I have been using a Canon MP730 scanner successfully on my Windows XP Pro system for some time with a variety of application software, including PaperPort 9, Adobe Photoshop and ABBYY Finereader. After I installed an HP 5500c scanner, both Paperport and Finereader report "Unable to communicate with TWAIN device" when trying to use the Canon scanner; Photoshop, on the other hand, still works fine with the Canon scanner. I uninstalled the HP scanner, but this did not cure the probleml. Uninstalling and re-installing the Canon driver and Paperport did nothing to affect the problem. This problem is apparently not new -- for example, a message from Don Burklo at
http://www.computerbanter.com/q-t_46004-PaperPort-Software.html indicates he has observed this same behaviour with other non-HP scanners after installing an HP scanner. Additionally, a writer by the name of Harry states
"The error message "Unable to communicate with the TWAIN device" when trying
to scan with PaperPort is a known issue. In most cases it is caused by
scanning with PaperPort using an HP scanner and then trying to use another
brand of scanner. I have been unable to scan with my Brother for many
months now. The problem is a ScanSoft issue, as this only occurs with
PaperPort and OmniPage."
In my case the issue also occurs with FineReader. so it is not confined to Scansoft applications. It appears that the HP drivers are somehow corrupting things so that at least some programs are subsequently unable to communicate with non-HP scanners. A solution to this problem would be most appreciated.
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