Samsung SCX-4100

[skelband]

Hi,
I have a Samsung SCX-4100 machine that does not seem to support scanning at the moment via the USB interface.
The machine is not seen by the Windows XP or Windows 7 scanner drivers nor the official Samsung Linux offering for SANE.
Looking at the USB interface within Linux via "lsusb -v" it presents a printer endpoint/interface but nothing for scanner which is pretty weird.
User manuals clearly state that PC scanning is support both on Windows and Linux(!).

I've tried all the usual things that I can think of: resetting what I can from the interface and whatnot.

I'm currently thinking that perhaps this machine has a hacked firmware. I understand that it is a common practise to hack the firmware of these machines to bypass the toner cartridge checks and I'm wondering if scanning support has been borked by a clumsy hack. The machine works fine in all other respects (prints via USB and can do copying so I know the scanner does work).

So I would like to reflash the machine with stock firmware to rule that out. It currently reports V1.10 but that doesn't really help.

Someone did point me to here: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software13/printers/SS/ for a support/driver dump presumably from when HP took over Samsung's printer operation. However, there is nothing in there for the SCX-4100.

Could anyone point me in the direction of an original stock firmware for this machine?

[skelband]

I managed to find some stock firmware, 1.09 and 1.07 and successfully flashed the machine to stock 1.09 but the problem still persists.

The machine's scanner is not detected by Windows' scan drivers although it can be printed to.
I can copy (scan then print) on the machine, but it's like the machine forgot that it can do USB-based scanning.

lsusb -v in Linux shows that it only presents a USB printer endpoint, nothing scanner related.

The machine has a parallel interface also, so I wondered if there was a menu item for selecting the scanner interface but I cannot find anything like that in the manual or on the display.

It is a really, really weird situation.
The machine is in excellent cosmetic condition although the print engine could do with a clean and a service.
But unless I can get the scanner to respond, it is pretty useless to me.

Anybody have any ideas?

[blackcat4866]

Not sure about this model, but most do not support scanning via USB. I doubt that your firmware was "hacked". If you have an RJ45 connection, use TCP/IP. =^..^=

EDIT: OMG, what a POS! 16 years old with a USB2 and PARALLEL connector! Get yourself a machine using a little more recent technology.

[tsbservice]

...
EDIT: OMG, what a POS! 16 years old with a USB2 and PARALLEL connector! Get yourself a machine using a little more recent technology.

Was about to say something similar...just couldn't find comparatively polite way like you did.

[skelband]

Not sure about this model, but most do not support scanning via USB. I doubt that your firmware was "hacked". If you have an RJ45 connection, use TCP/IP. =^..^=

EDIT: OMG, what a POS! 16 years old with a USB2 and PARALLEL connector! Get yourself a machine using a little more recent technology.

I understand your misgivings but this machine is part of a collection of machines that I am using to support Linux SANE drivers with, in particular the xerox_mfp backend.
It was given to me for free and TBH I don't have a ton of money to spend on a lot of examples so I have to deal with what I have available.

That's kinda why I say that if I can't scan with it, then it's not much use to me.

The machine itself is in pristine condition. It is more a personal challenge to figure it out rather than a particularly practical matter at this point in time.
I thought that flashing the firmware would sort it out but that was no help.
The fact that Samsung sold their printer division to HP who promptly took their tech and dead-ended support for their hardware isn't helping much

Anyway, I think you are right. It breaks my heart to recycle hardware that is in excellent condition and for which consumables are still available but I think that is going to be the fate of this machine.

[Phil B.]

I understand your misgivings but this machine is part of a collection of machines that I am using to support Linux SANE drivers with, in particular the xerox_mfp backend.
It was given to me for free and TBH I don't have a ton of money to spend on a lot of examples so I have to deal with what I have available.

That's kinda why I say that if I can't scan with it, then it's not much use to me.

The machine itself is in pristine condition. It is more a personal challenge to figure it out rather than a particularly practical matter at this point in time.
I thought that flashing the firmware would sort it out but that was no help.
The fact that Samsung sold their printer division to HP who promptly took their tech and dead-ended support for their hardware isn't helping much

Anyway, I think you are right. It breaks my heart to recycle hardware that is in excellent condition and for which consumables are still available but I think that is going to be the fate of this machine.

are you sure the cable is a working one? the fact that PC's don't pick it up tells me 1) the port isn't active 2) the cable may not be viable

[blackcat4866]

Was about to say something similar...just couldn't find comparatively polite way like you did.

Yeah, I need to work on political correctness. In the end it spares me a lot of BS. =^..^=

[Phil B.]

Yeah, I need to work on political correctness. In the end it spares me a lot of BS. =^..^=

OH NO! PC isn't the way to go... stick with your previous morals

[tsbservice]

I understand your misgivings but this machine is part of a collection of machines that I am using to support Linux SANE drivers with, in particular the xerox_mfp backend.
It was given to me for free and TBH I don't have a ton of money to spend on a lot of examples so I have to deal with what I have available.

That's kinda why I say that if I can't scan with it, then it's not much use to me.

The machine itself is in pristine condition. It is more a personal challenge to figure it out rather than a particularly practical matter at this point in time.
I thought that flashing the firmware would sort it out but that was no help.
The fact that Samsung sold their printer division to HP who promptly took their tech and dead-ended support for their hardware isn't helping much

Anyway, I think you are right. It breaks my heart to recycle hardware that is in excellent condition and for which consumables are still available but I think that is going to be the fate of this machine.

I like very much your dedication to support free software. But in the past I fought this usb scan problems on different models without much joy, it was just hit and miss. If you have parts and consumables please don't wreck it. Someone still may use its print engine.

[skelband]

are you sure the cable is a working one? the fact that PC's don't pick it up tells me 1) the port isn't active 2) the cable may not be viable

The machine prints fine through USB, although it could probably benefit from a new toner cartridge.

For those that are au fait with such things, here is the USB capability dump from lsusb and it shows that there is only a print interface:

  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength           32
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          0 
    bmAttributes         0xc0
      Self Powered
    MaxPower                0mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass         7 Printer
      bInterfaceSubClass      1 Printer
      bInterfaceProtocol      2 Bidirectional
      iInterface              0 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x03  EP 3 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
Device Status:     0x0001
  Self Powered

It could be that these early machines used the print interface to do scanning, but I *highly* doubt it.
This particular model is supported for scanning through USB even for Linux (through Samsung's official driver) and it cannot find the capability.
It is also supported through the open source SANE xerox_mfp backend driver and that expects to find a specific scanner capability.

<sigh> I've run out of options here and I think I will take it to the recycling centre. I will open it up to see if there is anything internal that I could tweak at.