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Umax Astra 2000U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac)

Umax Astra 2000U Flatbed USB Scanner (PC/Mac)

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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great value for +/- $$$
Review: DO NOT buy this scanner for anything other than light, casual use! I am a graphics professional and will be kicking this scanner to the curb as soon as my new one arrives.

For a few months now, every picture scanned looks like it has had Pepto-Bismol dumped on it. (This problem has existed since purchase, but has gotten steadily worse.) Picture contrast is muddy and awful. The color-correction sliders built into the scanning software do diddly-squat, and whatever filter it comes with that theoretically removes dot-screen from printed material is a joke.

I spend so much time in Photoshop fixing what the scanner did to the originals that it's actually become more efficient to drive to a friend's house, scan the pictures, upload them, drive back to work, and download them.

That's sad.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Creeping Red Death
Review: DO NOT buy this scanner for anything other than light, casual use! I am a graphics professional and will be kicking this scanner to the curb as soon as my new one arrives.

For a few months now, every picture scanned looks like it has had Pepto-Bismol dumped on it. (This problem has existed since purchase, but has gotten steadily worse.) Picture contrast is muddy and awful. The color-correction sliders built into the scanning software do diddly-squat, and whatever filter it comes with that theoretically removes dot-screen from printed material is a joke.

I spend so much time in Photoshop fixing what the scanner did to the originals that it's actually become more efficient to drive to a friend's house, scan the pictures, upload them, drive back to work, and download them.

That's sad.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Umax products $ucks!
Review: do not buy umax products... it is a total waste of money.
most of the time the drivers and software provided by the company does not work with the operating system you are using. in order for it to work properly you must go to their web site and download a patch that supposed to fix the problem but instead the patch conflicts with other softeware such as camera software or even the operating system (one more thing the drivers and patches at their website are not free).
I wrote to umax and they have never responded to any of the emails i have sent to them. I decided to call the support center and I was refered back to the website to download another patch. (very bad customer support)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Great value for +/- $$$
Review: Every item has a price point vs technical capability. To a certain extent, you get what you pay for. Yes a 2400 X 2400 48 bit scanner is better, but would be pricier. If you want a capable scanner for scrapping, internet use or using your scanner for fax purposes - this is a great scanner. If you are looking for more precise results, check into more current models with higher resolution and higher bit capability.

I just purchased the Umax Astra 2000U and find it quite capable.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: LINK FAIL ERROR
Review: For some reasons, I cannot get this stupid scanner to work consistently on either of my Compaq Presario (Windows 98SE) or Sony VAIO (Windows ME) laptops. Sometimes unplugging the power and USB cables and restarting the computer helps, but lately, it is getting more and more difficult to work.
I guess my computers just have a hard time connecting to this UMAX scanner.
Is this just a UMAX problem or what?
Can't they make smarter scanners?
What good is a "GOOD QUALITY" scanner if you can't get it to work?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Never got it working....
Review: Horrible from day one. We could not get this to work, and I have installed dozens of scanners, not UMAX ofcourse. Tech support gave me a different reason everytime I called. I even did a fresh install of the OS to get it to work, still same error 1,010. Crummy product, crummy tech support, crummy experience, THE END...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Reconnect the power
Review: I bought this scanner afew days ago and it is working fine now. THe pictures are nice for the price on amazon.com! The scanning takes pretty long but fiddling around with the settings will get you good pics (try 300dpi 100% .tif's for colour photos - Worked fine for me).

For those who get a Unknown Device (USB) is your device manager under 'my computer' and can't get it to work, try this. Pull out the power connection while the computer is ON. Wait 10 second. Plug it back in. :) Hopefully it'll work like a charm.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Reconnect the power
Review: I bought this scanner afew days ago and it is working fine now. THe pictures are nice for the price on amazon.com! The scanning takes pretty long but fiddling around with the settings will get you good pics (try 300dpi 100% .tif's for colour photos - Worked fine for me).

For those who get a Unknown Device (USB) is your device manager under 'my computer' and can't get it to work, try this. Pull out the power connection while the computer is ON. Wait 10 second. Plug it back in. :) Hopefully it'll work like a charm.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Scanner is very picky
Review: I bought this scanner several years ago and have felt like I wasted my money. It did okay under Windows 98SE, but I had problems getting it to work under Windows 2000 Pro. I had to download the W2K software/drivers (none provided with the original CD), which took forever, of course.

To make matters worse, I upgraded my computer last month from a PII 400 to an AMD XP 1800 with an ASUS A7S333 motherboard, 80 GB Maxtor hard drive, and 512 MB Kingston DDR RAM. I kept the same video card, DVD & CDRW drives, etc. I reloaded Windows 2000, loaded the software/drivers, and nothing happened.

After trying for a week, I gave up. I tried to find updated drivers on the Umax site, but no, they wanted me to fork over [money]to ship a CD to me. Harrumph.

So, it now sits on the floor and acts as a cat perch. That's about all it's worth.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: 2000u out of box failure with no customer support
Review: I have tried repeatedly to get the 2000u to work to no avail. More calls to Customer Support than I can afford. After asking for a manager I was told my problems were common, if I wanted them to check out the scanner (since phone support could not figure it out) I had to send back the scanner at my expense and they would determine whether or not to repair, refurbish or replace the scanner. The final gotcha was that I had tried for over three months to solve the problems by phone and was now out of warranty and they refused to even look at it if I did send it back. Buy ANYthing else.


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