its connectors.

@Roland - that's good to know. I will look for a SCSI interface on the unit. At first glance, all I saw was USB. If it does, I have a new problem in that the Lenovo all-in-one computers won't support an expansion card. In that case, I may have to shop for some kind of SCSI to USB conversion box, if such a thing exists.

If you can post up the exact model number I can help in getting it to work. SCSI to USB would be a new one for me, it may work.

There are several verities of this machine and they all say Microfilm 300 on the front.

JohnShaw wrote:When I upgraded to Win 7 64bit on my clerk computers I had to setup a couple of very old printers that didn't have Win7 64bit drivers, but did have Vista 64bit drivers.

Win 7 isn't much different from Vista. But WinXP to Vista or Win7 is quite a jump. 32-bit to 64 bit is just as bad.

rolandc wrote:If that is the one with a SCSI interface also, call FamilySearch support and tell them you need a Full of half height SCSI card. We did and ours does work with windows 7.

After the card is working, you really don't need to do much other than install Xnview program. Simple program and it runs the scanner perfectly as long as the scanner is on BEFORE you boot the PC.

Thanks Roland for the heads up. We currently have the Canon 300 with SCSI interface, and use the Xnview program. I'd hate to think we'd get new computers (ours 8-9 yrs old) and not be able to use our Canon 300. Our patrons love being to download images to a jumpdrive. I wondered what I would do if the they sent new computers without a SCSI interace.

We upgraded our computer with the SCSI interface to the Canon. I just moved the card to the new computer....

OK - so a little egg on my face on this one. I did not look closely at the model number and it was - in fact - a 300 II, which does have Win 7 drivers. I downloaded all 3 packages on the website (even though they were dreadfully unspecific on what they did), unzipped them onto the desktop in a folder, and then did a manual driver install from device manager (choosing that directory as the destination to look for the driver). It actually ended up detecting and installing 3 different devices, a Canon Mass Storage, a Canon USB to SCSI interface, and the scanner itself.

I'm not sure what the resolution is for people with the "300" and not the 300 II. I guess my only recommendation is to look closely at the model #.

We also have a Cannon 300 in the FHC. New computers arrived with Win 7 and no slots for a SCSI I/F card as before. We had to fall back to the old U2SCX USB to SCSI 50 pin interface. The Cannon 300II software works under Win 7 from the Cannon support website. The U2SCX interface driver was found on http://www.scsiproshop.com in Japan. It supports Win 7 x64 etc. It is a Japanese language website (Google translate saved the day) and the cost was about $22.
In addition the U2SCX has a 5 volt connector on the side of the I/F. I modified a wall wart with a 3 terminal regulator to deliver 5.00 volts DC and power the I/F even when the Cannon 300 is off. This gets around a nasty problem of having the Cannon on and burning the lamp to keep the I/F alive.