For the benefit and information of Epson Users…
Whilst I would be the last to condone Epsons pricing policy on replacement cartridges, I am satisfied that ? for ? they do make damn good printers. The Error Message that comes up normally relates to a protection mechanism that is built into the machine and is normally along the lines of ‘A part has reached the end of its service life and requires replacement. For the normal domestic user this error message is unlikely to appear during the life of the machine…On my Epson R220 the default value for this protection mechanism is 47,000 prints…
It is included because every time you install a new cartridge or switch the machine on, it goes through a charging and cleaning operation which uses ink which has nowhere to go and is discharged onto an absorbent pad. This pad will overtime become waterlogged (inklogged) and will affect the operation and quality of the prints, possibly leading to excess ink on the printed paper.
I was trying to help Mike out with his problem which had appeared on another forum and did so via a series of pm’s.
There is a simple two part fix…
Part One…refer to video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwylF5dHgY4
On the rear of the printer there should be a small detachable panel; with the help of a torch it is possible to see inside the machine when this access panel is removed. A thin silicone rubber tube will be found which is fixed at one end only. This is the discharge pipe from the printhrad to the waste pad. Locate the free end of this tube and using an paperclip formed into a hook, drag the tube outside through the access hole. In the video that I found and upon which these instructions are based, the inventor of the fix used aquarium type silicon rubber tubing and adaptors to extend the original tube so that wasted ink could be discharged into a 100mls plastic bottle. You can then either forget about the absorbent pad or if you are mechanically minded remove the pad and wash it out in hot water and allow it to dry and then re-fit it.
Edit: I have one minor criticism with the gentleman’s video; I strongly suspect that the waste ink is gravity fed rather than pumped into the waste pad; it stands to reason therefore that the bottle which forms a part of the mod should be at a lower level than the print head to allow the waste ink to be discharged. If it is at the same level as the print head the pipe will fill up but will not be able to make it as far as the bottle; it will drain back and probably damage or clog up the printhead…
Part Two
Carrying out the above mod will not however reset the counter… for this you need to download a piece of free software from http.www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml This software allows you do many things which defeat the chips built into the individual cartridges and in the case of a printer stopped because of a lifex absorbent pad will allow you to reset the printer counter to zero….
From what I can establish just about every Epson Printer is covered (except, as it happened Mike’s!) but even with Mikes we found an alternative. Using the software is simple enough and it covers Windows 2000, Me. XP and Vista
More information on using the software can be found at http://www.page-net.com/frame/pages/Epson printer resetting.htm
Hope this helps someone…
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