General Mac hardware discussions forum: Connecting to old Epson scanner with updated drivers

Yes, I'm sure there is OS 9 driving all this, because it was bought when I still used OS 9, but why don't the updated Epson driver and the rest make the scanner use OS X comfortably? If I reinstall the software, won't I be back where I was? Should I try it, anyway?

I am mortified to admit that I don't know what it means to have OS 9 software "on the scanner." Isn't the software all on the computer, not the scanner?

More to the point, if I download the VueScan software, do I have to uninstall the Epson software before I use it? And once I have (that is, buy) a copy of VueScan, can I use it also to run the scanner with my other computer, which is using Leopard? Sooner or later, that will be my main or only computer.

I know this is a lot of questions, but I don't want to mess things up by not preparing properly.

Thanks,

Jenny

The title of the .dmg is just what you asked about; what is installed is the TWAIN driver and "Epson Scan Utility." Is that the whole megilla? The only other thing offered was an uninstaller.

I tried installing that and was told that I was successful, but you know the result.

Thanks for the clarification about software, by the way. Clearly, I misread what you asked me. And maybe I should uninstall all the Epson software, reinstall from the old CD and update again? Then I can try the software you suggested.

Just found out that that CD/DVD drive I bought, a couple of years back, now isn't reading discs, anymore. (That drive was a strange story, from start to finish.) I'll try it on my other computer and hope for the best. Otherwise, I have a good-looking grey paperweight! Things have not been going so well this week. . . .

I'll let you know what I do and what happens after that. Don't hold your breath, though. I can't do any of this today; there's much too much to do and really too much heat, here in NYC!

Thanks again.

Jenny

I didn't know that I needed to remove the OS 9 software, because I thought that what I was adding was only an update. I shall try to uninstall the OS 9 stuff (today, if I get a chance), then try the scanner. I hope that will do the trick. The OS X additions are already on the computer.

Well, even if I mess things up (I'm crossing my fingers), I'll be no worse off than I was before. And I can then try the other software you mentioned. The OS 9 software never worked that well, anyway.

In fact, the Photoshop Elements program that was part of the package had a corrupted bit that neither Epson nor Adobe was willing to deal with, and part of the Epson software had problems with Macs. (Most of their FAQs still are for Windows users, in fact.) Adobe should have sent me a new disk, but I couldn't squeeze it out of them; in fact, they denied that anything was wrong with it. And Epson never was able to deal with why I had to do roundabout things in order to scan.

All this may be leading me to consider getting another scanner, one day. The one I have is basically great, but it's becoming a bit of a headache. Well, as the doctors in the joke say to do, I'll "take two aspirin," remove the offending software, hope for the best and get back to you as soon as I have something to report.

Thank you for your patient pursuit of this matter (which in the larger scheme of things is not of very great importance to anyone but me).

Jenny

thank you for those kind words.

Good luck with the project, it is important to know the past


P