Topic: Another post about problems with epson 4990 scanner

[Yaniv Waissa]

I've been working with Epson 4990 scanner for 3 years and latley it making me so much problems
I'm scanning negative with ICE and after few minutes of scanning the scanner head goes back and the scan stop. after more few minute the light shut down
I check the Task Manager and the epson scanner status is not responding
This problem happens to me at home and also with another scanner in the photoshop that I work in

If someone know that the problem, please help
THANKS

[Francois]

Try vuescan to see if it works. This program uses its own drivers and doesn't rely on the regular TWAIN. If it scans OK, the problem is with the twain driver. If not, it's probably with the scanner.

[db]

I don't scan negs that often, but from memory ICE is used for reflective scans.

Try turning off ICE and select the dust removal tool on medium instead

hmm- on re-reading your post. ICE doesn't shut down my neg scans; it just gives me a messed up result. Could be a scanner fault instead?

[seekingfocus]

Seems like if it is working other than when using ICE, it may be just the driver, rather than a hardware issue... Have you tried to reinstall the appropriate driver and see if that works? On the other hand, ICE uses a separate bulb than normal scan operations, so it's possible the problem could be with that bulb specifically.

FWIW, when using ICE on medium format negatives at a fairly high resolution, I'll typically have about a 30-45 min scan time. The results are usually perfect mind you, even at 4800-9600 dpi, but the wait time is tiresome. If I'm scanning Large format the scans can take well over an hour, but I suppose an hour of ICE doing it's thing is better than the likely two hours sitting picking out dust in Photoshop. Dust and scratch removal is sometimes acceptable, but I usually find it removes much more detail than I'm comfortable with. I'd usually rather do it manually than use the D&S removal (at least for negatives)...

Anyway... maybe just give it some time... it may seems like nothing is happening, but the scanner is comparing the visible scan to the infrared scan, the processing can take quite a while.

-Jason

[Pete_R]

Are you scanning black and white negs? ICE will not work with black and white, only colour negs or slides (apparantly).

I use the 4990 (as well as a Scan Dual III for 35mm) and always use Viewscan and never use any automatic dust removal = no problems...

Manual dust removal needn't be that tiresome. Making sure the negs are as clean as possible to start with is obvious. I use an antistatic brush to give them a quick dusting both sides after they are in the holder. There is usually some that still shows up in the scan though and I deal with it in two ways. In large areas of low detail (aka sky) I select the area and then use an automatic method - usually the Salt and Pepper filter (I use Paint Shop Pro so don't know if it exists in other, hugely more expensive, alternatives). In more detailed areas, I remove the dust bit by bit usually using the clone tool.

[Yaniv Waissa]

Thanks for the answers !
I download the "newest" driver from Epson website and I scan again. The scann took more than 30 minutes. file size 50 mb. It looks like thae problem but in the end the scan was complited

I scam mostly 120 slides and the ICE clear 99% of the dust and I don't have to retouch....
I'm not usung ICE  for scanning b&w negatives or prints

I hope this problem, won't return... I'm finishing the scanning for my next solo exhibition.....

Thanks again for all of you
Yaniv