Workaround found, marking Solved (sort of) Help need setting up an older Epson GT 15000 wide format scanner & software

@ptartist I think I found what might be the answer.

You mentioned this:

ptartist said:

In addition I changed the startup mode for the Windows Imaging service to automatic, per some advice somewhere...

Click to expand...

However, you did not mention also doing this:

From the Services.msc app, find Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) and open it. Then, on on the Log On tab, change the Log on as: from This account to Local System account and also check the box for Allow service to interact with the desktop.

IOW, change it from this:



to this.



See if that helps.

Credits to Fix: You need a WIA driver to use this device error on Windows 11/10 - Appuals.com for the log on as idea, I knew I had seen that recently.

I also checked both drivers for your scanner and mine - although Epson lists Windows 11 for your scanner as an OS option, as it does for mine, the version of your driver is slightly older, from 2007, versus mine, from 2018, and I suspect that the newer driver I have is making a big difference, even though I bought my V330 sometime around 2012....

ptartist said:

This solution sounds promising but ... where do I find? buy? a Windows Show/Hide Update tool compatible with Windows 11? I don't find the original? Microsoft Update Troubleshooter for protecting updates on the Microsoft Download Center. Did you just get it elsewhere?
Thanks

Click to expand...

Well I got adventurous, downloaded wushowhide.diagcab from MajorGeeks, checked the digital signature, then ran it. But I did not find any way to protect/hide an installed driver from future updates. This just ran and identified 4 updates that I could prevent, not relevant, and not being run by Windows Update automatically anyway, just as available under Advanced "optional if you have problem you can install these". So it does not look as if wushowhide will help me.

Is there another Windows Update show/hide tool somewhere else?

Someone suggested Windows Compatibility Mode, but the scanner s/w runs just fine, as long as I keep reinstalling it over and over again!

Please see my previous post and if it helps or not.

I was not clear before, but yes, I did make this change re: the Local System account several days ago.

After a reboot TEST today with updates paused, I was able to start the scan utility from the device icon!
So the problem may well be driver updates. Windows did apply a cumulative update this morning which may have clobbered my driver.
Unfortunately there is no way to flag that driver to prevent updates that I can find. I installed & ran wushowhide.diagcab but it will only protect me from an update already pending on my system, not protect an installed driver. It is easier to reinstall the driver periodically than to keep updates paused and manually prevent an overwrite!

Thank you for your persistent efforts to help!

johnlgalt said:

@ptartist I think I found what might be the answer.

You mentioned this:



However, you did not mention also doing this:

From the Services.msc app, find Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) and open it. Then, on on the Log On tab, change the Log on as: from This account to Local System account and also check the box for Allow service to interact with the desktop.

IOW, change it from this:

View attachment 28915

to this.

View attachment 28914

See if that helps.

Credits to Fix: You need a WIA driver to use this device error on Windows 11/10 - Appuals.com for the log on as idea, I knew I had seen that recently.

I also checked both drivers for your scanner and mine - although Epson lists Windows 11 for your scanner as an OS option, as it does for mine, the version of your driver is slightly older, from 2007, versus mine, from 2018, and I suspect that the newer driver I have is making a big difference, even though I bought my V330 sometime around 2012....

Click to expand...

I did complete both steps, several days ago. NO HELP... sad. Windows did apply a cumulative update today though.
So new plan is to pause updates, reinstall scanner driver, reboot and see if it was the update, or just restarting that caused the most recent absence of the WIA driver!!!! Testing now.

johnlgalt said:

@ptartist I think I found what might be the answer.

You mentioned this:



However, you did not mention also doing this:

From the Services.msc app, find Windows Image Acquisition (WIA) and open it. Then, on on the Log On tab, change the Log on as: from This account to Local System account and also check the box for Allow service to interact with the desktop.

IOW, change it from this:

View attachment 28915

to this.

View attachment 28914

See if that helps.

Credits to Fix: You need a WIA driver to use this device error on Windows 11/10 - Appuals.com for the log on as idea, I knew I had seen that recently.

I also checked both drivers for your scanner and mine - although Epson lists Windows 11 for your scanner as an OS option, as it does for mine, the version of your driver is slightly older, from 2007, versus mine, from 2018, and I suspect that the newer driver I have is making a big difference, even though I bought my V330 sometime around 2012....

Click to expand...

Probably best to turn off driver updates for the machine then.

See this great tutorial about it.

Well it seems that regedit is required to prevent driver updates in Windows 11, and I have done that per the instructions. I think it prevents all driver updates... so that may be annoying. AND it does not solve my issue. I had my scanner turned off, and the driver was "lost" again, so I had to reinstall it.

Have you tried Silverfast, Epson GT15000 is supported including Windows 11, free trial before buying.

Be aware the user also has been posting here today about his issues and has also ignored the VueScan suggestion so....

The "SilverFast" suggestion was also posted there by @PenPusher with a reply by me showing it did NOT support Epson GT-15000 under Windows 10, or Windows 11. In fact, it's not supported past XP for the Epson GT-15000

I am posting to announce a miracle: last week a Windows 11 update magically healed the invisible button problem on my Epson scan software. After the recent series of Windows 11 updates (now at Windows 11, version 23H2) the Epson scan software no longer has invisible buttons. My workaround was to use the Alt key in the main & the preview window every time, which did bring the buttons back, but they usually disappeared again after 1 or 2 scans. But I have happily started/used the scanner software at least 10 times since the update and all the buttons remain visible! So nice. Of course the downside of the updates is that I had to reinstall my Realtek audio drivers twice, each time needing to reboot. There is no perfect miracle after all...\