[Linda]

I am having trouble moving my scanner (Mustek CU Plus 1200) to my new computer which runs Windows XP Home (clean install, not an upgrade, but with SP 1 installed). When I try to install the drivers for XP that I downloaded (and re-downloaded several times, so I am sure the drivers aren't corrupt), I get the following error:

Couldn't execute the external program C:\Windows\Twain_32\1200 CU PLUS\Free_exe.exe.

This file is in this location, however, although clicking on it to run it manually produces an error where it says Windows couldn't run the 16-bit program as the file or a part of it is missing. I have tried installing both with and without the scanner plugged in, and it makes no difference, and I have tried everything else suggested on Mustek's sites. Nothing has worked, however.

One possible issue that has been raised is that when I mistakenly tried to first install the older drivers from the CD that came with the scanner, it left some half-installed drivers on the computer that aren't Win XP compatible. But I can't find any traces of these in the registry, at least not under any name related to Mustek CU PLus 1200, or anywhere else on the computer. Personally I am starting to suspect that the failed install damaged some .inf or .sys or other files Windows uses to install scanner drivers in general (since I have tried other Mustek drivers, and all fail with the same error message), but I have no idea how to check for that or how to fix them if that is the case.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I desperately need to be able to use my scanner.