Intentionally Obsolete Printer!!!

dazzer21

Anyone else experienced this as I'm steaming about it?! Yesterday, my fully functioning, perfectly usable, exceptionally reliable Epson XP-605 printer stopped working. The display shows that the reason for this is that the ink pads have reached the end of their life. I reached out to Epson and they told me, after I explained the problems at length, that I would need to get in touch with an Approved Epson Service Agent to arrange a fix.

I emailed the Agent and told them the problem, again at length, and they told me that the ink pads are non-replaceable and that all they can do is *try* to reset the print counter - which is the software in the printer that actually decides when the pads are finished, it has nothing to do with the actual condition of the pads themselves. Even then they could not guarantee it would work, but have said that they would need the printer for two days at a cost of £35.

I went back to Epson and their words, pretty much, were "this printer is now obsolete so you'd be better off buying another Epson printer". Note the use of the word "Epson" in there. Needless to say, it's now junk. It's two years old, cost me £150 when I bought it and I'd guess I've probably put well in excess of a grand's-worth of ink in it!! If it were a car, it would be taken for a service and then you can drive it again. As far as I am aware, no car maker expects you to bin a car as soon as the Oil Filter clogs up.

There is NOTHING WRONG with this printer other than it having a computer inside it which is telling me it's time to throw it away and buy another. In other words, this is INTENTIONAL by Epson! I've been in the process of looking for another Epson printer lately for my business. I've been trawling reviews on the internet for one particular printer - a £500 Epson with tanks as opposed to cartridges which is supposed to be able to print thousands of pages on a set of inks. But I'm not going to invest that much in something if this is going to happen again.

Just a word of warning. Rant over. :mad:

stator

There are pieces of software you can download to do this.
I think your model is only covered by one of the pay-to-reset versions.
You download it, pay them £10 and they give you a one-time key to reset the pad counter.

ChiefGrasscutter

That's nothing.
I saw something online/newspaper the other day
Rover car: so no longer manufactured of course
Some ABS pump had failed
No one makes them anymore and all attempts to acquire a replacement had failed.
.....and having non functional ABS on a car with the system fitted is an MOT failure.
So entire car is scrap

cajef

dazzer21 wrote: »

The display shows that the reason for this is that the ink pads have reached the end of their life.

Have you tried an internet search for a fix, I had the same problem on a Canon printer, a bit of searching and found there was a way of resetting and the printer worked OK for several more years.

dazzer21

I haven't been able to find anywhere that does it for a Mac. Plus I've been burnt on eBay before so a little twitchy about it.

chunter

I remember this working for me years ago.
I'm sure there must be a more current version.

http://www.pcworld.com/product/952302/ssc-service-utility-for-epson-printers.html

dazzer21

Windows only. Funny thing, though. I've had Epson having a go that I'm being malicious for no reason yet, after they'd given me all the 'working to ensure that the quality of the product remains optimised at all times" statement to which I replied that the single component that's guaranteed to fail over a relatively short period of time being non-replaceable is just ridiculous, they went quiet!

AndyPix

That's horrible - Epson want closing down for employing such hostage-like tactics ..


Have you tried this ?


https://hackaday.io/project/7945-waste-ink-pad-counter-reset-epson-xp-stop-error

stator

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

That's nothing.
I saw something online/newspaper the other day
Rover car: so no longer manufactured of course
Some ABS pump had failed
No one makes them anymore and all attempts to acquire a replacement had failed.
.....and having non functional ABS on a car with the system fitted is an MOT failure.
So entire car is scrap

Ouch, but Rovers are a bit older than 2 years and this printer issue is caused by an internal counter. When it reaches are certain value the printer refuses to print any more, there is no actual mechanical failure. If the counter is reset it would continue printing.

paddyrg

Don't expect any better from HP, by the way - had one of their printers that would force you into a 'head alignment test' (waste of ink) with every cartridge change or deep power cycle. Horrible thing, wouldn't wish it on an enemy. Also cartridges that despite being shrink-wrapped had an expiry date hard-coded, so failed the moment they were plugged in. Cynical behaviour.

Tried a Brother recently, it didn't seem as gouging as the HP and your Epson experience - after all, why go back for more punishment?

Strider590

Most consumer goods contain obsolete parts straight from the factory, it's the reason why it's so much harder these days to make a business from repairing TVs.

In truth, they create their own chips/ICs, do a huge production run, make them obsolete and build them into their products 2 years later, building almost exact numbers and then scrapping the remaining obsolete parts.