Repairing my Epson C46 printer...

[2cvbloke]

Well, this was a bit of fun (and by fun, I mean effing annoying and really peed me off!!!), our C46 decided it was time to end it's service life and refused to do anything other than flash the power and warning lights alternately, especially after replacing the cartridges... !

I was ready for throwing the damned thing at the wall as I had something important to print out, but I managed to restrain myself and decided to look into seeing if there was a fix... :mad:

So, using the power of google, I looked up the fault, and it seems that the fault is not actually a fault at all, it's the print counter reaching the maximum print amount (8300 for this printer, though we managed to get 8334 out of it), and once it hits that, it claims it needs to be serviced and that parts have reached the end of their service life. Utter bullpoo...

All you need to so is open it up, pull out the ink pads under the print head parking position and wash them out thoroughly (not always necessary, I didn't!!!), download and install a tool called "SSC Service Utility" (see below), and follow the instructions below:

• 1. Open SSC Service Utility, then close the window to minimise it to the notification area.
• 2. Right-click the SSC Service Utility icon and navigat to the Protection Counter and select Current Value to display the current print count as well as the Maximum value of the number of copies printed.
• 3. Ensure that the source of the problem comes from the limit of pages allowed to be printed. (It will be the case if the current and maximum values match or the current is Higher than the maximum)
• 4. Then, go to the Protection Counter menu again and choose Reset protection counter. Then, in the same menu, click Clear Counter Overflow to set the Current Value back to "0".
• 5. When done, close all the programs that you might be using and restart your computer system.

Worked a treat and the printer's working perfectly again, all it was suffering from was the pre-programmed death date, which was handily overridden with that little tool...

SSC Service Utility can be downloaded from here:

_http://www.ssclg.com/download/sscserve.exe

 

[Channel Hopper]

Thanks, I have acquired a load of Epson printers over the past few years (purely for the cartidges they still contain).

Now I can pull a few from the shed and have a go at resetting them.

 

[2cvbloke]

Thanks, I have acquired a load of Epson printers over the past few years (purely for the cartidges they still contain).

Now I can pull a few from the shed and have a go at resetting them.

Have fun with them, I was certainly pleased when I got the C46 running again...

Not that I needed to buy another printer, I have a C40 sat out in the workshop, just needs it's heads cleaning out and new cartridges, it's just finding the cartridges cheaply that's the issue...

I do fancy getting a laser printer though, the amount of printing I do is so minimal, and most of the time it's black & white, so a laser seems appropriate for my needs...

A colour laser wouldn't go amiss though for when I feel like printing off a nice colour picture...

 

[pgh13]

So, using the power of google, I looked up the fault, and it seems that the fault is not actually a fault at all, it's the print counter reaching the maximum print amount (8300 for this printer, though we managed to get 8334 out of it), and once it hits that, it claims it needs to be serviced and that parts have reached the end of their service life. Utter bullpoo...

I'm surprised Epson don't want it back so they can engineer out the bits that haven't broken:mad:

 

[2cvbloke]

I'm surprised Epson don't want it back so they can engineer out the bits that haven't broken:mad:

The reason it's pre-programmed to fail at a set amount of prints is so that you don't send it back for service, but instead chuck it and buy a new one, and given the cost of sending it back to them aswell as for "repairing" it, it pretty much always ends up cheaper to buy a new printer... U-zzz

But, for sensible, and intelligent people, it's easy to get past that failure date with that little program, and it's worked a treat...

I suppose I should take out the ink pad thing and wash it out, it looks like it's overflowing, so, yeah, might get round to it, then again, I might just buy a laser instead...

 

[PaulR]

I got thoroughtly teed off with inkjet print heads drying out that I've moved over to lasers completely. I've got an HP2600n in France and and HP2505 in the UK. Both are colour models and cost me, respectively, £8.00 (local auction house) and £10.10 (Ebay). Admittedly I drove down to Redditch for the second one but we made the trip into a day out.

The catch, of course, is the cost of toner refills. I'm very fortunate here because we use HP2600s at work (no, I don't nick new cartridges) and I take the discarded cartridges. There's usually a couple of thousand pages left in each cartridge because they are replaced according to the built-in page counting chip and I have my printers set to ignore that.

Even if I didn't have this source I would probably go down the refill route as they can be refilled about 3 times.

 

[2cvbloke]

Oh there's plenty of reasons not to use inkjets, if you're a light user, the ink dries up and clogs the heads, the prints have to be kept dry or the ink runs, they're slow at printing high-quality images, they make the paper wrinkle up if you print a picture on regular paper, and the ink doesn't last that long...

The advantages to them though are they're mostly compact, they use little energy, they're cheaper to run, and they're cheaper to buy, but that's where the good points end before we end up going back into the bad points...

 

[Lazarus]

Agree with all that ........................ I have an Epson 400 that is 12 years old and still chugs along using "Compatible" Cartridges that work out at around £1 each for Black and £1.40 each for Colour.

It's never failed me, apart from the incessant "cleaning" required on the occasions I fire it up.

In "High Quality" mode it produces Black & White stuff like Letters that bear comparison with the same files printed on my venerable Samsung Laser jobbie ................. just very slowly!

 

[d122k7trb]

In comparison with other printers, Epson uses don't know what kind of ink that you've to print at least 4 pages every day. However, HP did not. I've had 3 HPs for a decade but no ink problem. Print when you want and what you want.
The second thing to mention is that the average number for each printer is for normal printing. Full colour printings or full text printings can reduce the number “pps” by the main company.
I’ve had 1220C, P2015 PCL6 and a 4220. I’ve always bought the original cartridges, never refilled them. It could shorten the cartridges life.
Anyway, sorry to repeat the same things.

 

[2cvbloke]

In comparison with other printers, Epson uses don't know what kind of ink that you've to print at least 4 pages every day. However, HP did not. I've had 3 HPs for a decade but no ink problem. Print when you want and what you want.
The second thing to mention is that the average number for each printer is for normal printing. Full colour printings or full text printings can reduce the number “pps” by the main company.
I’ve had 1220C, P2015 PCL6 and a 4220. I’ve always bought the original cartridges, never refilled them. It could shorten the cartridges life.
Anyway, sorry to repeat the same things.

The difference between HP and Epson is that HP inkjets have the heads built into the cartridge (hence why they cost so much money), whereas with Epson, the heads are built into the printer, which is why they can have problems. But, with Epson printers, the heads can be flushed out with a lot of cleaning cycles, and because generic ink is cheap, it's not that much of a cost, and CISS kits are pretty useful too if you do a lot of printing which again use cheaper generic ink (just use refill bottles, simple), I don't think there are any CISS kits for other brands though...

I've owned and used HP printers, and they work well, but the cost of the genuine ink is prohibitive for someone like me, even generics are overpriced for what they are, which is one of the reasons why I prefer refills or just to use Epson printers...

But again, like my old Epson C40, a HP printer, if left for too long, ends up with clogged print heads, so you're back to square one, that's the problem with inkjet printers...

I used to have a Laser printer, a Brother HL-760, I could leave that for months unused, but powered right up every time and printed almost perfectly (had a bit of a fuser issue), never bought a single bit of toner for it, and it was a skip-dive salvage too, so cost me nothing, and I wasn't disappointed when it gave up the ghost, cos it owed me nothing...

 

[2cvbloke]

You know, I was searching for ink for my C40 yesterday, and I came upon several ebay listings who were selling none other than SSC Service Utility!!!

There are some real scrotes out there making money off freely available tools... :mad:

But still, anyone here will now know that the same tool that they charge £2-5 for is FREE and you have a link to the FREE download...

 

[PaulR]

There are some real scrotes out there making money off freely available tools...

Yep.

When I was on Ebay looking for the right (i.e. cheap) HP2605 there were plenty of adverts from people offering information on how to get an extra several thousand prints from the toner cartridges. For your money you would no doubt instructions of how to work the menu!

Just looked now and I can't see any so possibly Ebay have cleaned this one up.

 

[2cvbloke]

Yep.

When I was on Ebay looking for the right (i.e. cheap) HP2605 there were plenty of adverts from people offering information on how to get an extra several thousand prints from the toner cartridges. For your money you would no doubt instructions of how to work the menu!

Just looked now and I can't see any so possibly Ebay have cleaned this one up.

If only ebay would be more proactive with their "cleaning up", not to mention getting rid of chinese tat that comes from hong kong but is sold as though it were in the UK, that's just plain annoying.... :-Nooo

Bit of a rant, I feel a bit better now...

 

[PaulR]

Bit of a rant, I feel a bit better now...

Aye, it does help once in a while.

 

[2cvbloke]

Aye, it does help once in a while.

Yup, doesn't do much to get things moving, but it feels better to have said it...

Finally worked out how that C46 takes it's envelopes, never printed an envelope in that thing before, but I only ruined 1 envelope printing at the wrong end and on it's side, now if only I had the money for recorded delivery (trying to get a refund from a so-called loan company)...

 

[d122k7trb]

I do fully agree with you, 2cvbloke, you can say that again. However, my problem's that I can't buy anything online. We don't have any flexible card here. It's some kind of banned here.

Arbi

 

[IanT]

< All you need to so is open it up >

Exactly how please ? I undid the screw at the back and pushed in the two clips, but the front of the case won't release.

 

[Channel Hopper]

< All you need to so is open it up >

Exactly how please ? I undid the screw at the back and pushed in the two clips, but the front of the case won't release.

The o/p did suggest it wasn't necessary as a primary fix. Try the software counter reset first

 

[2cvbloke]

Unfortunately, I haven't a clue how the casing comes off, some just unclip, some unscrew, some have a bit of both...

My advice, search the web for info on how to open up your printer, as it changes from model to model....

I have to say though that cleaning the pads is a good idea, as the printouts are getting a bit streaky now, but I plan to get a Laser printer, Inkjet is so wasteful...

 

[PaulR]

..but I plan to get a Laser printer, Inkjet is so wasteful...

What I said!!!