He said, "Silverfast SE 8 still scans fine" so it seems to be an Epson scan software issue versus a hardware issue. I agree with the other poster that the first thing you need to do is get a good software cleanup program, remove the Epson software and then use the cleanup software to remove every trace of the program.
If you have other computers in the house, I would install the Epsonscan software on another computer and see if you can get the scanner to run OK. If it does, that helps confirm you are dealing with a software issue.
Doug