Scanner Probs! Requesting suggestions

[jricci]

I'm having some scanner difficulties.
[Basic info]
Computer:
HP Pavilion 4535 w/ Pentium ll @~450Mhz
256 M ram (is maximum)
Win98SE OS

Scanner:
UMAX Astr610P with VistaScan 2.4 software
(unit is 10 years old to me)

Other bundled software:
Presto Page Manager 2.3 (rough edit software)
Presto Imagefolio 4.1.0 (precision edit software)
Adobe Photo Deluxe 2.0 (worthless edit software except for removing red-eye)

(yep it's all old but my pc still kicks butt over my brother's most modern HP laptop with WinVista OS! Faster, more versatile and does only what I tell it to do)

Problem Is;
When scanning a photo I'm getting an image that is yellowed (unselected scan area as well) except for a vertical stripe area about an inch wide near the left hand border. Diagnostics are extremely limited and of course UMAX stopped support for this instrument in fall of last year. ARGGGH!

The Imagefolio software is very good and I can edit out the yellowing, but it's a pain. I paid $50 for this scanner and it's bundle 10 years ago and the unit was new. Now they want anywhere from $500 to $1000 for a more modern unit. And the new stuff is unlikely to be as good or versatile. Besides I'd like it to work like it used to like most of my other old but still working fine junk.

Things I've tried;

cleaning surface glass (both sides)
dusting off electronics
reinstalling original software
modifying (playing with) default scan settings

If you have any reccomendations please respond to this thread or email me at jricci@phonoscope.net

Thanks!