Parts inside your printer are at the end of their service life

Today I had the joy of fixing an Epson Stylus C46 UX printer.

It had the following error: “Parts inside your printer are at the end of their service life. See your printer documentation.”

After a little searching I discovered that most people were saying that “It is simply not worth repairing”, however, I took that as a challange, and decided that if I was going to throw it away anyway I might as well try to fix it first.

Before long I located a page on fixyourownprinter.com’s forum, which had plenty of details about similar issues.

This is the process I used after reading details on that page:

  1. Unplug the power and USB cables from the printer.
  2. Prepare your work area by putting scrap paper down. Have some spare, just incase. You may also require tissue paper. It is also recommended you use protective gloves as the ink will stain your skin for quite some time.
  3. Unscrew the screw at the back of the printer.
  4. There are two or three tabs at the back and two at the front. Gently push them in, and then using a bit of force pry apart the cover.
  5. At the back of the unit you need to locate some white pads, or sponge type things, initially they will seem fine, but they will infact be full of ink. You need to grab a pair of pliers and pull them out one by one, there should be four, put them on your scrap paper.
  6. Take the scrap paper with the pads on to your sink, turn on the hot tap and hold each one under the tap using the pliers until the water runs clear. If you have protective gloves on it may be worth squeezing the water out also.
  7. It is recommended that once you have done this, you let them dry.
  8. Now return the pads back into the printer.
  9. Put the printer back together, (mind out for the paper alignment, and give it some force), not forgetting the screw at the back.
  10. Plug in the USB and power cable and turned it ON. (Yes the lights will still flash)
  11. Download and install the SSC Service Utility for Epson Stylus Printers.
  12. Select your printer and model number (There is no Stylus C42 UX, so select Stylus C4x), then close the window.
  13. If it asks if you replaced with the pads; say “YES”. Then close the window.
  14. You will see a SSC Service Utilitiy icon (it looks like a printer) in the system tray (next to your click), and LEFT click.
  15. A menu will appear, from here you can click on “Protection counter” (its a red cross), then “reset protection counter”.
  16. Turn the printer power OFF, wait 10 seconds and then turn it back ON.

Done!

Additional troubleshooting…

If you have problems with paper feed, take it apart again, check everything is in place correctly, push things together tightly, and put it together again.

If you have trouble with print quality, open the lid, clean any ink residue, use the SSC Service Utilitiy to clean the heads.

68 Comments »

  1. Aviel Segal said,

    April 11, 2007 @ 2:31 pm

    Parts inside your printer are at the end of their service life ….

    You just saved me a few bucks !!!!!!
    This simply works !
    Thank you.
    I hope my site, http://www.avielsegal.com, especially DAW Optimization page , will do some good for you too..

  2. Richard said,

    April 19, 2007 @ 2:04 pm

    Does the printer detect the over saturated pads?, If so How?
    or does it calculate it from printer use? If the latter, can one get a useful extension of life simply by running the Service Utility program?

  3. hm2k said,

    April 20, 2007 @ 8:13 am

    Good question.

    From my understanding the printer has an internal counter, which starts at 0.

    Each time you print (or such) it adds to the counter.

    The printer (and software) has a hardcoded limit which when the counter has reached a certain amount it prevents you from using the printer.

    At this point you must do two things, firstly clean the pads, and secondly reset the counter, as per instructions above.

  4. Peter Munro said,

    April 20, 2007 @ 10:20 am

    Since the manufacturer probably errs on the side of caution, or my cynicism makes me thing the sponge fill is a red herring, why not try going from the second step and resetting the counter to 0.

  5. Zita Bielby said,

    April 20, 2007 @ 9:05 pm

    Hi, with regard to printer sponges, I have a Canon Smartbase MP360S combined printer/scanner/copier which I bought in 2004 and which is now out of warrenty. It stopped working altogether and I started receiving a message on the LCD display which I found out meant the ink sponges were full and to contact the manufacturers. I rang Canon and was told the call out charge would be £89 to which I replied that I only paid £90 for the printer when it was new. I was told that on top of the call out fee, the replacement ink sponges, (of which it would need three), would cost between £6 and £7 each to replace. I said that I didn’t think in these days of trying to be environmentally friendly and recycle, that it was very responsible of the company to make repair costs so prohibitively expensive that people would be more inclined to throw away a perfectly good printer/scanner/copier and buy a new one. The person I was speaking to just said that this was what the company had to charge. I asked for the part numbers for the sponges with a view to buying them and getting someone locally to repair the machine. Howver, I’ve not been able to find any websites that have these ink sponges for me to buy, I’ve tried contacting Canon via e-mail to ask about buying the replacement ink sponges from them as I can’t find them on their website but as yet, a week later have not had a reply from them.

  6. hm2k said,

    April 23, 2007 @ 8:24 pm

    Peter, if you do that, the container that has the sponges in will overflow and you will end up with ink everywhere.

    Zita, just open up the printer, take out the current sponges, clean them up, and put them back in.

  7. Myke said,

    April 25, 2007 @ 9:04 am

    HM2K, Got here from a PCPro article which mentioned this problem also existed with Canon printers. I bought two MP500 combo units, one for my dad and one for myself. I don’t use mine very much, but I know my dad uses his more often. Is there an SSC utility aimed at Canon printers, so that I can clean the sponges for him as and when necessary? Or is it the case, as with Zita above, that you only have to clean the sponges and the printer detects what appears to it to be new clean sponges and resets itself to carry on as normal?

  8. hm2k said,

    April 25, 2007 @ 1:59 pm

    When this happens, you need to clean the sponges. It won’t detect the new/clean sponges, its impossible. You will still need to reset the counter.

    Apparently you can reset the counter by resetting the printer, consult the manual for the steps.

    Or try here: http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/inkjet/15284

  9. Viv Evans said,

    May 24, 2007 @ 11:16 am

    Thankyou SO much for this info - you are a life saver!

    I’ve got a research project to hand in tomorrow & when I attempted to start printing it out this morning, I got the message about parts needing replacing (grrr!) Followed your instructions & it worked (& I’m a woman ha ha ha!)

    Thanks again!

    xx

  10. george said,

    May 31, 2007 @ 6:52 pm

    hi there. been reading your useful help pages, i am not a computer buff when i go to the site to down load the ssc service utility i get a message saying that it is blocked can u help. george

  11. Jo said,

    June 2, 2007 @ 4:25 am

    wicked advice. And to think I threw out a mulit function printer last year cause it was too expensive to fix . Same problem just happened with my new printer and fixed now thanks to you.
    Kind Rigards,
    Jo.

  12. Ronnie said,

    June 4, 2007 @ 10:01 pm

    hm2k - Thanks for your help. If it hadn’t been for you I would have spent at least £80 that I can’t really afford to spend on a new printer. It’s thanks to people like you that people like me can afford to spend time learning what the big companies don’t want us to learn. Thanks again!

  13. Peter W said,

    June 7, 2007 @ 1:11 pm

    My question, Has my Photo R220 Epson printer gone beyond any help?
    I had just finished printing a C.D as it did O.K no problem . Then I wanted a back and front printing
    I pressed the start to print button and it made a loud gear grinding noise, I then swithed the printer off
    at the power plug, switched the R220 back on and it had the two red lights flashing and requested
    that I removed the paper that was jammed in the printer. there was no paper in the printer at that time
    Do I Have To Take My R220 To The Recycle Tip?
    Many Thanks Peter W

  14. Ron Cobb said,

    June 15, 2007 @ 4:12 pm

    In reply to Peter W , I had a similar problem with my Epson Stylus Photo R220 so I took it apart and found that the paper drive roller had popped out of it’s socket at one end.I thought it had snapped off but it just had to be bent to shorten it so it would pop back into its socket again.What caused it was putting too many sheets of paper into the back feed compartment.Because of the amount of sheets,about five was fed in and this action forced the drive roller out of ist socket.I hope this is of some help.

    Ron C

  15. Chris said,

    June 27, 2007 @ 8:57 pm

    Magic!

    Like Peter Munro, I couldn’t be bothered to clean the sponges, so I’m expecting to see overflow ink everywhere. When that happens, I’ll break out the scrap paper and rubber gloves. That SSC program is a great utility, though!

    Chris

  16. mr.bapu said,

    June 29, 2007 @ 8:54 am

    when i ON epson stylus photo r310 all lights blinking please give me a solution

  17. John said,

    July 15, 2007 @ 7:07 pm

    hi,
    thanks for that.
    on looking at the sponges on my epsom photo 900 they looked ok until i realised there was more than one and the bottom ones were saturated.
    when they have dried and if i have any probs with the counter i will be back asking for help.

    cheers, john.

  18. John said,

    July 15, 2007 @ 10:44 pm

    hi, me again,

    no probs, reset counter
    everything back to normal.

    many thanks, john

  19. Oliver Broad said,

    August 1, 2007 @ 3:27 pm

    Hi there,
    Tried this myself but without success - apparently because I’m on a mac…
    anyone come across (or invented) an apple version of SSC software?
    I’d REALLY appreciate it.
    Many Thanks
    Oliver

  20. Liam Davey said,

    August 10, 2007 @ 4:22 pm

    Thank you very much for your detailed report on changing ink pads and tha excellent program SSC SERVICE UTILITY.
    I was just about to throw my printer C44UX in the bin and buy another !
    Stumbled across your web page and WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    Everything works again thanks to your advice, cheers :0)

  21. malc said,

    August 20, 2007 @ 9:00 pm

    hi 2 things downloaded the ssc program but cannot get it to work (my printer is c44ux)

    secondly any ideas what is causing my canon bjc80 to make grindiong noise when trying to set up ??/

  22. malc said,

    August 21, 2007 @ 9:47 am

    hi again

    thanks u lot this thicko has done it and it is working fine; i was trying to reset wrong thingy until i actually clicked on icon in tray and found the different reseter for the ‘end of life’.

    now all i need do is sort out my bjc80/70

    and then try to unblock the black inkjets on the epson 640 colour

  23. malc said,

    August 21, 2007 @ 9:49 am

    to oliver

    being a lateral thinking thicko type

    can you not take your printer and conect it to a friends who is running windows ???

    that way the software will work :)

  24. Murad Ali said,

    September 12, 2007 @ 6:52 pm

    Hi
    My Printer is Epson Stylus Photo R230 Series. the Messege is given that “Parts inside your printer are at the end of their service life. See your printer documentation.” And the printer is not Ready and the two red lights are blinking Please Give me The Solution of this Problem or Send me a Software to Solve the Problems Thanks

  25. Mile from Macedonia said,

    September 19, 2007 @ 10:22 am

    Thanks for this. It works!

  26. Moon Patrol said,

    September 19, 2007 @ 5:18 pm

    Thank you very much!!!! you r a super starrr

  27. Annie C said,

    October 5, 2007 @ 9:52 am

    I don’t know whether you are even reading these comments any more, but incase you are, I am most impressed with your instructions, and with myself for getting it right. As everyone says, you have saved us mega-bucks. Can’t think what Epson hope to achieve by causing all this stress when it can all be solved so simply at home.

    Thanks again for your help.
    Annie

  28. hm2k said,

    October 8, 2007 @ 2:19 pm

    I do read the comments, thanks, glad this has helped you.

  29. Mark P said,

    October 10, 2007 @ 5:43 pm

    I was beginning to get frustrated with trying to get to the bottom of the problem of `parts inside your printer etc etc’, and then by doing a general web search, I was fortunate enough to find your information, which has proved to be very useful. I am now up and running again.

  30. MJD said,

    October 24, 2007 @ 9:35 am

    Thanks for the tip, it works!
    You do need the gloves though. Although the pads look clean at first, there not!

  31. Bill said,

    November 15, 2007 @ 7:56 am

    Hi, I have an epson stylus r340, the above procedure worked but I have to keep repeating it over and over again turning printer on and off to make it work. Anything else I overlooked.

    Thx,

    Bill

  32. Tam said,

    November 16, 2007 @ 1:36 am

    Hi,
    I have an Epson c46 Ive taken the pads out & clean them, but cant find a c46 in the ssc program anyone got any ideas? they’d be very much appreciated.

    Cheers
    Tam.

  33. keith said,

    November 17, 2007 @ 9:22 am

    Hi I have a Epson RX425 with the same problem, I looked at the pads at the back and cleaned them but the error lights still come on any ideas ?

    Thanks

  34. Max said,

    December 17, 2007 @ 8:46 pm

    Hi, Many thanks.

    I started to print and that error came up.

    I found using a large pen / highlighter useful for squeezing the ink out of the pads instead of a pair of pliers, but I did have to put the gloves on.

    The pads are drying out now so hopefully tomorrow I’ll get it working again.

    Many thanks, Max.

  35. Max said,

    December 18, 2007 @ 8:05 pm

    Hi, The pads dried out and the resetter worked + I’m printing again, Excellent page.

    Many thanks. Max with a Epson Stylus C46

  36. Nicola said,

    December 23, 2007 @ 6:22 pm

    I did the cleaning of the pads, and followed all the instructions, however when putting it all back together and plugging it back in, the lights are still flashing. When I click “Show Current Value” it says “Some Error Occured” Can this be solved? Urgently need my printer!

  37. Keith Williams said,

    January 27, 2008 @ 9:09 pm

    Hi, Thanks for the info

    I did what you said and i could not believe how easy it was to do and to think my local computer dealer wanted £30.00 to do this for me

  38. Peter Smith said,

    January 28, 2008 @ 1:10 pm

    Hiya, Interesting thread and plenty of info but can I add a quick question please….

    We’ve recently changed the cartridge on our C46 (Cartridge is not an Epson one but a compatible from Tesco). It takes the cradle over to the right hand side of the printer then it sits there sounding like its grinding the gears (the yellow track seems to continue to rotate slowly) and the only way to reset is to take off the power. he red light flashes but no messages re expired etc

    Just above the cradle there also appears to be a rocker type “switch “which when pressed stops this grinding but when you try the power again it does the same thing ??

    Any ideas or is this related to the “pad full”/Expired parts issue or is somthing broke???

  39. Rachel Collins said,

    January 28, 2008 @ 2:55 pm

    Hi

    Followed all the instructions to the letter, apart from wearing gloves, big mistake!

    Have it all back together and have used the SSC Service Utility and now receiving an error message “Printer off or some other problem!”. My printer an Epson C46an isn’t off but both green and red lights are flashing (new ink was put in just before it gave up the ghost).

    Any help would be appreciated but thanks in the meantime.

    Rachel

  40. Eastleigh said,

    February 12, 2008 @ 8:33 pm

    My printer has a mind of it,s own , but perhaps I can sort it now.

  41. Richard Lambley said,

    February 22, 2008 @ 11:14 pm

    Hi

    Just like to say I have an Epson stylus C46 with this fault and was considering scrapping it until I found your page. Followed instructions and it now works like new again. Thanks a lot you saved me a lot of heartache.

  42. Arlene Brisart-Gordon said,

    February 29, 2008 @ 1:59 am

    Hi,

    A friend turned me onto your site, and I now have a problem I need some help with , which hopefully someone can tell me
    how to handle. I purchased a refurbished (at the factory) Epson
    Stylus CX1500 about a year ago, which a few months ago stop-ped feeding the paper. I am wondering if the procedure ment-ioned above, that indicates how to clear a paper jam, followed by the SCS Service Utility download, will probably work? I am positive I don’t a paper jam, but another posting stated his bar had slipped out of place, which I am thinking may be the culprit here. Any help would be quite welcome and appreciated. Thanks.

    Arlene M. Brisart-Gordon
    02/28/08

  43. DAVID WOODLAND said,

    March 1, 2008 @ 12:23 pm

    Tried it and it works. Was about to buy a new printer, no need now. Thanks for the link.

  44. Didy said,

    March 8, 2008 @ 9:39 pm

    Hi

    I followed all the instructions: cleaned and dried the pads, put them back, downloaded the software, reset the counters but still no joy. Lights still flashing. Have now tried turning the printer on and off, resetting again (and saying yes to replacing the pads) but still nothing. This has worked for so many here - why not me???

    Please help!

  45. may said,

    March 14, 2008 @ 4:08 am

    Thanks for the instructions…It help me fixed my printer..you’re great!.

  46. Betty said,

    March 15, 2008 @ 5:23 pm

    Wow! Worked like a charm! My 12 year old son thinks his Dad is a genius because he was able to fix the printer in time for him to complete his school project!

    Thanks a million!

  47. Rick said,

    March 17, 2008 @ 1:03 am

    I initially rang EPSON re this problem and the mongrels said it couldn’t be fixed by yourself, and that I would have to take my C41UX to a service centre and pay 40 bucks. I feel like calling them back and referring them to this thread. Even the bloke at the service centre said it couldn’t be done by yourself! A minute after hanging up I googled my problem and found the solution - awesome!!!

  48. Pakdoz said,

    March 31, 2008 @ 11:47 pm

    Wow, amazing solution! I have the same problem with my Epson R230. Now everything working just fine! Thanks.

  49. Hannes said,

    April 7, 2008 @ 4:42 pm

    eeeeeej i got a epson C66……………………..and it worked
    greeeeeeets thx Hans (dutch)

  50. kerry said,

    April 13, 2008 @ 5:07 pm

    i have been taking my epsom c46 to a repair centre and being charged £15 each time to solve this problem, i can`t believe this really works. thank you so much, i just had to thank you . kerry

  51. Paul Millard said,

    April 16, 2008 @ 8:23 pm

    Hi,

    After initially reading the post due to my Stylus C46 from exhibiting the same problem, I cleaned the sponges as instructed, but as a note of advice, I soaked the sponges in Windolene for about ten minutes before rinsing the sponges under hot water. This brought them up sparkling white. As far as I know, the Windolene liquid helps to break down the ink and allow it to flow cleanly from the sponges. So you may probably want to use this method next time your printer stops functioning.

    Thanks for the help, saved me time and cash.

  52. joe said,

    May 16, 2008 @ 10:29 pm

    i couldnt get the cover/back off of the 220, the resetting software didnt say anything about sponges, Epson tech support are useless idioats and i am never buying another Epson product again. You have to be pretty stupid to have that error message and expect people to just ante up.

  53. JOHN HARRIS said,

    May 22, 2008 @ 2:09 pm

    Hello folks,
    Can someone help?
    I have used SCC Service Utility on my Epson C46 printer and everything appeared to have gone O.K. -
    The printer prints THE check pattern and protection is reset and it does everything in SCC Howeever, when I try to print a document - Nothing happens!
    I have a second C46 and when I plug that in - by just unplugging one and plugging in the other, everything works fine immediately !!
    Putting back the resetted C46 and again nothing!
    What have I missed?
    Any Email would be appreciated.

  54. Sue said,

    June 15, 2008 @ 8:52 am

    Hi,

    I came across this link when Googling the problem I was having with my CX3650 Epsom printer saying ” Parts inside your printer are at the end of their service life” and wowee, super, wicked brilliant your advice and solutions have worked!

    It was so simple to do and took approx 5 mins to solve and I haven’t even cleaned the pads yet either! I just clicked on the icon that asked if the pads had been replaced and clicked on YES and it worked perfectly. I will get them cleaned asap but had to finish some urgent printing work first and as I just haven’t got the time to do it straight away I will see to that in the next day or 2.

    One bit of advice though when you download the SSC installer check the model number icon is showing the right printer model. Mine correctly showed it was the Epsom CX3600 SERIES but the model no CX3650 was incorrect and so even though it said the protection counter had successfully reset it hadn’t and my printer still would not work and the lights were all still flashing etc. Anyway after several attempts I realised the model no did not match my printer and realised you had to select the correct model number yourself. Anyway, as my CX3650 was not listed I clicked on the unsupported model icon and that did the trick. Check the list to see if your model is there first and if not click on the unsupported model icon and see if that works.

    Fantastic advice and it has saved me the cost of a new printer and meant I have not wasted my money on the bulk boy inkjet cartridges I recently purchased either.

    THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

  55. henk said,

    June 21, 2008 @ 7:28 pm

    This worked very well for my epson c42ux. You saved me a lot of money.
    Thanks

  56. Goran said,

    June 25, 2008 @ 9:04 pm

    Thanks for the tip!

    Best regards,
    Goran

  57. Michael said,

    June 27, 2008 @ 1:20 pm

    Hi hm2k i have the Epson stylus c46 the problem i am having is i can locate the tab’s at the back including the screw, but i can’t locate the 2 tabs at the front of the printer so i can undo the top part of the printer for me too get into the sponges to clean. Can you help me please.

    Regards.

    Michael.

  58. Carol said,

    August 8, 2008 @ 3:35 am

    I have an Epson Stylus r260. I tried following what your advice said but my printer doesnt have only one screw in the back. it has two on the sides and i tried unscrewing them, i dont see any more in the back but i cant figure out what else i should do to take that cover off!.. Please Help!

  59. Joey said,

    September 8, 2008 @ 4:10 am

    Thanks for this posting. Worked like a charm on my C88 - saved me time and money. I tried to figure out how to take the back covers off without destroying the printer with no success. Guess I will wait till the sponges overflow, and then throw out the printer. Epson really should be handling this sort of thing in a much more transparent manner with better instructions.

    cheers

  60. Culint G said,

    September 9, 2008 @ 4:22 pm

    HI, i did this, which worked great, BUT now my black ink wont print at all (the colour is fine)- i cleaned my heads lots of times, any other ideas?????

  61. Bobfuses said,

    September 11, 2008 @ 3:56 am

    I just reset my Epson CX 6600 and it now works like a charm. Too bad I did not know about the reset utility last year when I discarded a CX 6600 for this same problem. Thanks!

  62. joe monzo said,

    October 5, 2008 @ 4:49 pm

    Thank you so very much!!!!!! One correction to your directions though-it’s a right click for the utility. No big deal…but you know how some people need every little thing spelled out?!

    Thanks again!

    Joe

  63. sue said,

    October 23, 2008 @ 2:04 pm

    What a great page, it’s a shame I didn’t find it before I lost my temper with my c42 and smashed it to bits. I did try the cleaning of pads and resetting counters but it wouldn’t have it so now my hands are black (I forgot the gloves) and I’ve got to buy another printer. Oh well life goes on.

  64. David Kes said,

    November 9, 2008 @ 5:01 pm

    Just about to have a go at the irritating message on the Epson Stylus Photo RX 425 but tried to find the model on the service utility which is supposed to be version 4.10 though it appears that only 4.40 is available.
    Before i wreck the thing I would like to know that the resetting tool/facility is available and works…anyone tell me what I am missing??
    I have really gone off Epson over this matter………
    are there other makes that cut out after x copies?

  65. Arjun said,

    November 16, 2008 @ 9:29 pm

    Hi hm2k,

    I really need some help. I’ve followed the instructions at the top and also the button-pressing ‘reset counter’ routine listed in the ‘Help’ file provided with the SSC Service Utility V.4.30, but to no avail.

    I have an ancient Epson Stylus Color 680/777, where the red and green LEDs now flash in an alternating pattern.

    I’ve cleaned the single ‘waste ink’ pad, dried it, re-inserted it, re-assembled the printer, switched it on, tried resetting the counters, from the SSC Utility in the System Tray, and tried the ‘button pressing’ resetting procedure listed in the Help file, but nothing has worked.

    When I installed the SSC Utility, the Ink Monitor tab read, at the bottom: “Error/Maintenance Request”.
    After re-assembling it, following the cleaning, it now reads “Unknown state/OK”.

    In the Configuration tab, I was originally able to select Epson Stylus Color 680 in both menus, but now the top Installed Printer menu is blank. I’ve ticked “Disable Epson Status Agent”.

    In the Resetter tab, “Available date for selected model” reads: T017 Black and T018 Color UNSUP.

    The Port options are: Auto, 0×278, 0×378 and 0×3BC. In Device Manager (Win XP: Control Panel > Printers and Other Hardware > System [left] > Hardware tab > Device Manager), the only reference to any of the options is “Ports (COM & LPT) > Printer Port (LPT1) Properties > Resources Setting: 0378 - 037F”. I chose “0×378″.

    The printer has three butons:
    1. Ink Replacement button and icon. SSC calls it “Load/Eject”, I think.
    2. Ink Out/Paper Out button with red LED. SSC calls it “Cleaning”, I think.
    3. Power button with green LED.

    Using the button-pressing routine: with both buttons pressed and held, I press the ‘power’ button and the ‘ink/paper out’ and power LEDs synchronise their flashing (the instructions seem to suggest there are three LEDs). I release all the buttons and then press and hold one of the buttons (not the power one). Nothing seems to happen, except for the printer going through its start-up routine and it still not working.

    All my reading of this forum, fixyourownprinter.com and the SSC instructions makes me believe the printer is still in working order, I just need to reset something.

    I really don’t know what to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks.

  66. Arjun said,

    November 17, 2008 @ 3:35 am

    Hi,

    I appear to have got somewhere, although I still can’t print.

    By trying each of the ports and switching the printer on and off, I was finally asked, by the SSC Utility, whether I had “Replaced waste ink pad?”; a “Yes” answer resulting in the confirmation the counter had been reset.

    After switching off the printer for a few secs, the flashing has stopped, but, still, nothing will print, although the program seems to reset whatever counter I choose.

    Could the problem be that the colour cartridge is “UNSUP” - unsupported? If I’ve reset the ‘waste ink’ counter, why does it matter that the colour cartridge isn’t supported? I use a resetter similar to this (Jet-tec Inkjet Cartridge Chip Resetter:http://www.cartridgesave.co.uk/173.html?id=NjxVo2Wx), anyway, to reset after I’ve refilled the ink, so it shouldn’t matter.

    Can anyone suggest anything?

  67. David Kes said,

    November 19, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

    I spent a lot of time with the Epson RX 425 which was a good machine but I could find no absolute resetting download so, I decided it was no longer worth the effort and have bought myself a new printer….epson BX300F from Staples at less than 50 but having the same guts as more expensive ones.
    Its working well and I can get the original inks from Asda for 21 which is a couple of pounds more than I can get replacement ones for on line.
    I hate the throw away mentality but in the end, life goes on and I was spending too much time grieving my old one…………..anyone want it??

  68. liam said,

    November 27, 2008 @ 4:19 pm

    hi iv got a epson stylus photo 900 iv cleaned the sponges out and let them dry and followed everything on the steps you said 2do, but the red lights still are flashing please could you help me? thanks.

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