(Paul) wrote in message ...
First of all, the hex strings in the properties, when translated to
ASCII read as:

"HardwareID" =hex(7):55,53,42,5c,55,4e,4b,4e,4f,57,4e = USB\UNKNOWN
"CompatibleIDs"=hex(7):55,53,42,5c,55,4e,4b,4e,4f, 57,4e = USB\UNKNOWN

Maybe you can try a hardware experiment. There are four headers on the
board, labelled USBPW12, USBPW34, USBPW56, USBPW78. Whichever port
pair the USB switch is plugged into, change the USBPWxx jumper so
that the USB port is powered from +5VSB. (My theory is, that the
switch needs power to be present, before the rest of the computer
boots. This will change the timing, of devices becoming ready to
talk to one another, and might be enough to make the chain work.)

While you can go searching for newer USB drivers (on sites like
http://downloadfinder.intel.com), I'm not sure that a miracle is
going to happen from a driver perspective. Either a driver will
be in an INFINST package or in a separate USB20 package, not sure
which. (Usually separate packages are needed for things like
the Orangeware driver that works with Win98.)

The USB switch device you've got, should be reclocking the data
if it is intended to handle USB2 devices. I think that this means
that the USB switch has to be intelligent and has to be
enumerated when the USB driver starts up. If everything enumerates
properly, the software should be building a device tree, and the
scanner should be at the end of one of the branches.

From a post in Google, found while looking for Epson Perfection 3200
"roundball wrote:
Check and make sure that the "still image service" is running.
the service needs to activity for the scanner to work."

Here is another post, with a suggestion for connecting the
3200 to two computers:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=e...lp.airnews.net

Paul, thank you very much! The wealth of information you brought here
is amazing. I wish I knew about the last URL you provided - it would
have saved me the cost of the USB switch... ;-)

Since I last posted my request for help I managed to solve the problem
(you can read all about it in http://tinyurl.com/2sh33 ). It turned
out to be excessive electrical noise due to low a quality cable.

Still, the information you provided about USBPW12, USBPW34, USBPW56
and USBPW78 was new to me. Thanks again. I now know what to do in the
future if I ever want to wake up the computer via a USB device.

Now... the only question left is: How do I know whether the scanner
transmits data to the PC in full USB 2.0 speed (480Mbps) or only in
USB 1.1 speed (12Mbps)? Do you know of any benchmark utility that can
help me determine that?

You may wonder I have such a question, since the 40x speed difference
should be felt without any tools, but the scanner is a mechanical
device and it seems to me that it is "acting funny". I would like to
rule out the possibility that it runs at 1.1 speed despite being
recognized as a 2.0 device. Any idea or tip here?

Thanks,
Daniel