_{TERMS OF USE | OLDER WORKS (OFFSITE)}
                    ___________________________________

Peripheral pc hardware... I love what it can do when it's working, and I want to scream and pull my hair out when it's not. From printers to cameras, if it plugs into the computer I tend to have bad luck with it. What's worst is one day it will be working like a champ, then the next day it will conk out and make me wonder why it suddenly hates me.

My scanner isn't technically new, but I barely use it and it conked out back in May and I haven't been able to get it to work right. Oh it still lights up and does a pre-scanny thing when I boot up, but attempt to scan and I get "Cannot scan for these reasons: -The original may not be set correctly. - The protective Sheet may be put in place. -The lamp may not be warmed up. Scanner driver will be closed. Code 2,178,0" Yes, I've attended to all the bogus things it whines about in the error message, and yes I've hunted for answers all over the internet to no avail. It makes me so frustrated I want to assassinate myself.

The latest funjoy has been my Wacom tablet. I happen to have an older model-an Intuos 2 XD serial to be exact. I've had problems with the thing seeing the pen since I got it. Finally, after much looking around online for answers and much tweakage of the registry and device manager, I managed to coax it into working in a sort of reliable way. I just had to recalibrate the thing every other time I used it. Lately though, it mysterously decided to quit working. I've spent hours installing and uninstalling drivers. I installed the latest and they didn't work, I followed my own instructions linked above (which worked previously), and they didn't work. I reverted to previous drivers and they didn't work either. Then I just now went back to the old, old, old drivers. It still isn't working as in seeing the pen, but it's at least flashing green and red now instead of staying red.

The ironic thing is I've used computers for years and years, I'm married to a computer technician, and I still have these problems. It makes me absolutely insane because I can't get anything done. I absolutely do not have the patience to draw with a mouse. If I ever have enough money to get another tablet I definitely will not get one with a serial plug. Wacom doesn't even support them anymore. Argh! (No I didn't choose a serial plug for this one - it was a Christmas gift a long time ago.)

Edit: See, all I had to do was complain about it. The tablet must have heard me. After installing the old drivers, there was no way to recalibrate like there is with the new drivers... so I installed newer drivers, but not the newest (these are the last ones recommended for use with the serial tablet) and voila - tablet, meet pen - pen, meet tablet. OMG I need to write a manual about this.


                    ___________________________________

                                                   _CLUBS