inability to do final scan

[evergreen]

I'm using SilverFast SE with an Epson 4990 flat bed scanner and have been successfully scanning B/W negatives for several days.

Suddenly, after doing my pre-scanning and my image adjustments a couple days ago, the system stopped performing its final scan function. When I click on the Scan button at the bottom of the Scan Pilot array of buttons, the normal 'Scanning to File' window flashes on the screen for a fraction of a second and the system immediately proceeds to get ready for scanning another transparency by moving the airplane icons of the Pilot up to the Prescan button at the top of the array. No final scan is ever performed.

Scanning of reflective media does not have this problem of no final Scan. I don't know whether the problem lies with the software or the hardware. The problem exists even after uninstalling and reinstalling SilverFast and restarting the computer. Help.

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Evergreen,

as this sounds very strange, could you try EPSON original Software and see if it also behaves somehow strangely ?

If not, please post all details to our Web-Form at www.silverfast.com.

If yes it seems as if your driver installation is corrupt or worst case your scanner got a problem...

Greetings,

Nils Heidorn

[evergreen]

Nils Heidorn - Sorry for delay in replying. Been out of town.

The Epson Scan software does its scanning just fine with my Epson 4990 scanner, but the SilverFast software still skips the final scan after briefly flashing the 'Scanning to File' window.

As regards your request to post all details on this forum, they are pretty much the same as cited in my original message of August 18th.

What other info can I provide you that you might provide a suggestion for solving this problem?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Evergreen,
could you tell me whether you are using Mac OSX or Windows ?
And please also let me know which Version you use...

Is it maybe a "strange" destination that you try to scan to ?
( Network drive, attached USB / Firewire / SCSI drive, ... ) ?
Could you try to simply scan to your Desktop folder ? ( assuming your Harddrive has enough free capacity to save that image on the Desktop ).

Greetings,

Nils Heidorn

[evergreen]

I'm using Windows XP Home Edition Version 2002 with Service Pack 2.

In the SilverFast SE v6.4.4r7 window, under the 'General' tab, I've selected:
Scan Mode: Normal (File)
Original: Transparency
Pos/Neg: Negative,

and under the 'Frame' tab in that window, I've selected:
Scan Type: 16->8 Bit Grayscale
Filter" None
Image Type: Standard.

It makes no difference what the output resolution is -- no final scan occurs when scanning negatives.

As regards just where I'm scanning these negatives to, I'm scanning them to the same file destination I've been using for several weeks, namely to my hard drive at C:\images-photos\_scanned negatives. It seems to make no difference if I choose any other destination on my C drive -- the final scan operation is not now functioning while scanning in the negative transparency mode.

I've got 120GB free space on my hard drive.

I've been giving the scanned negative a simple name such as 'Alice negative 01' and saving it as a jpeg file. (I've tried changing the file type to TIFF but that doesn't seem to make any difference.)

Thus after I click the 'Start Scan' button at the bottom of the ScanPilot array and get the resulting 'Save As' screen, I've been choosing to save the final image in the '_scanned negatives' subfolder, using the File name: Alice negative 01 and the Save as type: JPEG(*jpg).

When I click on the 'Save' button on that 'Save As' screen, that's when I get a quick flash of the window I used to get when things were working properly, the one which normally stays on the screen until the final scan is performed and which I recall said 'Scanning to file'.

Could the Options screen be the problem? I have not knowingly changed anything on any of the 3 tab screens in the Options window, but I don't know what all the options actually do.

Let me know if you would like info on any other parameters.

Thanks.

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear evergreen,
thank you for providing plenty of details, this certainly is something mysterious !
Your file output path also looks okay, hmmm....

I would advise you to try the following:
Please delete your prefs file ( if it is okay to loose your settings, if not, we have to do it a more complicated way ).
Please follow the instructions here to do so:
(although it says something about serialization it leads you to a little service dialog, please press the "delete preferences file" Button *instead* of deleting the serial file... )

http://www.silverfast.com/faq/1005/en.html

After that please retry your scan and give feedback if it works out now !

Greetings,

Nils Heidorn

[evergreen]

Nils - I followed your instructions and deleted the Preferences file and -- Eureka! -- the final scan now works!!

I've re-instituted the scan preferences I normally use and the final scan operation still works properly. The preferences file must have gotten corrupted.

Thanks very much for your help. I can now proceed to obtain images from the plethora of old family photograph negatives I've discovered. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear evergreen,
you're welcome :-)

If this ever happens again i's ask you to create an archive from the corrupted prefs and send it to us before deleting it, because if it happens again it is no "stroke of bad luck" but a serious problem...

Greetings,

Nils Heidorn