I just bought an HP scanjet 5500C to use with my new Dell Dimension 8250. I can scan pics for a little while, and then it just craps out. If I remove the scanner from the Control Panel, unplug the USB cable, reboot, plug-in the USB cable, WinXP detects the scanner, and then I can scan for a little while longer until it happens all over again. I'm currently using the HP Photo & Imaging software v1.2 that came with the scanner (I did try the latest 2.0, but had even more problems with that). I troubleshot several times with HP and with Dell; HP says that the USB ports are not putting out enough power and that I need to get a USB 1.1 hub/card to run the scanner through and Dell says that the USB ports are fine and that it's the HP software that is bad. I have removed the old Mirascan stuff from my old scanner and deleted the TWAIN and TWUNK files. I have removed and reinstalled the HP software/drivers several times with each v1.2 and v2.0, following the HP instructions to the letter (all things in order)...nothing seems to fix it. Could there be any truth to the USB port power theory? Has anyone run into this problem and is there a fix? Thanks in advance for the help!

It's most likely to be the answer HP gave you, not enough power through your USB port, and of course Dell will deny that. The solution, as you say, is to buy a powered USB hub. However, someone may have a slightly more cost effective solution.......

Make sure the power isnt set to allow the computer to turn off this device to save power Right click my computer properties Click the hardware tab go to device manager Go to the bottom where it says Universal Serial Bus controllers Open + sign Right click/go to properties Look for the power management tab Untick the box that says "allow this computer to turn off this device to save power" Click ok Do this for all the usb hubs etc under here then click ok. Reboot and see if that helps