Railfan Technology > Scanner Questions

OK, clumsy me. I knocked over the rickety table my scanner sits on and of course the scanner went over with it. Now, if I put in 4 slides to scan it scans the first one and then sort of stalls on the second one so I have to stat over with the other three. In other words, I can only scan one slide at a time. Is the due to the fall my scanner took or possibly something else? Can scanners be repaired? Thanks for your help?

Based on your description, it sounds like some part of the internal camera 'movement' mechanism is likely broken. It might be as simple as a rubber belt has slipped off its pulley or a plastic gear has shifted position. On the other hand, if there's loose parts visible, something is definitely broken...likely plastic.

Depending on how much you paid for the scanner and how much a used one like it can be had on ebay or elsewhere, I'd give serious consideration to replacing the entire thing, keeping the various slide & negative holders, etc. If you're more adventurous, buying one 'for parts only' on ebay and try fixing it yourself is an option. Watch out for shipping charges however, as cross-country shipping will be $30-50 UPS Ground and you don't know how well (or poorly) the seller packed it. However, given todays' low-cost manufacturing processes, it's likely much of the 'guts' simply snap into place and a small plastic tab or two locking it in position may or may not allow removing the snapped-in part(s) for replacement.

Alternatively, it might be a good time to upgrade to a better version of the scanner for improved features/speed/image resolution.