Customer Reviews

Antec PID-100 (Attache) Portable Color Scanner

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Like a previous reviewer, I needed to e-mail the company to get drivers for XP/Win2000. They sent them the next day. My laptop still has 2000... software installed easily.
I have to disagree with the reviewer who said this scanner isn't even mentioned on the company's website. At the bottom of http://www.antec-inc.com/support_faqDownload.html they tell you where to e-mail for Attache drivers.
I've only used the scanner in OCR mode... not actually doing OCR, but scanning entry forms etc when I'm on the road. The quality is quite adequate... and the documents are marginally easier to read than when scanned with my Canon LiDE20.
You do need to be a little attentive when feeding paper through the scanner. Be sure it's inserted all the way before clicking on Scan, and making sure it travels straight.

Very happy I bought mine, and would do so again.

Jane Fleming, MCSE

For the price, this is a great little scanner! In fact, the OCR is sometimes better than my HP flatbed at work. I bought it because I am doing a family genealogy and wanted something portable so I didn't have to borrow documents and photos then worry about returning them. Considering the cost, this is the PERFECT solution. It only weighs about 12 oz., fits nicely in my laptop bag and, even though I'm an XP user, I had no problems getting the drivers from Antek within about 24 hours. Since it's so inexpensive compared to the Visioneers, I'm headed to purchase a spare right now!

I wasn't expecting great image quality at this price, but have been very pleasantly surprised.

Have been using with Windows XP Pro without any problem at all. Tech support on Antec website e-mailed XP drivers on request.

Paper transport needs a bit of hands on guidance with really small items and sure, USB interface would be nice. But this is a closout, so one should not be expecting state of the art.

It's not for the desktop, but it fits very nicely into laptop case and is great for the road.

Even with XP, it's a deal at this price if you don't mind making the effort to get the drivers. But it would probably be wise to get them before buying.

I have a Windows XP laptop at home. After reading the previous reveiws, about how others got the Attache' to work on XP Windows laptops, I decided to go ahead and purchase one. The price on the Attache' is about 1/3 that of the Visioneer Strobe 100 that I use with my laptop at the office.

I downloaded the driver from the Antec website, per the suggestions offered by other reviewers. I went through the installation process. But to no avail. I tried it on another machine; to no avail. I spoke with Antec Customer Support, and with the Customer Support for my laptop manufacturer. I kept trying things for about 12 hours. As I was trying everything, I noticed that the PCMCIA card was manufactured by Syscan. I went out to the Syscan website, and noticed that they had a very similar scanner, the TravelScan 2300. They had an XP driver that I was able to download. After a couple more installation attempts, I was finally able to get the Attache' scanner to work with the TravelScan 2300 driver on my XP laptop.

The scanner now works fine... I use it with the MicroSoft Office Imaging program (I get better output than with the MS Office Imaging software that the software Antec sent with the Attache'). But this whole process took me much too long, and the Antec Customer Support staff were unable to help me.

I think that if I had it to do it over again, I'd go with a Visioneer and avoid the hassle, even at the extra cost.

I bought this as a student needing to lighten my backpack (endless photocopies and pages of stuff...) It has been perfect. While the quality isn't necessarily top of the line, it is excellent considering the size and cost. There isn't a lot of software of documentation included, but it really isn't needed.

As for the win2k/xp drivers, all you need to do is ask. I sent an email to tech support and the drivers were delivered to my inbox within 15 minutes (Really!) It has been working flawlessly ever since.

The only problem I have ever had is remembering to make sure that the paper is inserted all the way, but that isn't the scanner's fault.

This scanner has brought me one step closer to being an entirely paper-free student!

(Rating: 4 stars for quality, price, and usability + 1 bonus for excellent customer service and to counterbalance low ratings from people who don't know how to contact tech support)

This scanner is undoubtly very cheap compared to Visioneer which is a close product. The drawbacks are: 1)It does not come with a USB port, only PCMCIA card, 2) It is difficult to make the set-up if you have XP on your computer.
Luckily, if you write them, they send you the driver for the XP. I cannot understand why they will not post it on the internet though, isn'T it more difficult to send an e-mail to each and every request rather than put it on the internet??
Nevertheless, it is a very good product compared to its price.

I have a lawyer friend who has a completely paperless office using this little scanner. I saw how easy it was to scan documents and had to have one myself. I initially placed the scanner on my "wish list" to remind me to order one at a later time. My mother in law was browsing my "wish list" and beat me to the punch.

On more than one business trip I've had to pull the scanner out and scan documents into .pdf files to be sent via e-mail. It provides great pretty good quality text scanning. Pictures are not too bad either.

Initially I had some problems installing the software on my XP Pro laptop but with a little research on the web, I found the correct drivers and was up and running in no time. I also found that you need to really make sure you feed the document into the scanner straight. Once this little guy starts pulling the paper, you're not going to get it back. I would recommend this scanner to anyone without hesitation.

I got this scanner from amazon and it works great !!..If ur an xp user, u have some problems initially setting up the driver. these reviews helped me. i contacted the support and got the driver files...its still a mystery to me that why the antec people havent posted the driver files online !!...anyway, the product is great, the OCR works nicely...I feel this is a good and valuable choice considering the price of visioneer scanner.

If you have more time than money this scanner might be for you. I just don't have the time to waste several days to make the driver work.

I am not going to say anything more on the use of this scanner as the other reviews say it all. It is the most sleek and portable scanner. I would expect a usb connection for this scanner instead of a PCA card interface as it cannot be used on most of the destops. I mailed the tech service 4 times by now, and still no replies. I cannot make this work with XP and so I yet dont know whether this works. Can anyone be kind enough to email me the XP drivers I will really appreciate it. My email id is bits_satish2001@hotmail.com. Reduced a star for the tech service.