USB 2.0 Scanner won’t Work on USB 1.1

My father recently purchased a Vupoint Solutions FS-V1-VP slide and film scanner. He dutifully read the instructions, installed the latest driver and plugged it into a USB 1.1 port. The computer never detected the device. He exchanged the scanner and had the same result.

An email to Vupoint’s tech support revealed the solution: a USB 2.0 port was required. Even though a USB 2.0 device should be compatible with a slower USB 1.1 port, the scanner was not! We installed a USB 2.0 PCI card plugged in the scanner and the computer detected it right away.

The lesson learned from this adventure: never assume a USB 2.0 device is compatible with USB 1.1.

Update December 27, 2007: Further testing has revealed that the computer will not detect the scanner when it is plugged into a USB hub. The scanner must be plugged directly into a USB 2.0 port on the computer.