Is my epson 4870 dead??

**Jim Ewins** · 30-May-2006, 21:34

paulr, I've been advised by Epson to completely uninstall my 4990 scanner and reinstall. I'm so backed up in the darkroom I havn't been able to get to it. It sure is PITA.

**Ted Harris** · 31-May-2006, 05:36

Paul, as I noted in another thread, if you are interested in a new scanner and the 1800f appeals to you now would be the time to buy. Much to Microtek's chagrin they are going to have to discontinue the scanner very shortly. There is a bout a two month supply of scanners in the US now and when that is gone that will be it. The CCD array in the 1800f is unique to that machine and Microtek's supplier has stopped manufacturing the chip .... after months of searching they have been unable to source the array anywhere else. It is not a perfect scanner by any means but, IMO it is head and shoulders above any of the other under $1000 choices. No opinion yet on the Epson V750 but I will be surprised if it outperforms the 1800f.

**Ted Harris** · 31-May-2006, 05:38

One more stupid thought. Have you run disk utilities to repair permissions?

**Keith S. Walklet** · 31-May-2006, 08:06

One more thought...just in case...make sure there is nothing blocking the calibration section of the scanner. When the machine fires up, it runs through a series of calibration steps in the first inch or so of the scanner bed. If that area is covered up, it won't be able to self-calibrate and balk at operating.

**Ted Harris** · 31-May-2006, 18:06

Keith ... had forgotten about that and it is also a possibility. Paul that is the skinny strip either at the top or the bottom of the scanning glass

**Neil Miller** · 1-Jun-2006, 01:37

Paul - mine has done the same thing three times in the past year. On the first two occasions turning the scanner off, unplugging the firewire cable, turning the scanner back on and re-inserting the cable sorted it out. The third time this didn't work. I had been scanning negs and reverted back to reflective, but the green light wouldn't stop blinking and the cable trick wouldn't work. I had been scanning film flat on the glass with no holder, so just out of desperation I switched back to neg mode - no joy - then put in a neg holder: it suddenly started working again. I don't know why - perhaps the head needed something like the white patches on the holder to realign itself?

Regards,
Neil.