Help with Epson Scanner that has stopped working; Epson support says it is windows.

To set an IP address, you need to know the "subnet" that is used by your router.  Most home routers use either 192.168.1.x or 192.168.0.x, where x may be 1 through 254.  Your router may use something other than 192.168.1 or 192.168.0, but the last set of numbers must be 1 through 254.

There are two steps to setting a static IP address.

First you need to inspect your router's configuration utility to determine the range of IP addresses that it uses for automatic allocation (the default when devices are connected).  For example, this screen is from an old Linksys wireless router:

In this example, the subnet used by the router is 192.168.1.x.  IP address 192.168.1.1. is used by the router itself.  The router's DHCP server is configured to automatically allocate IP addresses from 192.168.1.100 through 192.168.1.149 to devices that are connected to the router.  That means that you can configure a static IP address to be any of 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.99 and 192.168.1.150 through 192.168.1.254.

Some routers default to using the entire subnet as allocable addresses, e.g., 192.168.1.2 through 192.168.1.254 (.1 is used for the router itself and .255 is a special "broadcast" address).  If your router's DHCP server is configured to use the entire subnet, you have to reconfigure it so that there will be some IP addresses that will never be allocated by the router's DHCP server.  If you need help with this, look at the label on your router and provide its name, model, and hardware version (if any).

Once you know a valid IP address that will NOT be used by the router's DHCP server, you have to go to the printer/scanner configuration utility and set that IP address into the printer/scanner.  How you do this depends on the device.  You need to refer to the device's User Guide for instructions.  If you need help doing that, identify the specific make and model of your device.

@Samoht47 and anyone who might be having this problem. I have had this exact same annoying problem and I have finally found a way to fix it. The problem is that the scanner is not finding your printer's IP address. You need to put it in manually to fix this. Go into the printers network settings and find out what IP address it is using. Then go to Epson Scan Settings and add a new printer with this IP address. Once you do that test the scanner's connection. I was having this exact problem with one of my two Epson printers and noticed that the one that had no issues had the IP address detected on its own while the one with problems couldn't find the IP address.

The scanner settings should be able to detect the IP address on its own. Not sure why it couldn't do it now when it did it successfully before for me. I don't know if the IP address might change everytime the printer or router is restarted as I haven't tested it yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it does as something triggered the scanner to fail and in my case, nothing was done apart from restarting an overheating router. Would be annoying having to manually change IP address all the time though,

Hope this helps!

This is highly unlikely to fix "the exact same annoying problem" that is the subject of this thread ... because the original poster has a scanner connected by USB and not over a network.

The problem of a printer/scanner having an incorrect IP address is quite common ... and is the reason why such devices should always be configured with static IP addresses when they are first set up.

That might actually be something I should try to do to stop this issue happening again. How to you set up a printer with a static IP address?

Sorry about misreading the USB and wifi thing. Got a bit excited after scouring the net for hours to find many people with a similar problem and no solution, then finally figuring it out myself.

@Samoht47 and anyone who might be having this problem. I have had this exact same annoying problem and I have finally found a way to fix it. The problem is that the scanner is not finding your printer's IP address. You need to put it in manually to fix this. Go into the printers network settings and find out what IP address it is using. Then go to Epson Scan Settings and add a new printer with this IP address. Once you do that test the scanner's connection. I was having this exact problem with one of my two Epson printers and noticed that the one that had no issues had the IP address detected on its own while the one with problems couldn't find the IP address.

The scanner settings should be able to detect the IP address on its own. Not sure why it couldn't do it now when it did it successfully before for me. I don't know if the IP address might change everytime the printer or router is restarted as I haven't tested it yet. I wouldn't be surprised if it does as something triggered the scanner to fail and in my case, nothing was done apart from restarting an overheating router. Would be annoying having to manually change IP address all the time though,

Hope this helps!

You're welcome.  Sorry none of us here were able to help you.

Hi LemP,

Thank you so much for taking time to analyze this thread and try to help.

I have tried your suggestions, but unfortunately, the problem persists.   Let me report.

1. (after removed device drivers)  I looked at the hidden devices in Device Manager.   A lot of hidden devices, none related to scanner.  I deleted the two USB devices that were "unknown".    I did not delete from Imaging Devices the two other known devices that were active (a built in vidcam and a network HP scanner).   I installed device drivers, and plugged in the scanner to a new USB port.   Same error.  :-(

2.  The link to sevenforums was good.  I tried their suggestions.

a.  Disabled the Windows Firewall

b.  Added the EPSON Scan to the Firewall allowed list

c.  Looked for MSN and Box Sync.  Nothing there.

d.  Tried "Find and Fix Problems" and set back to XP1.  

e.  Removed several programs that were installed or updated since it last worked;  Google Earth, Google Toolbar.

Same error in each case.  :-(

3.  I tried one other thing without success.   It was suggested that we create another user (with admin privileges) and install the scanner in the alternate user.   Did so.  No success. :-(

Anyway, thanks all for your help.   Let me know if you have any other ideas, and I'll let you know if we ever get success.