Problems importing Epson 3200 via Photoshop CS

I have been happily using an Epson Perfection 3200 with Photoshop CS for some

time without issues. This afternoon, when I attempted to import the scanner

through Photoshop (which has always worked without issue), I get the following

message"

"Could not complete the Import command because of a problem with the

acquisition module interface"

I have reinstalled both Photoshop CS as well as the Epson software, including

updating the Epson driver. Still no luck. Does anyone have any stellar advice?

Thanks much for any help.

Have you tried using your scanner with your Silverfast SE software? That would help you determine if it is a problem with EpsonScan. You can download the demo version of SilverFast or VueScan if you have lost your disk. If using Windows XP, have you tried the WIA driver option on the Photoshop File > Import menu? If you go to the Newsoft site (who wrote some or all of the 3200 software), they used to have a registry cleaning utility that many 3200 users had to use to solve their problems.

<p> Doug<p>

<a href="http://www.betterscanning.com">New film holder designs for Epson, Agfa and Microtek</a>

It's a waste of time to run the scanner from Photoshop. Photoshop requires too much of the computer's resources. Epson (and Silverfast) scanning software should be run as a stand-alone program.

 

Silverfast SE has little to offer over the native Epson software - it is better at 48-bit scans, but little else. The full, AI6 version of Silverfast is inexpensive and gives much better results than either the SE or Epson software. You can download a free tryout program from http://www.silverfast.com.

I agree with Edward regarding the superiority of Silverfast AI6, but I don't understand why he thinks running it as a Photoshop plugin is a waste of time. I have always run it that way (PC, Windows XP, 1GB RAM) with no problems whatsoever. It makes the workflow a little less complicated. You do have to make sure that enough memory is allocated to PS, which is a good idea in any case.

Let me explain. Photoshop uses most of the computer's resources. Scanning uses most of the computer's resources. Together, there is a crunch and compromises have to be made. If you scan from within Photoshop, and photoshop runs out of memory, it will crash and you will lose your work to that point. It probably won't happen with onsey-twosey scans, at least not at once. If you batch scan, or repeatedly scan and save, Photoshop, being a leaky product (with respect to memory), will eventually crash.

 

If you use the scanning program as a stand-alone, each image is saved as a file as soon as the scan is complete. If the program crashes (which is rare), you lose only the work in progress. The stand-alone scans can be much faster than used as a plugin, because there is more available RAM and virtual memory.

OK, Edward, you made me curious about this, so I ran a simple test on my system, using Windows performance monitor:<BR>

<BR>

Total RAM (MB) 1048.0<BR>

Available RAM with:<BR>

Windows XP Desktop (idle) 683.1 (65%)<BR>

Photoshop CS2 (idle) 615.4 (59%)<BR>

Silverfast AI Studio (idle) 411.8 (39%)<BR>

Scanning 6X6 color neg. 411.0 (39%) Note: 148MB image, 8X mulitple scan<BR>

Max CPU usage during scan: 43%<BR>

Average CPU usage during scan: 21%<BR>

<BR>

I have 70% of available RAM allocated to Photoshop. Also, I use an external hard drive for cache/scratch disk. My workflow, typically scanning 12 to 24 negatives at one sitting, individually, saving to "darkroom" file (TIFF) from Photoshop. Never a had a PS crash, and the only time it slows down is when I scan large format negatives at 400+ MB.