Forgive me for sounding as clueless as I am!! We have had this Umax about 3 years, and it has NEVER been too great.
Now, though, I perpetually have to " search for the scanner" when I get to the "Mode" section ( using Adobe ) or even just doing a scanner test. The ONLY way I can get the computer to recognize it is by a series of plugging and unplugging the power and USB cords repeatedly. Then, once recognized ( which rarely happens lately ) it starts to warm up...only to either give me the " searching for scanner" message yet again...or it locks up and the only thing I can do to get it offscreen is to completely restart my computer!
When it does scan ( 1 in a 10000 times ) , it is scanning in stripes of red, green and yellow.
Is it likely the UBS connection? The scanner itself? The power connection?
I read some of the other posts , and I do not have any of those musical programs mentioned on my computer - just the Real Player and Windows Media Player, which have always been on there.
I also have a large amount of available RAM and so on, so I don't think that is the problem.
I am SO FRUSTRATED! Any suggestions???
Thanks in advance ~ K.

I am in the same boat you are. Near the beginning of this year, my Astra 3400 scanner quit working. I also bought it about 3 years ago - I was told it was a really good scanner. Now all it does is take up space. My computer says its not there. I have e-mailed Umax but have not recieved a response.
If I find out anything, I will let you know.
Please do the same.

It sounds like a problem with the hardware to me. My parents were given a Umax scanner that their computer can't recognize (not the 3400 though). Unfortunately, I doubt there is much Umax will do for you. They don't seem to have very good customer service (ie. charging customers for updated drivers even). I recently sold my 3400, but only because I upgraded to Windows XP. It worked ok for me.

If you want to get a new one, the Canon Canoscan LiDE 30 or 50 are good choices, and are $50 and $70 each respectively I believe. I bought the 50, which has a higher resolution than the 3400.