Troubleshooting Epson V600 Positive Film Scans

[twinotter]

I have had good experience scanning prints, but 35mm film scans generate a blue "line" in about the same location regardless of scan resolution, whether Digital ICE is enabled/disabled, etc.  I have scanned about 100 slides from 600dpi to 4800dpi. 

Anyone know if this can be due to slight curve of the film (these were developed in the 1980s so they are about 30 yrs old)?

I downloaded the latest drivers and installed - no improvement.

Trying to determine if there is a hardware problem, or ...
Attached is an example.

[Mark D Segal]

Looks like a hardware problem with the built-in transparency unit (TPU); as that unit is not engaged for scanning prints and you don't see the blue line in that mode, it puts the spotlight on the TPU. Call Epson.

[degrub]

is the line in the direction of scan head travel or orthogonal ?

Frank

[Michael Bailey]

I had a similar problem once with my old Epson 1680 scanner. Turned out there was some schmutz on the semi-transparent strip of glass that lies next to the scanning area. On my scanner it's between the scanning glass and the cover hinge, and I believe it's called the Calibration Window. Once I cleaned off that strip, the problem disappeared.

In looking at the manual, I see that the window is used only for transparency scanning, to calibrate the brightness of the light source.

I could be talking through my hat, so take this suggestion for what it's worth.

MB

[Doug Fisher]

I sounds like a calibration problem to me too.  You need to really clean the area of the scanner's glass bed that sits under the calibration gap found in the holder.

Doug