Well, I certainly didn't expect that many interesting and varied responses to my post made last night and I thank each one of you for sharing your experiences and recommended procedures.

I don't know if I should now poll the entire membership for their input .... or make a judgement on the responses I've received to date!

Trimble; "Powerdown if not going to be used within four hours or more".

Orme: "TURN IT OFF"

Hughes: Agrees with Orme"

Susong: "Turn it off at least once a day"

Snyder: "Uninstall then reinstall scanner" (*my 3 month old scanner has no on/off button, but uses a USB interface cord that plugs directly into USB port on back panel of PC.)

Herhold: Leave on 24/7

Thompson: Leave on 24/7

Follis: Leave on 24/7

Seriously, maybe I should have given some more details to my problem.

My PC is a fairly new HP about one year old with Windows me operating system. My scanner is a 4 month old HP 2100C ScanJet that is now out of warranty (after 90 days). I've been with HP's tech support on numerous occassions over the past two weeks and have gotten a case # associated with this problem. HP tech's have given me detailed instructions over the phone and in email responses. Each time, they have gotten my scanner to work while I was on-line with them .... and each time after I shut down my computer .... I get the same monitor response after firing back up ..... "sorry, scanner could not be initialized .... scanner not found." Control Panel lists "unknown device" where scanner should appear.

I know that in order to load the software onto the hard drive, the specific instructions called for running the set-up cd before plugging in the hardware. I've done that .... and the software loads o.k. and tests o.k. and a prompt tells me that the program has been successfully installed It's when I shut down that I loose everything upon firing up the PC again.

I think that today's computers should work like TV's. Turn 'em on and they work. I should not have to disconnect my VCR first before shutting off the TV, and then plug it back in before turning on my TV, should I? One reason I stayed with the HP product line was because I thought one HP product would be compatible with another HP product.

Still looking for additonal suggestions now that you are more familiar with my problem .....