Lamps goes out, No Microtek repair service. AVOID!
The Microtek 9800XL gives OK scans at a large size. However, as many others note, very often the lamp will go out (I understand it's a hardware problem with the lamp driver board).
Microtek will replace it if you are within the 1 yr. warranty. They will NOT repair it out of warranty. They will helpfully offer you a small discount on a new $1000 scanner.
Let's recap that: I should buy from Microtek because their expensive scanner breaks just out of warranty and they offer no way to fix them. R-i-i-ght.
Please don't waste your money!
I had the exact same problem as many others. Used the thing for 1 year and the bulb died, this was after Very light use. Maybe a dozen or so scans.. very very dissapointing.
We had to have a working scanner though (I work in a university Music Library and faculty need it) so we actually sent the thing in for repair. It cost $300 + shipping to CA and back, and when it came back, it died again in 6 mos.
I'm buying an Epson this time. I won't let the lower price lure me..it's simply not worth the headache.
Microtek is going out of business
I cannot tell you how crumby Microtek is. You must avoid Microtek products like the plague.
I bought this scanner 9800XL for about $1000. After one year, I started getting blurry scans. Microtek's solution? Buy another scanner from us, we don't repair anything.
Now I have upgraded to Leopard. New drivers are only available on Microtek's website, which is perpetually down. I called tech support and
a sleepy girl answered the phone and didn't know anything about computers in general, much less my driver problem. She kept referring to "my website". I said, "What does my website have to do with anything?"
I asked to speak to her supervisor and I got patched into a message that said the supervisor ... Read More
"The Beast" - hate this scanner
We use this scanner in a professional environment and we have dubbed it "the Beast" because we groan whenever a job requires oversize scans and we actually have to use it. It has the most frustrating and nonsensical user interface I've ever seen. (Just one instance of many - the auto numbering feature cannot be reset except by hitting an up or down button - so if is up to 958 and you want to reset it to 0, you have to go down to 957, 956, etc.) It is extremely slow and also has a LOUD annoying whine while previewing and scanning - don't try to talk on the phone while scanning in the vicinity. The Mac driver has never worked properly - and calling Microtek only resulted in their instructing us to re-load the drivers, so we have to do this every time ... Read More
It's ALIVE!!!
I recently bought this scanner. As an illustrator, I was tired of chopping up my drawings and scanning them small.
My needs are simple, line art scanned, and this scanner does a BEAUTIFUL job.
Admittedly, I would have purchased the Epson, but I am on a Mac and the Epson in this price range isn't compatible. (Only the $2300 one is. What a scam.) With the guys who say they can fix the issues with it, I went ahead and purchased it.
Like the day I went from my mouse to a WACOM tablet, it's a defining one in my production process.
