LaserSoft Imaging

I have an iBook G3 with 640 MB running OS X 10.4.2 and purchased an Epson 4990 Pro to scan 4x5 transparencies. I already had Photoshop Elements 3.0 installed on this computer and upgraded the version of Silverfast Ai that shipped with the scanner to 6.4.2r2a. The scanner is connected via FireWire.

At 1200 dpi, 4x5 scans using ICE in 48-bit mode take 4?5 minutes. However, at 2400 dpi, the computer becomes completely unresponsive and remains that way for hours. The mouse curser still moves, but I'm unable to select windows, switch programs, and the like. The clock also stops advancing. The computer responds to pings over the network, but I'm unable to ssh in and kill the scanning process.

Any suggestions, other than not scanning at 2400 dpi?

Thanks,

Andreas

Hello Stubb,

I am a PC user, but I think you might need to add more RAM to your computer in order to handle higher resolutions. 640MB of RAM is nothing these days, even on a MAC.

Hope this helps!
RAG

Stubb wrote:....However, at 2400 dpi, the computer becomes completely unresponsive and remains that way for hours. ......
Any suggestions, other than not scanning at 2400 dpi?
.......

Hello,

This is also a problem when using a Win2K PC with 1 GB of main memory.
If a high resolution is used and the result file gets close to 100 MB than Silverfast SE becomes unresponsive. It posts (after several minutes) a message: Cannot send command "Set Window". This seems to be a problem of the Epson 4990 hardware although EpsonScan can produce larger files than Silverfast - even with the most recent version 6.4.2.r5a of SE.

It would be very desirable if LaserSoft can post a more meaningful message, which explains what the real problem is and what a user should do.

Rest regards
Wolfgang

Hmmm...

That doesn't sound good, I may need to re-think returning my 4870 for the 4990 based on your experience.

I've read the same complaint several months ago from other users on two different message boards (I believe they were on photo-i.co.uk and on a yahoo 4990 user group); the issue, IIRC, is hardware related... something about the 4990 is causing the problem. The suggested workarounds ranged from "scan at a lower resolution" to "install more RAM" and "do not import the scan from within Photoshop using Silverfast; instead use the Silverfast standalone app".

Helpful Corn wrote:.... The suggested workarounds ranged from "scan at a lower resolution" to "install more RAM" and "do not import the scan from within Photoshop using Silverfast; instead use the Silverfast standalone app".

These are not really good advices. Only usage of lower resolution helps, but this is not what you really want.
The problem still persists, regardless of how Silverfast is used.
I use it always stand alone and 1 GB of RAM should be sufficient.

Regards
Wolfgang

hannibalstgt wrote:.....
These are not really good advices. Only usage of lower resolution helps, but this is not what you really want.
The problem still persists, regardless of how Silverfast is used.
...

Hello,

the problem seems to be solved with Version 6.4.2r9

Many thanks to the Silverfast test and development teams.

Regards
Wolfgang

Version 6.4.2.R9 solved problems I was having with the automatic descreening features in SI Studio as well.

Thanks LaserSoft!!!

hannibalstgt wrote:Hello,

the problem seems to be solved with Version 6.4.2r9

Many thanks to the Silverfast test and development teams.

Regards
Wolfgang

I've also ugraded to 6.4.2r9 but am still having the same problem. Scanning a 4x5 transparency at 1200 dpi works without a hitch, but increasing the resolution to 1800 dpi causes the computer to freeze. The clock even stops advancing, which really mystifies me. The same problem occurrs on my wife's Tibook, and it has a gig of memory.

Anyone else still having the same problem?

Cheers,

Andreas

Stubb,

Are you scanning into Photoshop or straight to file?

RAG wrote:Stubb,

Are you scanning into Photoshop or straight to file?

I've tried both. The same things happens regardless of whether I scan into Photoshop or to a file.

Thanks,

Andreas

What does SilverFast tell you the file size will be?

RAG wrote:What does SilverFast tell you the file size will be?

The ones that crash are 175+ MB. 150 MB is safe, more than that and problems occur.

Cheers,

Andreas

Well,

For what it is worth I just scanned a 546.98MB image and everything worked just fine.

I am using a PC running Windows XP SP2 and have 4GB of RAM.

Stubb wrote:

RAG wrote:What does SilverFast tell you the file size will be?

I upgraded to SilverFast 6.4.3r6b and ran a number of tests to look for correlation between scan settings and the computer locking up. These were all of a 4x5 transparency, and the size referrs to the expected size of the resulting scan. These were all performed using the standalone SilverFast program, not within Photoshop:

3600 dpi, 48-bit, ICE, 1.308 GB: locked up
4800 dpi, 24-bit, ICE, 1.175 GB: locked up
3600 dpi, 24-bit, ICE, 668 MB: locked up
2400 dpi, 48-bit, ICE, 569 MB: locked up
3000 dpi, 24-bit, ICE, 473 MB: locked up
1800 dpi, 48-bit, ICE, 334 MB: locked up
2400 dpi, 24-bit, ICE, 297 MB: locked up
1800 dpi, 24-bit, ICE, 167 MB: locked up

1200 dpi, 48-bit, ICE, 149 MB: okay
1200 dpi, 24-bit, ICE, 74 MB: okay

4000 dpi, 48-bit, no ICE, 1.632 MB: okay
3000 dpi, 48-bit, no ICE, 918 MB: okay
3600 dpi, 24-bit, no ICE, 668 MB: okay
2400 dpi, 48-bit, no ICE, 569 MB: okay

The locks occur within a few seconds of the scan carriage advancing the the edge of the transparency. It appears that scanning with ICE when the resulting file size exceeds some threshold causes the computer to lock up. There may be some other factors that I'm not considering.

These problems occur both on my G3 iBook and my wife's TiBook.

Anyone have any ideas?

Cheers,

Andreas