fed up with TWAIN issues

  • Thread starter Thread starter Brian McCabe
  • Start date Start date
B

Brian McCabe

I have an Epson Perfection 1670 scanner that I *usually* am able to
import into Photoshop and scan with ease. But for some reason, this
functionality will work for months on end, and then POOF - it no longer
works. This time, I am having a particularly difficult time remedying
the problem.

I uninstalled all scanner software and installed the latest Epson
driver along with "Epson Scan" (Epson's basic scanning utility) which I
downloaded from Epson's site. Attempting to launch Epson Scan
independent of Photoshop crashes every time (despite it being a brand
new install), so of course importing it into Photoshop fails as well.
In the past, solutions to this problem have ranged from simply
disconnecting the scanner and reconnecting it to removing /
reinstalling the software the scanner shipped with. Neither worked
today, so I "upgraded" to the latest drivers / software from Epson's
site.

Any help is tremendously appreciated.

Thanks -

Brian mcCabe
 
Brian McCabe said:
I have an Epson Perfection 1670 scanner that I *usually* am able to
import into Photoshop and scan with ease. But for some reason, this
functionality will work for months on end, and then POOF - it no longer
works. This time, I am having a particularly difficult time remedying
the problem.

I uninstalled all scanner software and installed the latest Epson
driver along with "Epson Scan" (Epson's basic scanning utility) which I
downloaded from Epson's site. Attempting to launch Epson Scan
independent of Photoshop crashes every time (despite it being a brand
new install), so of course importing it into Photoshop fails as well.
In the past, solutions to this problem have ranged from simply
disconnecting the scanner and reconnecting it to removing /
reinstalling the software the scanner shipped with. Neither worked
today, so I "upgraded" to the latest drivers / software from Epson's
site.

Any help is tremendously appreciated.

Thanks -

Brian mcCabe
A few things you might try.

First Uninstall the EPSON files via the uninstall in the EPSON start menu
Item.
Or from the Windows Add/Remove in the Control Panel.

Delete all to the TWAIN files for the Epson 1670 from %SYSTEMROOT%\Twain_32\

SystemRoot is usually C:\Windows\

Re-install Photoshop after a remove. (this will refresh the TWAIN interface
for Photoshop). (Only if you have the serial number for Photoshop!)

Re-install the EPSON TWAIN. ( Use the latest download from EPSON).

If the scanner is the only device you have on USB, You might want to refresh
the USB driver in Windows.

Go into Device Manager and remove the USB controller and reboot.
Windows XP will restore the driver.
 
Tried all this. I'm convinced at this point that it has something to do
with damaged DLLs in Windows. I saw some discussion about this
elsewhere on the web but cannot seem to find it again. At this point,
installing the software that shipped with the scanner doesn't even
work. It installs but won't open. I believe this software relies on
some WinXP DLLs that may now be corrupt.
 
Brian McCabe said:
Tried all this. I'm convinced at this point that it has something to do
with damaged DLLs in Windows. I saw some discussion about this
elsewhere on the web but cannot seem to find it again. At this point,
installing the software that shipped with the scanner doesn't even
work. It installs but won't open. I believe this software relies on
some WinXP DLLs that may now be corrupt.

In which case, you do a clean install of Windows XP.

Clean means format the Windows partition and install a fresh Window XP SP2
and do all the Windows Update. Then install all of your programs.

Or if you have an image of a time when Windows XP worked correctly, then
restore that.
 
I've heard tell of a technique whereby the offending DLLs are renamed,
at which point a Windows Restore or some such process will insert new
non-corrupt copies of these DLLs, hence solving the problem. The
question is, which DLLs are involved in the TWAIN process?
 
Brian McCabe said:
I've heard tell of a technique whereby the offending DLLs are renamed,
at which point a Windows Restore or some such process will insert new
non-corrupt copies of these DLLs, hence solving the problem. The
question is, which DLLs are involved in the TWAIN process?

Actually there are 4 files: 2 DLLs and 2 EXEs.

Located in \Windows\
twain.dll
twain_32.dll
twunk_16.exe
twunk_32.exe

Those can be restored from the Windows XP CD.

Read in Start>Help and Support about 'expand'. Search for the one word
expand. You will get one subject, Expand in the Suggested Topics.

The help article tells how to expand one file from the Windows CD.
Which means you do the command for each file.

The help talks about using the Recovery Console, but it works from the
Command Window just as well.

To get the Command Window, Start>Run. Type Command<Enter> or OK

If that fixes your problems, it is a lot easier that re-installing Window
XP.
 
In message <[email protected]>, CSM1
A few things you might try.

First Uninstall the EPSON files via the uninstall in the EPSON start
menu Item. Or from the Windows Add/Remove in the Control Panel.

Delete all to the TWAIN files for the Epson 1670 from
%SYSTEMROOT%\Twain_32\

SystemRoot is usually C:\Windows\

Set up the following environment variable:

devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1

Once this is set, open device manager and tell it to show hidden devices
as well. Then find & remove any 'greyed out' scanner devices.
 
Actually there are 4 files: 2 DLLs and 2 EXEs.

Located in \Windows\
twain.dll
twain_32.dll
twunk_16.exe
twunk_32.exe

Those can be restored from the Windows XP CD.

Here's a question -what if I were to simply rename the files you
mention below and copy them from another machine into this directory?
Is that the same as going through some sort of formal "restore"
process?
 
Brian McCabe said:
Here's a question -what if I were to simply rename the files you
mention below and copy them from another machine into this directory?
Is that the same as going through some sort of formal "restore"
process?

As long as the files come from a Windows XP SP2 machine, they should be OK,
if the other machine is having NO problems with the TWAIN system.

You can check the Version Numbers of the four files.
The current versions I have on my computer are:
(Version is Right Click>Properties, Version tab)
twain.dll 1.7.0.0
twain_32.dll 1.7.1.1
twunk_16.exe 1.7.0.0
twunk_32.exe 1.7.1.0

You can move the four files to any other folder (OK to create a new folder)
on the Hard Drive, if you don't want to delete them. It is not necessary to
rename them when you move the files. (Windows XP will work without those
four files, it just won't have any TWAIN system).

Not everybody has a second working Windows XP SP2 system to copy files from.
Restoring from the CD is a guaranteed method to get known good files.

Besides it is not hard to do.
Harder to tell how than it is to actually do.
 
CSM1 said:
In which case, you do a clean install of Windows XP.

Clean means format the Windows partition and install a fresh Window XP SP2
and do all the Windows Update. Then install all of your programs.

Or if you have an image of a time when Windows XP worked correctly, then
restore that.

If you are convinced that some windows files are corrupt, run sfc
/scannow from a command prompt to restore damaged files. If the folder
i386 is available in c:\windows\ the restoration will use this as a
source; if i386 is not available, then you'll need your XP install disk.

Q
 
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