Visioneer 9450 Flatbed Scanner

Pros: Very easy setup. ADF scans black/white quickly
Cons: Problem with Scansoft recognizing my own Acrobat software.

I have some 10,000 pages to scan, many of which are single sheets, and so began looking for a reason ...

Pros: Good uninstall utilities, you will need them!!
Cons: too many to list here

I have over 25 years working with hardware and hooking up peripherals, going back to the IBM PC JR. and hooking up a giant floppy disc reader to it, and building a custom tape reader also. I NEVER ever had problems installing a device like this one. A ...

Pros: Makes a decent paperweight.
Cons: Won't work. won't install. And can't entirely uninstall!!!

9 hours of wasted time. I'm a computer sales clerk at a major store here in Boston, and have installed many, many scanners and other devices over the years, — but never so impossible as this one! Spent over a half hour waiting on the phone (at my expense) just to speak to tech support. They said I needed to uninstall and try again, but, evidently, Visioneer doesn't have an adequate uninstall utility. Tech support pointed me to a web page with a book-length manual on re-editing many of the registry keys just to uninstall it! I printed this out, and took it to a third-year computer programmer student, who said it was much too involved for his capabilities. In other words, on my machine, you need to be a high-level programmer to get it working. (On the other hand, it did work okay on another machine, of my friend.) The tech support said this problem was common. So, I don't recommend Visioneer. They need desperately to imporve both their installing and uninstalling software,

Pros: Will Probably Work Now
Cons: Will Most Definitely Not Work Later

Visioneer has a history of not supporting its products. It abandoned all of its scanners to the trashbin when Windows ME and 2000 came along, failing to provide drivers for them. Buy a Visioneer, you will end up throwing it away next year when the new Windows version comes out.

Pros: There is nothing good about this product or my experience with the company's customer service.
Cons: This is a terrible scanner with horrible customer support.

This is a very bad piece of equipment. I would not suggest it to anybody. We purchased the unit to be used on a once-a-day basis for scanning small bundles of documentation. We quickly discovered that the unit was difficult to install. Once installed, the scanner functioned properly for about 2 weeks. After that time, the unit would not scan using the top feed feature. A warranty exchange was set up. This exchange took approximately 3 weeks and the shipping expenses were my responsibility. The replacement unit was a refurb, and did not have the most recent software version, which meant we could not scan as a .pdf. After going back and forward with customer service, they eventually agreed to send us the correct software. Again, this was not easily installed. The unit then operated for 3 or 4 days before failing yet again.
Customer service is not being responsive, and has actually been quite rude.

Pros: Reliable, easy set up, good ADF
Cons: Software: replace with Paperport 9.0. The size of the scanner could be smaller.

I did backup and storage for several hundreds of pages. Fast, not noisy, no jams.

Set-up went smoothly. Visioneer 9450 USB recognized my pre-installed Acrobat without any problem.

The only recommendable improvement is with the software attached - ScanSoft Paperport 8.0. You might as well stop installing it, and get hold of Papertport 9.0 immediately. That version can deal with double sided sheets in ADF very easily - and quite a few papers are such. Of course, I could have some more ideas for Paperport, but that is another section + it works fine.

Pros: Fast, excellent documentation and software bundle, superlative document quality.
Cons: A little pricey for most, I would imagine, but well worth it.

Looking to scan without constantly opening and closing the platten, I searched for a scanner that had a paper feed. I saw the HP 5550c, but did read some tepid reviews about its performance and software bundle. Not only that, the scanner was unavailable to me locally.

So, while surfing the net, I found the Visioneer 9450 USB. While initially skeptical of its USB 1.1 connection, my fears were allayed after plugging it it, and going to work.

The scanner performs flawlessly, and saves all of the documents in virtually any format you choose.

Being able to paper feed (automatic document feeder) means virtual "set it and forget it" work flow. The scanner is efficient, fast, and the documents it processes look fantastic.

Pros: Tolerable scanning speed, good size flatbed, 50 page paper capacity (ADF)
Cons: Errors and issues if there’s a paper jam, poor ADF design, takes up desk space

We got this scanner to replace our old Visioneer that broke. Our office had it for about 5 months and it finally got a jam a few days ago exposing a serious design flaw that we were unable to fix. We were trying to scan a long newspaper clipping (taped to two sheets of paper) through the ADF and it somehow jammed. Normally you can pull the paper back out, but for some reason, the newspaper had separated from the paper and got crumpled within the ADF. When we tried pulling, the paper would just rip. Eventually we got all the visible paper out we could and found out from Visioneer tech support that the scanner is "not serviceable," meaning you cant open it up to dislodge paper that might get stuck itside the ADF (we tried unscrewing all the screws, etc. but still couldn’t get to it). We also were told our warranty was void because we had tried to scan newspaper (despite its paper backing) and Visioneer said newspaper was too "crumple-prone" and refused to offer help or replacement. So, $350 went down the drain. I'm going to try the Canon DR-1210C next.

Pros: Automatic Feed, flatbed, capable of scanning both sides with ease. Quick, readable PDFs.
Cons: nothing bad to report.

I was very happy with the capability of this unit. Ease of setup.. anyone with the basic understanding of using a computer can use this scanner. I love the automatic feed and the software capability of scanning both sides into PDF format. PERFECT... I can't say enough about it. Worth every penny !

Undercover Brother...

Pros: I can't think of any.
Cons: Not a reliable scanner. Too many returns from other customers.

I've returned three of these scanners in a little bit more than 30 days. The first one worked fine for the first day then it stopped working. I called tech support and tried a few things, it worked for one more scan and the problem came back. Called tech support again and was told the scanner needs to be replaced. Shipped the scanner back to vendor and got a second one which they shipped a used and scratched one to me, so I've asked to have it picked up. Today I received the third one, it's still used. I didn't bother to unpack this one, just called OfficeMax to have it picked up again and asked for a full refund.

I don't know if it's the product or the vendor where OfficeMax gets its supplies from. After three returns, that's enough for me. I'm just going to start looking again.