I was given a Scanjet 3400c scanner by someone who told me it was in "mint condition." Unfortunately, I was misled, and I need to at least give fixing this white elephant a try before I give up on scanning.

I've eventually managed to get the thing recognised by Windows, and it links in to the scanning software OK, but when it scans, no image comes up. I've run a self-test and ithe carriage moves fine, so it looks like the sensor (or connections) might be faulty.

Does anyone have any idea how I can go about checking this?

Hi there, is the scanner recieveing power, if so then how does it connect to the computer (via USB?)

It's receiving power, and connected via parallel (the USB port seems a bit ropey). It's connecting to the scanning software, but when it does a prelim scan, the preview is blank (as is the final scan if I do that).

Have you tried updating the drivers for the scanner?

Software & Driver downloads HP Scanjet 3400c Scanner

Yeah, that was the first thing I did, it came with old 98 drivers.
I have a feeling it's just too old and tired...