Kodak Picture Saver PS50 & PS80

We purchased a Kodak PS50 and PS80 photo scanner years ago. They both scan photos fast, clear, smooth, color correct, 300, 600 or 1200dpi,... perfect scanners for photos. They each came with a dongle that is needed to open the Kodak Picture Saver Program and scan photos. They work great, but when Kodak filed bankruptcy, PS scanners were discontinued, as were the Picture Saver programs. What that now means is that you can no longer download the program for the scanners from the Kodak site, nor can the program be verified when installed because Kodak deleted the verification page from their website. You can install the program, but the first time you open the program, you get a message saying it was unable to validate the program and it shuts down.

Now, I got my hands on a program for each PS scanner which does not require validation when installed, so we were able to change the computers that were scanning photos and use the same program with the scanner. Here's where the trouble starts. Since Kodak discontinued these, and we tried over 10 different scanners to scan photos, none were the same, plus the scanned images were tiny compared. Photos scanned with the PS50/80 at 600dpi averaged 5MB a photo and were smooth. All the other scanners, set at 600dpi were 600KB a photo and grainy, even if set to smooth. The only scanners that came close &/or were better scans was the Epson 750 flatbed, but it took 100x longer to scan 50 photos. We finally found a PS80 and 2 more PS50 scanners, but they did not come with the dongle required to operate the scanner with the program. They work fine, but only if a dongle is inserted in one of the computer's USB drive. We only have 2 dongles, 1 for PS50 scanners and 1 for PS80 scanners. Since these were discontinued and Kodak has nothing to do with PS scanners or programs, they do not have dongles and will not help, at all.

Is there a way to duplicate a dongle? They have WIBU-BOX/RU+ printed on the side.

If anything happens to these we couldn't use the scanners. Plus, right now we can only use 2 of them because we only have 2 dongles. Can we make, or copy, more so all the scanners can be used at the same time? Attached is a picture of what one of the dongles look like. It's hard to find an image of one since they were discontinued.

Thank for any help,
Sean

It seems the Kodak Scanning division was acquired by another company as it does have software for Windows 10

https://support.alarisworld.com/en-us/ps80-software-for-windows-v43x-and-earlier#section%201

I would contact their support and see if you can order another USB dongle.

https://support.alarisworld.com/en-us

FYI. I doubt there is any way to clone the USB dongle.

This is a dead page. The text is there, but nothing else. As I said, Kodak discontinued anything for these scanners on the site a couple of years ago. There are still some pages that have the information/description on the scanners, but no links. The verification page is now a 404 page. Plus, if you now ask any information on these scanners, the reply you receive is:

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The dongles are needed to run the Kodak program that came with the scanners. When the program is installed, the first time you open the program, it has a verification link to a page at the Kodak site that no longer exists. Here's a response I got from Kodak when I asked about getting more.

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Greetings Sean,

Unfortunately, dongle is associated with Picture Saver scanners. Once the product is discontinued, so the dongle.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,

Technical Response Center.

Hey @Mr19th / Sean -  I sent you a PM.  Thanks

how do i install the ps50 for the first time if i have the software that came with it ?

If the dongle requires connecting to a server on the Internet to validate your software, and that server is down, I'd say it'd be impossible to fix that problem.