Help! How can I get my Epson 4870 scanner to wear a Mac?

drewtonmarshall

Registered
Hi
I've just switched to my first Mac (OS 10.6 Snow Leopard) and everything has gone well, except for trying to install my 4870.

Plugging in the USB didn't work, although that was all I had to do to get my Epson printers working, and installing via the CD wasn't exzctly successful either.

When I try to open Copy Utility I get a message box which says 'Epson Copy Utility quit unexpectedly'.

There is a Smart Panel icon on my desktop and when I open it the Smart Panel appears but when I then select Copy Centre I get the same message.

When I try to open Epson Scan the icon appears briefly in the dock then disappears and nothing else happens.

Photo Print works OK and I have no reason to believe that there are any problems with ScanToWeb but haven't got a website so haven't tried it.

Reading various forums it appears that a lot of folk have had similar problems, but there are a bewildering number of suggested solutions such as ignoring driver updates etc and Epson don't support UNIX etc., but can anyone help me here? PLEASE??

Thanks, David
 
After connecting USB, try running Software Update to see if there are drivers necessary to install. Then try using Image Capture to handle your scanning.
 
Your Epson Perfection 4870 is included with the native drivers in OS X Snow Leopard.
That likely means that the Epson software that you have been trying to install may not work.
Is your Epson scanner available to scan when you open your Image Capture app?
Make sure your scanner is plugged in, and powered on when you try that.
You may also find that running Software Update while your Epson scanner is attached, and turned on, that an update might be available direct from Apple, as is for many common printers/scanners. You may need to uninstall the Epson software that you installed, as that may interfere with the provided drivers.
 
Thank you for your replies earthsaver and DeltaMac.

Software updates are completely up to date, and no, the 4870 is not shown when I open Image Capture, but my other printer/scanner is.

I initially just connected the 4870 to the Mac (iMac 27 quad-core core i7) using the USB cable (I don't have a firewire). I expected the Mac to do everything else, as it had with my other peripherals (printers, router/modem, Wacom tablet) but it didn't. That was the reason why I tried the install via CD.

I guess I should uninstall what I have installed and try again, but (and please forgive the d'Ho type question) what is the best way to uninstall? I need to be confident that I have uninstalled everything from everywhere concerning the scanner, but not anything else in error. There seem to be files and folders on the Mac HD, Applications, Library, and my Home folder. Sorry for the idiot-question but I'm still finding my way around this lovely new machine.

Many thanks again.

David
 
The installer on the CD may have an uninstall option. If so, use it. If not, don't fret. Downloading the current versions from the Web and installing them should safely overwrite what you installed before.
 
Okay, here's what I've done. Uninstalled the 4870 via the uninstall option in the scanner CD, then downloaded all the Epson drivers from the Apple site (although they should already be loaded into Snow Leopard) and tried again.

A box told me to download the Twain driver, so I downloaded the latest 4870 driver from the Epson site. Progress! Can now see the 4870 in Image Capture BUT . . .

I want to use the scanner as a copier (as I did without problems on my PC) so I opened the Smart Panel to use the Copy Center but the Copy Center option is greyed out and not available. I opened Smart Panel Help for advice but when I clicked on Copy Center I got a message saying Safari can't find the file, but all the other topic buttons (Reprint Photos, Scan & Save, Edit Text, Scan to Application, Scan to Email and Epson Photo Site) took me to the relevant help topics.

So I then tried Copy Utility, which opened ok, and I set the options for scanner, printer, source type, output paper and copy size then clicked Copy. It seemed to be going well, with the progress box showing firstly Preview Scan in progress, then Scanning in progress, but when that finished a box popped up saying 'Copying canceled. If this job was canceled unexpectedly, see the Help file for details'. I checked Help and wasn't doing anything wrong, so tried again but with the same result.

As you can imagine, if I had hair it would be in clumps on the floor. Any suggestions please??

My heartfelt thanks if you've read all the above.

David
 
Problem Solved! Smart Panel is 3rd party software (from NewSoft Technology) which Epson provide with several scanners, and it turns out that the Copy Center app is not supported by Mac. I got a link to the Epson Creativity Suite which includes their own copy utility and downloaded it, and it works!

For anyone with similar problems, the Mac link is: http://www.epson.co.uk/Printers-and...pport?target=driver&languageId=1&driverId=318


Thanks to those of you who tried to help me, and I hope the above might help someone else.

A relieved David
 
Hi,

I'm coming back to this thread because I have exactly the same problem as David with my Epson 1240 scanner after upgrading to Snow Leopard.

My Epson Copy Utility software (latest version v 3.50.00 dowloaded from Epson support as a stand alone version not included in "Smart Panel") is behaving the same way as he described :

"...Copy Utility, which opened ok, and I set the options for scanner, printer, source type, output paper and copy size then clicked Copy. It seemed to be going well, with the progress box showing firstly Preview Scan in progress, then Scanning in progress, but when that finished a box popped up saying 'Copying canceled. If this job was canceled unexpectedly, see the Help file for details'. I checked Help and wasn't doing anything wrong, so tried again but with the same result."


I followed the link he gave in his last post but it looks like this link is related to the Epson Stylus Photo RX685 (and not David's 4870 scanner) for which you can download an "Epson creativity suite" software (v.1.3s71a701a from september 2007).

Is it this version of "Creativity suite" that solved the problem ?

Look strange because the "Copy Utility" software, which I assumed is included in the "Creativity Suite", can also be downloaded for the same RX685 as a stand alone with version 3.3a. This version is an older version than the 3.50.00 version I used, the latter also proposed as download for the 4870 scanner and not working with Snow Leopard.

I'm puzzled. Should I come back to an older version of Copy Utility ?

Could someone clarify ?


Tom
 
Hi Tom

I had the same query as you but was told by Epson that although it only mentions the Photo RX685 it is designed work with other Epson scanners, and they were right.

Try it with your 1240, it should work ok.

this link should take you to the Copy Utility User Guide for your interest: file:///Applications/EPSON/Creativity%20Suite/Copy%20Utility/Help/en_US/INDEX.HTM

Good luck!

David
 
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