Customer Reviews

Umax Astra 1220U USB Color Flatbed Scanner

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If you're a Mac user, forget this one (and all Umac products). They don't intend to provide drivers for Mac OS X.

Will not work with XP despite downnloaded drivers and patches. Umax wants to sell new drivers but I'm not willing to risk more time and money on something that Umax should be supporting without cost. Trash day is Tuesdays here if you are pre-XP and looking for a deal on a scanner.

I'm not sure where the product has come, but I own a UMAX 1220S scanner and was absolutely apalled (to coin an old term) to find that I could not download an appropriate driver for WinXP to run it. If it weighed a few pounds more, I could at least use it for a boat anchor!

I don't have the heart to try and peddle it to the next sucker. So chalk this up to the "shame on me" category for making the purchase. I echo the sentiment of other reviewers. DO NOT BUY.. and send a message. I've been in the computing industry for nearly 20 years, and this is the FIRST review that I've felt compelled to submit. Shame on UMAX. I hope the owners have made their keep and can live with their decisions.

I purchased this scanner April of 2000. The software included in the package was clunky and did not load properly unless each was done separeatly. The scanner is slow and there is no on/off switch for the lamp. You can unplug the power supply adapter when you are finished using it to save the lamp. If you do, the pc must be rebooted to use it again. The twain interface is NOT COMPATIBLE with Windows XP or Win 2000. The software will not work in those OS's. However Windows XP Pro can inititiate a native driver to scan all items as a photo file. I am looking for a better unit now that I have had such rotten (almost non-existent) support from UMAX on this item. Definitly Not Umax this time!

I bought an Astra 1220u when it originally came out and have had it for over five years. It has worked perfectly all this time, and the output is excellent, even when using the standard settings. The drivers are compatible with Photoshop, and were easy to use and customize. That said, I've only used it on a Mac, so I don't know how good the Windows software is.

do not buy umax products... it is a total waste of money.
most of the time the drivers and software provided by the company does not work with the operating system you are using. in order for it to work properly you must go to their web site and download a patch that supposed to fix the problem but instead the patch conflicts with other softeware such as camera software or even the operating system (one more thing the drivers and patches at their website are not free).
I wrote to umax and they have never responded to any of the emails i have sent to them. I decided to call the support center and I was refered back to the website to download another patch. (very bad customer support)

What's in the wolrd that they charge for driver software. They are on the way to get to chapter 11. Poor quality.

I inherited this scanner from my father a few years ago when I was in college. At the time I had a Dell running Windows 98. Then I upgraded my system and am now running Windows XP Pro. The original driver didn't work, although XP had a generic driver that would let the scanner work with limited options.

All I did was search for "umax 1220u driver" on Google and I was easily able to find sites offering the Umax driver that will work with Windows XP, for free.

The scanner and the VistaMax software it comes with still work great! Sure it's not as fancy or small as newer scanners on the market but it does what I need it to do and it was extremely inexpensive. Free!

You cannot download drivers from your website. Instead they want to force you to buy a CD of their drivers.

Never never never buy from UMAX. Send them a signal lound and clear. Their company is paid for by the customer. They need to get the message that the customer does not serve their needs! They serve the needs of the customer.

I do not really understand the missing or scarcely obtainable driver for XP matter. I have just bought an old instance of this scanner, and XP supports it natively, there is no need the UMAX driver at all. I checked the properties of the native driver, it belongs to Microsoft and its creation date is on 2001. There is (Sane) support in Linux too. So far I'm content with the device, at least it was worth of buying for $12.