Digital BW, The Print

Ok,
Someone please help me.  I have all of a sudden developed a problem 
with scanning.  Up until now I have had few problems scanning film 
over the last couple of years.

I have just obtained the equipment to wet mount my negatives.  I have 
a black mat with the correct size opening.  AN glass & scanner 
overlay acetate that I have sandwiched the film between & that lies 
on the mat.  But none of this is my problem.

Both for preview & after scan I am unable to get ANY image to appear 
in Vuescan.  All I get is colored pixilated artifacts across the 
whole screen and no image.  I went back & attempted to scan the old 
way using the Epson film holds & get the same results.  What am I 
doing wrong?

Epson 2450 Scanner
Vuescan 8.1.30

Vuescan Settings:
Transparency
Slide Film
48 bit RGB (I convert to B&W later in the process)
Generic
Color
Slide

I stated above that I have had no problems scanning film in the 
past.  To be precise, this has happened before but in past times has 
disappeared with manipulation.  Don't ask what kind of manipulation 
because I could not tell you.  I would just make different changes & 
the image would appear.  Now that I am anxious to see if wet mounting 
improves the scans I cannot get it to work no matter what I try.  
Strange!

Thanks,
Bruce Varner
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/btvarner/Bruce/photo.htm