Epson 2450 software issues

[Rob F.]

1. After I scan using the Epson Twain control panel, the panel

becomes blanked over with a gray rectangle. Then it just sits there

and won't respond to the mouse. Sometimes the grey area goes away

after a while, and sometimes not. While it's there, you just can't

do anything, not even close it out. Anybody know what's going on?

 

2. If the gray area does go away, then after closeing the Epson

Twain window (per the directions) it returns to the Epson Smart

Panel. The Smart Panel makes me feel really dumb, because I don't

see any way to continue. If I wait, sometimes it gives me a "finish"

button to click on, after which I see my picture on the screen. But

sometimes the picture is never to be seen again. It doesn't seem

consistent. The software seems so user-unfriendly, I'm thinking I

either need to take it all back, unless I'm just doing something

wrong.

 

Is anyone else having these troubles with the 2450?

[barry schmetter]

Rob,

 

I had some similar problems with my 2450 that I suspect were USB related. I solved them by upgrading the BIOS of my motherboard.

[robert_kennedy]

I had similar problems with the 1650! What setup are you running?

[daniel_kreithen1]

I have the same problem with the 2450. I solved it by skirting the issue. I use the 2450 so far with Vuescan only, which works quite well and doesn't cause this sort of problem. I tried killing all other programs running in the background, but still have the same problem. Any suggestions? I dread calling Epson Tech Support, since they have not been helpful in other matters in the past.

[Rob F.]

I'm running the 2450 with a Compaq 1694 laptop, which runs at around 350 Mhz. and has 192 megabytes of RAM. The hard disk is about 8 GB, I think. Or maybe 6. I'm not getting any messages about lack of space. I wonder if it could be clashing with the flight simulator (not running at the same time), or with the Norton Antivirus, which does run in the background. I think I'll try it without Norton running. If that doesn't work, I'll uninstall and reinstall the software. If that doesn't work,

 

HELP!

 

Any and all ideas will be greatly appreciated.

[jeff_drew4]

You may also need to check your Windows service pack status and make sure you have all the performance tweaks needed for the OS, ie. video drivers, USB, etc.

[mediumformat]

I don't have the 2450, but found that after upgrading my Sony Vaio desktop to 512MB of RAM worked wonders for the functioning of all applications, especially image work. I would also agree to check for driver updates for your specific OS (I have Windows Me and it seems to be fairly stable).

[daniel_kreithen1]

Good suggestions, but I think it's likely to be (for me) a video card interaction issue. I'm running Windows 2000 (latest version) and have 1.5 GByte of RAM, so memory should not be a serious issue. If I disable all of the virus scan and other background processes, it still does the same thing. Oh well. At least I'm not the only one...

[robert_kennedy]

Check your USB drivers. I'd uninstall and then reinstall them and then install the Epson software.

[scott_eaton]

<I>Any and all ideas will be greatly appreciated. </i><P>Sure. Get a better video card.<P>

[bob_squires]

Rob: It appears that lots of people with Epson 2450 Photo scanners are having troubles. Most of us bought these machines because they do a decent job of scanning film and slides but about the only thing the manual shows is which way around to put the film holder. I have a friend with better instincts than myself and he gave me a procedure, which I will pass on.

1. Put the film or slide in position.

2. Bring up PS Elements.

3. Turn on the scanner.

4. Click File - Import - Epson Twain.

5. Click Configuration.

6. Under "Preview", if "Automatic Preview" and "Automatic Thumbnail" are check-marked, click out the check marks.

7. With the mouse, draw an outline around the image you want.

8. Set "Document Source" and "Resolution".

9. Click "Preview".

10. You could click the tool icon at this point and make some adjustments but better not for a start.

11. Click "Scan".

12. When the scanner has finished doing its thing, click "Close" and your image will appear in PS Elements.

I should not be making a contribution since I know so little about these things, but it may help to pass on something that works for me.

[bernhard]

I had a similar problem on my Athlon system when I installed a new graphic card (Matrox 550) under win 98. What solved the problem, was disabling bitmap caching in the display driver settings. I don't know your OS or Graphic card, but disabling some or all video acceleration might help you arrow it down.

[Rob F.]

Well, things are not getting much better. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the software, twice tonight. No improvement. Disabling Norton didn't help. I thought maybe using Silverfast instead of the Epson Dumb Panel would help, but I couldn't find Silverfast to initiate it, even though it registers as present with the "find" utility. I read the Silverfast help, which said to use the "File" utility to install Silverfast within the Dumb Panel or within Photoshop. Well, the dumb panel hasn't got a "File" or any other microsoft tool bar items, so I tried going to Photoshop. Photoshop locked up on me--just made a bell sound if I clicked on anything--so I had to kill the computer with the off switch. Norton flagged a bunch of errors on restart, so I spent an hour going through the horse-and-pony act to get up and running again.

 

This thing is really user-unfriendly. The documentation stinks. Has anyone found this scanner to be worth the trouble?

 

I'm going to try Bob Squires' suggestions. But I may have to take this thing back. In the meantime, I sure don't recommend buying one! Thanks for all the help so far.

[david_f._stein]

You have made good suggestions on using the software. Turn off

Automatic Preview and Automatic Thumbnail, then you can set the Twain

for the type of object being scanned (Negative vs Positive vs

document, etc.), then do a Preview, which will scan all the 4x9 area.

You can also turn off Color Correction if you want to profile your

scanner or a printer with a product like Wiziwyg or Monaco EZColor.

Can't help with PC. I am using this scanner on a legacy Macintosh

computer, processor and program (Powermac 7500; 604e processor;

Photoshop 5.0.2.). Software installed in a couple of minutes. Both

the Epson and Silverfast TWAINS and the Epson standalone have worked

flawlessly since; I am importing 50MB to 70MB scans without any

problem. The only two things I'd like to see on the TWAIN are a way

to rotate or invert images and an indication of what scan resolution

is actually in action. At least, you are given a file output dpi and

size. Thus, if you scan at 300 dpi, when you open your image it will

be at 300 dpi-this can save resampling distortion. LAST RESORT. I

have found Epson Technical Support to be superb and they have PC and

Mac specialists for each product. Give Epson a try. G

[dan_sweet]

I really like my 2450 and haven't really had any issues other than the twain deal in full auto mode not scanning fullfram--I "solved" this by never using the full-auto mode. I'm using the firewire connection on a G3 400mhz iMac with 320MB of RAM. If you had a Mac I'd probably blame the problems you are describing to to small an amount of memory being allocated to the scanning programs--thanks to Apple for some of the worst OS memory management of all time. If its not a Mac--which i think you said its a PC? I'd spend $35-50 and drop a firewire card in one of those open PCI slots you probably have. Its way faster and firewire is nice to have anyways. I've had so many dumb issues invovling USB drivers(on both Macs and PCs) that I avoid it whenver I can. Just an option for those out there that like to solve thing by throwing money at them! ;)

[johnelstad]

I found a review a while back on the 2450 (I don't own one myself) that contained a few techniques on scanning. I'm including it on the off chance that it may contain helpful information.

 

By the way, re-reading the question, it is likely that an older less-powerful video card could cause problems similar to those described.

[scott_eaton]

<I>In the meantime, I sure don't recommend buying one!</i><P>An Epson 2450, or a Compaq Notebook??? Are you trying to plop that thing in and out of a docking station as well???<P>Seriously, try decreasing the graphics acceleration as mentioned above. Usually needs to be throttled in most notebooks anyways since the onboard graphics chips are so flaky. Otherwise, you're trying to kick a dead horse up really big hill trying to resolve scanner I/O issues an with an older Compaq notebook running Win95/98.<P>A notebook with 192megs of RAM and a P350 is also big, screaming candidate for Win2K, which among everything else would have the highest probability of solving the problem, if it can be solved at all.

[ernie_fosse]

First of all, the Epson 2450 is the very first scanner I have ever purchased. I bought it largely because of the chatter on this list. I am very pleased with that decision. The 2450 has proved to be everything I expected, and a lot more.

That said, I noticed an error message that popped up everytime I launched a scan saying that my USB connection might slow down the process considerably because the 2450 was designed for USB 2.0. I went out and bought a USB 2.0 card and put it in my machine. It is much faster -- faster than Firewire, according to the box -- and I have not had an error since. I use a Compaq Presario with 512MB RAM, running Windows XP Pro.

I have also found that the Silverfast software that came with it is easier to use that the Twain that came with it. I't fast, it's easy, and it's intuitive.

Ernie, almost snow-bound, in Seattle

[andreas_carl]

Hi Rob, I don't know if you are still interested in this thread - I had a similar problem: initially, my Epson 2450 worked great, but at some point my computer crashed, and neither re-booting nor re-installing the software helped. I then found, that Window's remove of software, does NOT do a compelte uninstall, it leaves some directories and some files intact! Only after I deleted those folders manually and then reinstalled the software, everything works fine now!

 

PS: I also recommend Silverfast SE instead of the Epson Twain. More control over the scan and very intuitive!!!

[Rob F.]

The suggestions by AndreasCarl, et. al., to skip the Epson software and go right into Silverfast and/or Photoshop Elements, have paid off. I can scan a print or slide and even file it on the hard disk. I even had some fun changing the characteristic curve and watching the result. So far, I can get a picture into my computer now, but I haven't quite managed to get one off the computer and onto photonet. I follow all the steps, but in the end, I see a message that says "picture not available."

 

I'll keep trying. Any ideas?