Windows 7: Rising software+drivers cost - Epson 1640SU scanner

Greetings,

I have a Epson 1640SU photo scanner. I bought it some years ago for a few hundred euros. It's in mint condition.

When I purchased it I was using WinXP. The software+drivers was then downloadable from Epson's website, for free.

Then I upgraded to Vista Ultimate. The software+drivers was downloadable from Epson's website, but it cost $30. OK, I paid it.

Now, I have upgraded to Windows 7 Ultimate. The software+drivers are NO LONGER supplied by Epson. They suggest that customers using the 1640SU scanner use VueScan

Epson Perfection 1640SU Scanner Driver and Software

https://www.hamrick.com/reg.html


VueScan is asking $40 for a one year license and $80 for a "lifetime" license.

Since I will definitely upgrade to Win8 Ultimate I am hesitant to purchase the $40 license because I might find myself, ONCE AGAIN, not having the software+drivers I need for the scanner when I make the upgrade. And $80 for a "lifetime" license does set well with me.

I don't use the scanner much but there are situations when its needed.

I have a 2nd internal 1TB hdd that is empty. I think to make a small partition on it and install Vista x64. Since I have the Vista software+drivers for the scanner that would save me $40-$80. I could use the same work-a-around when I upgrade to Win8.

What do you think?

Install VirtualBox on your current Windows 7 Machine and run Vista in a Window! Here's the link:

VirtualBox

This way you don't have to dual boot and you can run both OS's at the same time. Free and easy and that is hard to beat in todays world!

Thanks for the advice and the link. I am googling to find out more about. Here is a PC Mag review that I am now reading:

Oracle VM VirtualBox Review & Rating | PCMag.com

My scanner is connected to a USB 2 port on the back of my pc so the following quote from PC Mag's review is of particular interest to me:

Printer Problems
Compared with VMware and Parallels, VirtualBox is weak in printer support. While VMware and Parallels can effortlessly print from a guest machine to any printer connected to your "host" machine, VirtualBox can only print to a networked printer or to a USB-connected printer attached to your host machine—but when you print from VirtualBox to a USB-connected printer, you can't print to the same printer from your host machine until you close down VirtualBox or use a VirtualBox menu command to "detach" your USB printer from the virtual "guest" machine and give back control of the printer to the actual "host" machine.

Unfortunately, USB support is shaky when running VirtualBox on Windows 7. With VirtualBox installed in Windows 7, I could never get a "guest" machine to recognize a USB-connected device. Many other users have reported the same problem on the VirtualBox forums in recent months, and no sure-fire solution seems to be available.

This is not the end of my research. I just wanted to say thanks and let you know that I am indeed looking into your suggestion.

Dear all

Just to inform that this problem has been solved using a safely modified Epson driver. See at the other thread where C32C3 posted this question following this link: Epson Perfection 1640SU - Driver Problem

So C32C3, maybe you could mark this thread as "solved"?

Greetz

Guy

Hi there
VMWARE IMO is a far far better bet -- if you don't want to pay for VMware workstation download the FREE VMware player rel 4 -- printer support is on the whole flawless --same with scanners.

Don't pay extra money for drivers

I've got an older Epson printer attached physically via USB to a Windows 8 dev preview machine

OK I know this is the Windows 7 Forum but I'm just testing W8 and the point of the post is to confirm what has been said -- use a VM for when the HOST system has problems with drivers etc -- -- I just want to use a wireless Windows 7 laptop to access the printer


While Printer sharing support seems problematic in W8 preview (the printer itself works fine) I just launched a W2K3 Virtual machine, attached the USB printer via VMware and now my remote Windows 7 laptop prints just fine.

There's more and more SNEAKWARE appearing these days -- they sucker you in and then you find that to use the feature you want or download the file you have to PAY.

Sites like DriverMax are the worst offenders in this type of practice.

Using a VM is often the best solution to these types of problems.

Cheers
jimbo

Thanks jimbo45 but my problem is solved to my satisfaction.

VMWare is probably a good solution in this case. Often, however, it's simply not worth the effort and the simplest, most direct solution is to buy new hardware. I have had older SCSI attach scanners that I paid $$$ a few years back that are outperformed by current USB scanners that cost less than $100 so I never bothered trying to find drivers for the old scanners, simply sent them to the recycler.

My need for a scanner is very infrequent. I paid a few hundred bucks for this Epson 1640SU and its as good today as it was when I purchased it a few years ago. So why ship it off to a recycler and purchase another one? Upgrading hardware or software is not something that I do unnecessarily.

But "to each their own". Let everyone do as they see fit with the money they work hard to earn.

Fortunately, you found a fairly simple solution, my point was that sometimes the simpler, and possibly the only, solution is to replace the hardware.