Lion incompatible with Epson Expression 1600 Scanner

Question

Lion incompatible with Epson Expression 1600 Scanner

I've tried everything the Epson site tells me to do. I've even emailed Epson back & forth, "speaking" with an Epson Rep. Ultimately, he said the problem is not with the scanner and to check the Apple website for updates. I find no updates on Apple's website for Epson scanners.

The scanner works perfectly fine with Snow Leopard (on another hard drive in the same computer, a Mac Pro 2 x 2.66 Dual-Core intel Xeon, with nothing new in Software updates) but I get error messages if I try to use Image Capture, Preview, or Photoshop in Lion.

Can anyone help?

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon

Posted on Feb 28, 2012 11:17 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 1, 2012 9:44 PM in response to Dorothy Barnett

Since I posted this problem, there have been a couple dozen pages of problems with Lion posted. It seems there are more than the usual number of problems with this new OS, and now Apple is working on an upgrade? Why not fix this one before moving onto the next?

Meanwhile, can someone please help me with this scanner/Lion problem?

Reply

Answer 2

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Mar 1, 2012 10:32 PM in response to Dorothy Barnett

Well, according to their download drivers site, they haven't issued an update to their driver for about a year and a half and the last one was to be compatible with Snow Leopard. It seems they are not interested in issuing driver updates for a slightly older machine; Apple does not issue driver updates for the myriad of printers and scanners available, they only make the mfr's updates available. Lion was introduced mid 2011 and Epson has had more than 6 months to update their driver. I would no longer expect an update - if you check newer models, do they have drivers available that are compatible with Lion?

Reply

Answer 3

Mar 2, 2012 5:42 AM in response to babowa

Thanks for your response. In a sense, you are blaming Epson for a lack of current drivers, and the Epson rep is putting the responsibility for driver updates onto Apple. Interesting.

I don't know about newer scanner models. It's bad enough I had to upgrade all my software in order to use Lion, and buy a new harddrive for Lion so I can still boot into Snow Leopard when I need to use software that isn't upgradeable. I can't afford a new scanner! So now I have to boot into Snow Leopard when I want to scan? This is ridiculous.

Reply

Answer 4

Mar 2, 2012 5:45 AM in response to Dorothy Barnett

People who need to SCAN & PRINT without a compatible driver from their manufacturer can use Apple's very basic "PRINT & SCAN" utility in System Preferences:

Click the Apple menu ( ), and then click System Preferences .
Click Print & Scan ( ).
Click Scan , and then click Open Scanner .
Click Show Details . The details of the scan display, including options to modify scan settings such as output type.Figure 2: Example of the Show Details scanning screen
Change any settings as necessary, and then click Scan .

Hope this helps 🙂

Reply

Answer 5

Mar 2, 2012 6:03 AM in response to Radiation Mac

Thanks for your response, but that doesn't work, either. The window/scan interface is the same one that comes up using Image Capture, and the same error message occurs.

When I click on Overview scan, the scanner starts up, sounding like it is going to do a preview, but then aborts and there is no preview. If I change settings so that "scan" is available, and click "scan", the message appears "Scanner reported an error -- An error occurred during scanning" and that's the end of that.

I've even deleted the scanner in System Preferences, and re-installed it. No luck.

Reply

Answer 6

babowa

Level 9

78,097 points

Mar 2, 2012 8:47 AM in response to Dorothy Barnett

If you will think about it logically, how could any software company (Apple or Microsoft for instance) be held responsible for millions of pieces of third party equipment that might need a driver update when the software company issues a new operating system? Those companies usually have pre-release versions so that all these manufacturers can test it so they know if they need to issue an update or not. At the same time, all of these manufacturers would like you - the consumer - to buy a newer piece of equipment, so they will decide on a life-cycle for a product and after a while, stop issuing updates to force you to buy something new.

There is no blame being placed here - I believe it's called marketing, consumerism, economy. I didn't say I liked it, it's simply a fact I have to deal with myself.

Reply

Answer 7

Mar 4, 2012 10:18 AM in response to Dorothy Barnett

My problem is solved, at least for now. Somewhere on this forum, someone suggested VueScan. Today, I downloaded a trial version and indeed, it does work with my scanner and Lion.

I still think the responsibility rests with Epson. It can't be too difficult to keep their hardware in sync with modern operating systems -- after all, there really are only 3 major ones.

But thanks to everyone who tried to help.

Reply

Answer 8

Sep 26, 2012 8:40 AM in response to Dorothy Barnett

I have the same problem with a twist. The VueScan software recognizes the cheapo Espon scan/print/fax machine my DH bought, but not the Expression Pro scanner I have. Since it's a reference scan, I'm using it, but I don't know what I'll do when I need something "good" scanned.

Reply