Microtek Scanner and PhotoImpact 10 - No Twain device found?

[drrvideo]

I recently purchased the Microtek i700 scanner in hopes to increase my scanning quality from my old HP all-in-one. PI 10 would always see my HP as a twain-compliant device and the program sees my new scanner because it's in the drop down list on the scanner icon. Plus, I installed Photoshop Elements that came with the scanner and had no problems - scanned right from the app.
Unfortunately, the same is not true for PI 10. It gives me the error message no twain device was found. I'm using firewire but it doesn't work with USB either. I've uninstalled and re-installed everything from Microtek and nothing helps. I'm using WinXP SP2. I did a search on microtek and it says to scan to their image compositor first and then to send it to PI but I'm trying to save time and cut down steps and it seems like this should be fairly simple if PI is worth its salt. Would PI 11 fix this or is PI just not compatible with this particular scanner? I did a search on these boards and someone said the twain is from the scanner software but other programs see it so I don't think that's the problem. Seems like more of a PI issue to me. I'd hate to have to buy Photoshop CS just to be able to use this scanner. Not a big fan of the PS elements interface and I USED to love PI 10. Thanks in advance to any and all help.