My Nikon scanner LS30 coolscan III has a hardware error reporting when initialising on power up. I've followed the instruction elsewhere on the net to dismantle and lubricate with teflon the runners and and the stepper motor thread. It worked OK for an hour, now the LED blinks rapidly again indicating another error. Looking at it again the motor appears to have driven the carriage forward to its stop. If I wind the stepper motor back a way, it initialises itself for maybe one or two good scans then the error occurs again and the carraige is back aginst the end of its travel. Can you help at all please? Regards Chris.

SOURCE: Nikon Coolscan 4000ED

Just curious... did you unplug the unit for a period of time, or did you only power it off? I would definitely unplug it for about ten minutes, then plug it back in.

SOURCE: Coolscan 4000

Well, I finally discovered the solution to my problem of not being able to scan...the scanner had several broken parts inside including pieces of plastic wheels and such as well as a spring jammed in the upper slide rail. So, it was not able to re-set or move into the proper position to begin a scan. I called the Nikon repair facility in Las Angles and they wanted $200 to check it out plus parts to fix it. So, instead, I purchased a Coolscan V and it works great! I still have the broken Coolscan IV and may try and have it fixed someday.

SOURCE: Nikon CoolScan 5000 ED not connecting to PC

We de-installed the software and re-installed it.

SOURCE: PC (Dell) won'r recognize scanner (nikon ls 2000)

This is a problem with SCSI bus speed too fast for the legacy device. The recommended SCSI controller is the Adaptec 2906, which will recognize legacy devices and slow the bus speed for them.

You also need an older ASPI driver set, version 4.70 available from Adaptec at http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/speed/software_pc/aspi/aspi_v470_exe.htm

Before you install the 4.70 version you need to be sure to remove any newer versions of these files: Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}ASPI32.SYS Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}WOWPOST.EXE Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}WINASPI.DLL Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;}WNASPI32.DLL

These files may be found in WindowsSystem or WindowsSystem32. In order to delete them, you will need to restart your PC in Safe Mode. Once they are gone, restart your computer normally and run the ASPIINST.EXE program which was extracted by running the file downloaded from Adaptec.

Finally, you need Nikon Scan 3.1.2 for the LS-2000, available at http://support.nikontech.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/81

SOURCE: Nikon LS 2000 scanner is reporting a hardware error

Hello Mike,

According to a previous post this is your answer by:
johnmichaelc

The symptoms of stepper motor failure are a loud grinding noise during scanning followed by the enlightening message:
"The scanner has reported a hardware error. The present function cannot be continued. Sense: 0x04620000"