EPSON Stylus Photo RX500 - scanner does not work under Tiger

Danny: Couple of things to look at ( I had the same problem with an Epson 620). Have you got another printer that has scanning capabilities attached to the iMac? or another Twain device? Epsons are very sensitive to this and will fail.

If the answer to either is yes, then de-install them. If the answer is no, de-install the Epson software, repair the permissions on the Mac HD and then reinstall the Epson drivers.

Thats the process Epson support took me through when I had the same problem.

Same problem & no solution . I do not have another twain device installed. An Epson perfection 4180 gives the same error message as yours and does not even light up (yes it is all plugged in)

I just discovered this problem the hard way, after I upgraded my mother's Mac to 10.4 --- and found out that her RX500 prints just fine, but won't scan on 10.4.2, and produces the same message that you listed ("Unable to access scanner ..."). It scanned fine with Jaguar.

Have either of you (Danny, Valerie) solved the problem? Have either of you upgraded to 10.4.3 --- and, if so, does that help?

Thanks for any assistance you can offer.

John

Here's the solution that worked for me (credit goes to Lawrence Glassman):

Ensure the unit is directly connected to the computer. Ensure COPY MODE is selected on the printer's control panel. In order to resolve this issue we will need to get a clean reinstall by removing all Epson Scan files and reinstalling only the Epson Scan driver from the website.

To completely uninstall the scanner software please follow the steps
below.

UNINSTALL
To ensure that all Epson Scan files have been removed from the
system you would need to check for the following items in the Hard Drive. Pleasenote: Not all files and locations will be present. If you do not find one of the items listed, please continue on with the next step.

1. In HD (Hard Drive), APPLICATIONS - remove EPSON SCAN and
EPSON SCANNER MONITOR, if present
NOTE: If you receive an error that EPSON SCANNER MONITOR cannot
be deleted because it is in use, go into HD, APPLICATIONS, UTILITIES and open ACTIVITY MONITOR. Highlight the EPSON SCANNER MONITOR process and click on QUIT PROCESS to quit the process. Close ACTIVITY MONITOR. You can now go back into the APPLICATIONS folder and delete EPSON SCANNER MONITOR.

2. In HD, LIBRARY, APPLICATION SUPPORT - remove the EPSON SCANNER MODULE folder.

3. In HD, LIBRARY, IMAGE CAPTURE, TWAIN DATA SOURCES - remove the ".ds"
file bearing your scanner's name.

4. In HD, USERS, (YOUR USER NAME), LIBRARY, PREFERENCES - Open
the EPSON folder and then delete the EPSON SCAN folder.

REINSTALL
Once the removal is complete, restart your computer. After the
restart, follow the steps below to download and install the most current Epson Scan driver:

Please note: You will require Stuffit to install the Epson Scan software.
Stuffit is not installed by default on Tiger. If you are not able to install the software, please visit http://www.stuffit.com/mac/index.html to
download and install Stuffit.

1. Go to www.epson.com and select North America and then USA.

2. Click on DRIVERS AND SUPPORT, select your appropriate product
category and then select your product.

3. Select on MACINTOSH under DRIVERS AND DOWNLOADS and select
the most current version of the EPSON SCAN. Click on DOWNLOAD NOW,
respond to the question, and ACCEPT the licence agreement. The download will now begin.

4. Once the download is complete you will see a EPSONXXXX.SEA.HQX
(XXXX indicates the numbers you will see). Doubleclick on this, and it will
begin expanding the file and then place a EPSONXXXX.SEA icon on your
desktop.

5. Double click on this and click on CONTINUE and CONTINUE again. An installation will begin, and once it is finished, click on OK.

6. You will now see a folder on your DESKTOP labeled EPSONXXXX. Open this folder and double click on the EPSON SCAN INSTALLER. Enter your system password when prompted.

7. Once the EPSON SCAN INSTALLER screen appears, click on the dropdown
arrow beside EASY INSTALL and then select CUSTOM INSTALL.

8. Select only the scanner that you are installing, and then click on
INSTALL. Once the install is finished, click on QUIT.

NOTE: THE FOLLOWING IS FROM THE ORIGINAL STEPS. I HAD TO USE IMAGE CAPTURE FOR THE SCANNER TO WORK

To use the Epson Scan, please follow the steps below:
1. Launch Epson Scan by going into your HARD DRIVE, APPLICATIONS,
and EPSON SCAN.

2. If prompted, select your scanner from the list of models and click OK.

3. In the FILE SAVE SETTINGS window, you can designate the location,
name and type of file the scans will be saved as.
-LOCATION defaults to HD/USERS/(YOUR USER NAME)/PICTURES.
Click CHOOSE if you wish to change this.
-PREFIX determines how the scan will be named. Type any name you
like. You can also designate a start number.
-FILE TYPE dictates what format the scans will be saved in. ie. .JPG,
.TIFF, .PDF, or .PICT)

No Solution for Epson scanner 4180 either. I returned mine to where I bought it (15 days satisfaction guananteed). Am saving money for a Cannon (9950F)
Anyone know whether it will work.?I already have a Nikon ED negative scanner that works Valerie

Thanks to you (and to Mr. Glassman). I'll give this a try.

I would presume that this is the proper method to install the Epson scanner software after getting a new computer with 10.4.3?

This should work, sure. The printer had always worked, it was the scanner that wasn't functioning properly.

I was never able to get the Epson scanner to work with software updates/reinstalls - then concluded there was a hardware issue. See below.

One thing that solved problems for me with an Epson Perfection 3590 photo scanner was to be sure I was plugged into the regular USB bus, not the high speed bus (if in doubt, chart with the Apple Profiler in Utilities). Not sure why, but it fixed my issue, which persisted even when I tried Vuescan.

I purchased G5 Power PC with Mac OS X 10.4.3 a few weeks ago. My Epson RX500 did work as a scanner (printing has always been OK) initially but Smart Controller was prone to failure & eventually Smart Panel refused to open. Scanning results to then had been excellent. I followed Glassman/macmark2 solution & then was able to use Image Capture instead (Smart Panel now unusable - no driver). However scanning results were not as good. Today I reinstalled Smart Panel/driver and so far so good - no crashes so far. Image Capture way is an option but none of this is ideal. Feel Epson should give a better indication of best solution on the UK site.
Further input from others would be interesting.

I have an RX620 which sounds like it has similar software and has similar problems. Things I noticed is that the smart panel isn't smart enough to wake the scanner up from it's sleep mode (I'm not sure if the RX500 has a sleep mode). USB hubs can cause unstability with the scanner. The application "Epson Scan" is fairly reliable for me as long as it's not started through Smart panel and that I push a button to wake the scanner prior to running the app.

The Epson Scan componant is the TWAIN part of the software which is basically the driver for the scanner and can be used like a pluggin into many different application. I believe it is the only piece of software that Epson wrote themselves. The rest of it is Arcsoft and Newsoft and generally it really *****.

The step-by-step instructions worked like a charm in getting my new iMac G5 to recognize the RX500 that had always worked fine with the old iMac G5.

Only thing wrong now is that Epson Scan "unexpectedly quits" after a scan.

(Haven't tried controlling it yet from Photoshop).

Still, it's progress!

I'm totally disgusted with both Epson and Apple on this problem. These forums are packed with people who've lost their scanning ability with Tiger, so Apple obviously did something between Panther and Tiger to break this. I thought Apple prided itself on ease of use, plug in and go. Connecting a scanner is amongst the most basic of functions in modern computing. It's inexcusable that so many of us should be searching support forums and doing all manner of work arounds for something so basic to work.

And as for Epson. I've been telling everyone who'll listen for a while now to steer clear of them. Unfortunately I'm saddled with an all-in-one that is effectively an all-in-none. It won't scan, and it's printing has been blown for months now. Help directs me to call a technician. Like I'm going to pay anyone to come look at this overpriced turd.

My work around for the scanning issue, scan to my PC and email it to my Mac. Nice huh?

iMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

I can't open Epson Scan - it appears in the dock and info bar for about 2 seconds, then quits. I can sometimes open SmartPanel by pushing the scan button on the unit, but then it says "Please install the supported TWAIN driver." Most of the time it appears in the dock and info bar but doesn't open the window itself. If it does open, when I click on Scan to File or whatever that option is called, I then get an error message that says "Unable to acccess the scanner because it is not ready or another application is using it. Please make sure that the scanner is on and connected to your computer, or close all scanning applications." Of course, it is on and connected and no other applications are open, much less scanning ones. Epson support couldn't help me. It works on a PC, so they said it's a Mac problem.

Just to see if you have enough of the basic software installed and functioning, try using Apple's Image capture software. Most people know it for off loading images from digital cameras but it also has a scanner component that uses epsons TWAIN software. It's not the greatest scanning software but it works for simple things. One thing I remember from when I installed epsons software is that it takes 7 or 8 packages/installs to complete everything - very weird and annoying to install. Just when you think your done- you really have 7 more to go.