Help with Epson Scanner that has stopped working; Epson support says it is windows.

Hello,

Welcome to Microsoft Community Forum. We would be glad to help you.

I would suggest you to turn off Windows Firewall and check. Refer to the link below:

Turn Windows Firewall on or off

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/turn-windows-firewall-on-off#turn-windows-firewall-on-off=windows-7

If disabling the firewall doesn’t work, then try disabling the antivirus.

Disable anti-virus software

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Disable-antivirus-software

Important Note: Antivirus software can help protect your computer against viruses and other security threats. In most cases, you shouldn't disable your antivirus software. If you have to temporarily disable it to install other software, you should re-enable it as soon as you're done. If you're connected to the Internet or a network while your antivirus software is disabled, your computer is vulnerable to attacks.

If disabling the firewall works, then add the Epson program to the Windows Firewall exceptions list. Follow the steps below:

1. Press the "Start" menu at the bottom of your computer screen to display the Start menu. Choose "Control Panel" from the right side of the Start menu. The Control Panel window will open up onto the desktop.
2. Double-click on the "Windows Firewall" icon from the Control Panel. The Windows Firewall dialog box will open.
3. Choose the "Exceptions" tab at the top of the Windows Firewall dialog box (if necessary).
4. Click the "Add Program" button at the bottom of this list to open the Add a Program dialog box.
5. Click on the “browse” button and browse to the location below and add it as an exception:        C:\WINDOWS\twain_32\escndv\escndv.exe
6. Click the "OK" button to close the Add a Program dialog box and add the selected program as an exception

For reference:

Help: Add a program to the Windows Firewall exceptions list

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc736438(v=WS.10).aspx

Hope this information is helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to help.

Thank you.

BearPup,

Thanks for shepherding me through this.  

I've run SFC /SCANNOW  (from command line as administrator).  There were no integrity problems found.  "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations."

Your comments make me wonder if there are potentially any windows services failing? 

I suppose I can run a disk repair option in case there is something wrong there...

Any other thoughts?

• Samoht

Deepak,

Thank you for your help and suggestions.

I have done as you recommended and it did not make a difference.

These are my steps:

Attempt 1

1. Turned off Windows Firewall
2. Detached, recycled power on scanner, re-attached scanner.
3. Started EPSON Scan.  >>>  Same failure message
4. Checked MS Paint.  >>>  The scanner option is not active, meaning the scanner WIA is not recognized.

Attempt 2

1. Turned off both Anti-Virus and Windows Firewall
2. Detached, recycled power on scanner, re-attached scanner.
3. Started EPSON Scan.  >>>  Same failure message
4. Checked MS Paint.  >>>  The scanner option is not active, meaning the scanner WIA is not recognized.

Attempt 3

1. Uninstalled ESPON Scan (with both Anti-Virus and Windows Firewall DEACTIVATED)
2. Detached scanner
3. Rebooted
4. Deactivated both Anti-Virus and Windows Firewall
5. Installed EPSON driver epson13936.exe dated July 20, 2010 2:54:21 PM
6. Powered up and attached Scanner using USB
7. Installing drivers message appeared.  Then the message that "EPSON Perfection V500 is installed and ready to use."
8. Start EPSON Scan.  (both Anti-Virus and Windows Firewall still DEACTIVATED)>>>  Same failure message
9. Checked MS Paint.  >>>  The scanner option is not active, meaning the scanner WIA is not recognized.

(One additional thing to mention:  I have also tried connecting with a different USB port.  I moved the scanner to the USB port the mouse was connected to.  The mouse worked in the old USB port and still works in the new USB port.  So both USB ports are good.   The error with the scanner still occurs.)

I would appreciate any further assistance you can provide.

Thank you

I was having this same error message on a Windows 10 Pro Asus desktop computer. Shell Hardware Detection was on and apparently functioning fine, however, when I restarted Shell Hardware Detection and unplugged and plugged the scanner back in the scanner opened a dialogue box informing me that it was setting up. It then appeared in my active devices and functioned normally. 

Thanks for the tip!

Steps:

1. Search services.msc
2. Open services.msc
3. Scroll down to Shell Hardware Detection
4. Click on Shell Hardware Detection
5. Click "Restart" the service
6. Unplug scanner
7. Plug scanner back in
8. Boot Epson scan utility

@Samoht47 and anyone who might be having this problem. I have had this exact same annoying problem and I have finally found a way to fix it. The problem is that the scanner is not finding your printer's IP address. You need to put it in manually to fix this. Go into the printers network settings and find out what IP address it is using. Then go to Epson Scan Settings and add a new printer with this IP address. Once you do that test the scanner's connection. I was having this exact problem with one of my two Epson printers and noticed that the one that had no issues had the IP address detected on its own while the one with problems couldn't find the IP address.

The scanner settings should be able to detect the IP address on its own. Not sure why it couldn't do it now when it did it successfully before for me. I don't know if the IP address might change everytime the printer or router is restarted as I haven't tested it yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it does as something triggered the scanner to fail and in my case, nothing was done apart from restarting an overheating router. Would be annoying having to manually change IP address all the time though,

Hope this helps!

This is highly unlikely to fix "the exact same annoying problem" that is the subject of this thread ... because the original poster has a scanner connected by USB and not over a network.

The problem of a printer/scanner having an incorrect IP address is quite common ... and is the reason why such devices should always be configured with static IP addresses when they are first set up.