Epson scanner software constantly hanging/crashing — help!

On November 27th I disassembled my desk setup, including my Epson Perfection V370 Photo scanner, and assembled my brand new desk. Since putting everything back I cannot reliably scan anything. Whether I use Epson Scan 2 or VueScan, I can never get more than a handful of scans done before either the scan gets stuck at the calibration stage or the software crashes.

I feel like I have tried *everything*. I have:

• tried different USB cables
• tried different USB ports in different hubs and directly on the M1 MacBook Pro
• turned off various equipment including USB hubs
• updated/reinstalled software and drivers
• downloaded and run an 'El Capitan patch' Epson put out some years ago for similar problems
• *bought a new Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner* and repeated all of the above
• moved the scanner to different locations on the desk

I thought that patch had sorted it because I managed to scan three frames of film without it failing, but the very next attempt hung on calibrating the first frame.

Note that prior to replacing my desk I probably had not done any scanning for maybe a month, but up to that time the V370 had worked FLAWLESSLY for more than a year. I did have similar sorts of problems some years ago but do not remember how they were resolved. It may have been a noisy USB hub, but right now I have *exactly* the same equipment powered up that saw the V370 working perfectly and the V600 is still failing.

Any suggestions GREATLY appreciated.