I just installed my brother MFC-490CW printer/fax/copier/scanner onto a new laptop and everything works but the scanner. When I try to scan a message pops up "check connections". Everything worked fine on my previous laptop. How do I get my scanner to work?

HAve you installed the printer software to your Both Computer?
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Brother Printer Support

Install the Brothers Paper Port program and see if that helps. Usually comes with CD you have with machine but can be down loaded...

Most of these will send a fax without even using the PC. Just connect a phone line, place the document in the proper position, usuallu print side up on newer models, and push the fax button, it should prompt you for the number. Once dialed,, the paper will feed into the scanner portion of the multi, and you will see it on the menu bar saying sending page 1, 2 etc, after if is done sending, it will dial and connect, yu should hear the typical noise a fax makes. then it will say fax sent or end or something similar, that's it, try sending one to a friend to make sure it's working. Now some simpler machines require you to open the scanner portion and lay the paper down in the glass manually, mine does it both ways. In that case just skip the feeding part, and dial wait for it to scan and send.

Try Brother support:

Brother MFC-490cw Manual

A DEPENDABLE MACHINE BUT LACKS PRINTING QUALITY! Date of Review: Jan 14, 2009. The Bottom Line: Love the fax...not too impressed with printing quality or ink prices. Review: I bought my Brother Multi-Function Center 440CN a couple of years ago. .... Brother MFC-490cw Color... Brother MFC-440CN All-In-One. ...
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I have the same problem. It was working fine, then after not using it for a few weeks, all the sudden I couldn't scan. I'm hooked up wirelessly through my router. I can initiate a scan both from my PC and from the scanner itself, when initated from the scanner my PC responds and shows the progress bar, and the scanner actually scans. However for some reason no data is being sent back to the PC. And after a few minutes I get an error message saying that communication was lost (or something like that) error TW007. Yesterday I called into brother support and was on the phone for an hour and a half. they walked me through verifying connectivity, uninstalling and reinstalling the software and drivers, but to no avail. In the end we made no progress. I can print without a problem, and fax and photocopy. But for some reason it seems that the scanner is not transmitting the information back to the computer, even through the connection was established and the computer is waiting for the data.

Hi
You can try to download this software for your product
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/windows-vista/Details.aspx?type=Hardware&p=MFC-420CN%2020%2F15ppm%206000x1200dpi%20Copier%2FFax%2FPrinter%2FScanner&v=Brother&uid=MFC420CN&pf=8&pi=5&c=Printers%20%26%20Scanners&sc=Multifunction&os=32-bit

Was this function working fine before? When you choose Scan => To Email, what the device actually do is launch the scanning software and scan it and save to temporary folder THEN open your default OUTLOOK email account and creates a new mail with the scanned file attached to it. So it could be a scanning software error or low in memory since the process requires an amount of memory.

So you better try to Scan => To File and see if the scanning completes. If you have problem with it, then try to reinstall the program of your printer and scanner in one.

Some guesses - phone line connection bad at the printer. (Connect the wire to a phone and confirm dialtone).

Software blip... Reload the drivers from the CD.

No other suggestions right now... keep us informed!!

After I installed the print/fax/scanner drivers on my computer, Paint automatically configured itself to recognize the scanner. Other image programs I had to manually configure the TWAIN source before I could import from the scanner.