Scanner is one of our most-used office devices. It scans or takes an image of the document and presents it on the computer screen. If your scanner is not working properly, it can cause inconvenience at work. But don’t worry, it’s easy to fix. Please follow this troubleshooting guide to make your scanner work again.

  1. Re-add your scanner
  2. Check your scanner services
  3. Update your scanner driver
  4. Run Hardware and Devices troubleshooter
  5. Perform a clean reboot
  6. Run SFC and DISM

Before we start troubleshooting, please make sure your scanner is connected properly to your computer. You have to check the cables if you use a wired scanner, and check the network if you use a wireless one. Then, try to restart your computer and your scanner. If nothing helps, then continue the troubleshooting. (Please note that all the screenshots in this guide are taken on Windows, but the instructions also work on Windows.)

1. Re-add your scanner

When there are incorrect configurations of your computer, your scanner might not work properly. To check, you can remove your scanner first, and then add it back to your computer. This helps resolve the scanner not working issue.

To do this:

  1. Click Start on the system tray bar and select Settings.
  2. From the left panel, select Bluetooth & devices, and then go to Printers & scanners.
  3. Select your scanner from the list.
  4. Click Remove.
  5. Go back to the Printers & scanners list. Select Add device and follow the on-screen instructions to re-add your scanner.

Now, check if your scanner works again. If the problem persists, go on to the next troubleshooting tip.

2. Check your scanner services

In order that the scanner can function properly, Windows requires some services enabled and running in the background. For example, the Windows Image Acquisition service (WIA for short) enables imaging/graphics applications to interact with your scanner.

So, when your scanner stops working, you can check if some of the related services are disabled or stopped. If this is the case, re-enabling the services would help. To do so:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and R to invoke the Run prompt. Then, type services.msc and hit Enter.
  2. Scroll down the service list until you see the Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) service. Double-click this service to adjust settings.
  3. Click Startup type and select Automatic. Then, click Apply and OK.
  4. Repeat the above steps for the following services: Remote Procedure Call, DCOM Server Process Launcher, RPC Endpoint Mapper, and Shell Hardware Detection services.



  5. Once done, restart your computer.

Now you can try using your scanner again. If it still doesn’t work, try the next solution.

3. Update your scanner driver

When your scanner still cannot work, one of the first things you should do is update your scanner driver. To update your scanner driver, here’s what you can do:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and X at the same time, select Device Manager.
  2. Double-click to expand the category Print queues. Then right-click your scanner device and click Update driver (the name of the device can be different on your computer).
  3. Then click Search automatically for updated driver software.
  4. Wait for Windows to find the latest driver available for you.
  5. When the driver update is done, restart your computer for the change to take effect.
  6. Then check and see if the problem is fixed.

Sometimes Windows may tell you that “the best drivers for your device are already installed”. However, it’s not always accurate since Microsoft doesn’t have access to all the newly released drivers for your devices.

Therefore, if Device Manager doesn’t find you the latest scanner driver, we recommend using Driver Techie to scan and repair outdated, corrupt, or missing drivers. It works in most cases where you have a driver-related issue. You can download Driver Techie by Clicking Here or following the guide below.

To use Driver Techie to find you the latest scanner driver:

  1. Download and install Driver Techie, then launch it.
  2. Click Scan Now.
  3. After the scan, select all the drivers you need to update and click Update All (for Pro subscribers), and all your drivers will be updated automatically. (Please note that you can only update the driver one at a time if you use a free version. To see how to manually update the drivers one by one, please check this post.)

Driver Techie involves the direct human review of the driver database by our engineers, which ensures you always have the safest and latest device drivers. You can rest assured that all your device drivers are in good hands.

Furthermore, if you’ve subscribed to Driver Techie Pro, and need our technical support to help with the scanner not working issue, please feel free to contact <support@drivertechie.com>.

4. Run Hardware and Devices troubleshooter

Windows OS has built-in troubleshooters which help users to detect and repair some common computer issues, including hardware glitches. If your scanner is not working properly on Windows 11/10, try this hardware and devices troubleshooter and see if it helps.

To do so:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R together to invoke the Run prompt. Then, type msdt.exe -id DeviceDiagnostic and press Enter.
  2. Once the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter pops up, click the Next button to start scanning.
  3. Wait a few seconds for the process to complete. Once done, restart your computer for changes to take effect.

Now, check if your scanner works again. If not, move on to the next fix.

5. Perform a clean reboot

Sometimes third-party software conflicts can prevent your scanner from working, and multiple programs automatically running at startup may consume the system resources without your knowledge. In this case, we recommend a clean boot environment for your scanner to run properly.

To do a clean reboot:

To do so:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R together to invoke the Run prompt. Type MSConfig and press Enter.
  2. From the top menu, select the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft services, and then click Disable all.
  3. Now, click the Startup tab from the top menu and click Open Task Manager. Click each of the tasks and click Disable.
  4. Now, back to the System Configuration page and click the OK button to reboot your computer.

Once complete, try using your scanner again. If the problem persists, then continue to do the next troubleshooting tip.

6. Run SFC and DISM

In some cases, Windows may fail to enable your scanner due to some corrupt/missing system files. Hence, we recommend you run the SFC and DISM commands, as they can repair the system files so that Windows will be able to enable your scanner again.

Here are the steps:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R together to invoke the Run prompt, type cmd and press Shift, Ctrl, and Enter together to run the Command prompt as an administrator.
  2. Paste the following command line and press the Enter key, Windows will automatically detect and repair files that went corrupted.
    SFC /scannow

Once SFC finishes, check if there’s any issue found and fixed. If you get further instructions from the results, perform it as well. (Please do not close the Command prompt.) After that, paste the following lines in the Command prompt to run the DISM scan.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Once done, restart your computer and try using your scanner again. Hopefully, your scanner will be working properly.

Conclusion

When your scanner is not working, you should check the connections (wired or wireless). Then, re-add your scanner in Windows Settings. Furthermore, check if the scanner-related services are running correctly. Also, update the scanner driver and run the hardware troubleshooter to sort out the problems. If there are too many apps running in the background that affect your scanner application, doing a clean reboot might help. If nothing works, run the SFC and DISM commands to repair system files.

Please note that there’s still a tiny possibility that your scanner is physically damaged, and you can only seek help from the manufacturer. If you have any follow-up questions, please feel free to comment below.