I have had an Epson Perfection 3170 Photo flatbed scanner since around 2014. It has worked perfectly until...I upgraded to Win11 due to TurboTax requirements. Right after the upgrade it worked fine; however I believe subsequent updates to Win11 have killed the scanner. Reloading the s/w doesn't help. I contacted Epson, and got this:

quote:

Thank you for contacting Epson.

Unfortunately, we no longer support the scanner on newer OS. However, there is a 3rd party software scanner developer that makes drivers for old scanners, it is called VueScan software, please visit hamrick.com.

Note: Hamrick's VueScan software does require purchase [an annual $60] subscription and is not supported by Epson.

Best Regards,

Epson Email Support

Thanks a bunch, Epson. Now I can pay to use your scanner.

Well, F-you Epson. I may not get the professional features anymore, but I can still do basic scans with Windows Scan, for free.

I'll keep looking for another scanner, but not from you.

We had an old HP MFP inkjet that just flat-out stopped working on both computers [Win11 & MacOS].

Grabbed a retired HP laser MFP before it got tossed at work. Should work for our light use until the toner runs out [got a box with multiple toner replacements too].

Why are you scanning anything?

quote:

I'll keep looking for another scanner, but not from you.

And a few years from now, you’ll likely go through the same process again. With a different company.

I've started using the free scanning apps available on my iPhone. While they don't totally replace a flatbed scanner, they are better than a goddamn subscription. I hate that.

Brother has released driver updates for all my printer / scanners, to stay in sync with OS updates. I have never had a problem with Brother software.

quote:

Originally posted by FenderBender:
Why are you scanning anything?

I still find old certificates, pictures, etc., that I want to digitize.

My older laptop is still running Win 10, and I just used it a couple of weeks ago to do my taxes on TurboTax with no issues.

I have heard others talk about this Win 11 requirement, but I haven't seen or heard anything official.

I'm sure if you look online, there should be a free software patch to continue to use your scanner. Check with MajorGeeks dot com.

Good luck.

Windows 10 can connect to a printer via Bluetooth.

Windows 11 can not.

Bastards!

quote:

I have heard others talk about this Win 11 requirement, but I haven't seen or heard anything official.

I received a notice directly from TurboTax via e-mail.

I've used Vuescan. It's amazing: this guy Hamrich supports hundreds of scanners including obsolete ones; provides free advice on how to improve scanning. I have an old Nikon CoolScan 5000 slide scanner. Nikon stopped supporting it decades ago, but no one makes as good a slide scanner. Hamrich supports it with VueScan. He even provides the software portion (Digital ICE) that eliminates scratches and restores faded color.

My sole criteria now, right or wrong, are printers that have reservoirs that fill from inexpensive bottles rather than the bs cartridges. Mine is epson and I use aftermarket non oem ink that is cheap. I believe I have saved a fortune.

quote:

Originally posted by 229DAK:
Note: Hamrick's VueScan software does require purchase [an annual $60] subscription and is not supported by Epson.

VueScan's pretty good stuff; I use it on my Win10 machine alongside the Epson software. In addition to the annual subscription model, they do have a one-time purchase option: The Standard Edition (same as the Professional, except for film/slide scanner support) is $40/yr or $100 one-time purchase, which is what I did. They do run sales (currently 10% off).

Back to the general topic. Save a little shade to throw at OS companies who drop features needed by existing driver software. Epson didn't change anything - if MS updated Win11 and broke the existing drivers, MS was the bad actor here.

That said, I also dislike companies dropping support for their hardware prematurely. It does look like this scanner was introduced in 2003, so you could argue that it did have a good run of support. The Epson support site still shows Win11 software to download for that scanner - but it's dated 2023, so probably the exact same stuff you reloaded that failed with the new Win11 update.

Side note: stuff like this is why I am sticking with my 'unsupported' Win10.

I have an Epson V800 Photo and it came with Vuescan64. Moved it from a Windows 10 computer to a new Windows 11 computer and it functions perfectly. However it is slow enough that for 35mm film I use my Nikon Z7 II with the ES-2 Macro lens based "scanner". Mount the film holder and 6 pics done in a minute. Do miss out on the Dust and scratch removal but I've always been careful with my film and it's easy to blow the dust off before "scanning".

I also learned that scanning a 4x5 inch negative at 6400 dpi is NOT a good idea. Tried to open the 720 mb file and DXO PhotoLab 8 crashed as soon is I tried to zoom into the file. That lesson learned I now scan at 1200 ppi for 4x5 and 1600 ppi for 6x6. Truth is that Film doesn't provide enough detail to make scanning at higher resolutions truly useful.

I have an Epson Perfection V550 Photo flatbed scanner from about 2014/15ish and had to update the drivers when I went to Win11. It was a hassle but I don’t remember if I got the update from epson or somewhere else. The Epson scan tools still works so it still has full functionality.


ETA:
I apologize if you tried this already but I just checked Epson's support and it shows a download for the Perfection 3170 Photo on Win11.

Link to download page.

quote:

Originally posted by SpinZone:
I have an Epson Perfection V550 Photo flatbed scanner from about 2014/15ish and had to update the drivers when I went to Win11. It was a hassle but I don’t remember if I got the update from epson or somewhere else. The Epson scan tools still works so it still has full functionality.


ETA:
I apologize if you tried this already but I just checked Epson's support and it shows a download for the Perfection 3170 Photo on Win11.

Link to download page.

All that gets me is some utility "event manager", Epson Event Manager v3.11.77.

Description:

This file contains the Epson Event Manager Utility v3.11.77.

This utility allows you to activate the EPSON Scan Utility from the control panel of your Epson model.

Note: The EPSON Scan or Epson Scan 2 Utility must be installed prior to using this utility.

Damn, i was hoping it would help you.
I love having a flatbed scanner and use mine a lot.

quote:

Why are you scanning anything?

Scanning is huge in the tech field, document retention-our engineering/tax/asesors offices had to scan 100 years worth of stuff, including large plans. Then there is scan to email, hell when I retired I had to get a decent scanner (MFP) for home...Just rolled over some 401s and had to scan stuff for that... We ain't paperless yet...

60

Years ago I got tired of the disposable inkjet MFPs (printer & scanner in one) and bought a Canon color laser MFP intended for small office use. I've had it for over a decade at this point, and it still works great. I use the scan to email, which helps my kids scan their homework to their school email so they can turn it in. Prior to that they were constantly bugging me to scan stuff or take a picture of it with my phone. I did recently dump Comcast so I had to update the SMTP info on the printer (that's the email server that sends stuff). My new ISP doesn't provide email, but I was able to point the printer at Gmail to send emails of scanned docs. There is also Windows scanning software that's still updated to do fancier scanning stuff.

Also note that there are tons of generic toner options, most of which work great. A few have been troublesome, but I can buy a complete set for around $60 versus the $200+ Canon set so tossing a few troublesome toners over the years hasn't been hard to justify. For those who don't print much, toner will never dry out like an unused inkjet.

I paid a little over $200 at the time. The current equivalent is $340 at Best Buy. Might not hurt to look for a used one if your budget it tight. I expect HP has similar products and long-term support for their business-oriented products.