Epson FAQ

My black (color) cartridge is full but the printer refuses to print, complaining that the color (black) cartridge is empty and I should change it. There is any way to make it work?
	No, there is no way to force the printer to work without some tools. Epson printers cannot work with even a single cartridge empty since in this condition they cannot initialize the printhead with a cleaning cycle. You can fool the printer into believing that cartridges are full with a resetter, an hardware device which is able to write new values into the green chips you see on cartridges. At the startup, printer will recognize them and will execute a cleaning cycle while the error message will be cleared. Remember however that using the printer with no ink in the cartridges may lead to serious problems, like head clogs or ink foam, causing the infamous "blank print" issue.
A commercial resetter, the green chip has to be mounted in the tray and then inserted into the blue device.

Parts in the printer are at the end of life... Contact service support... Unknown error...
	The waste ink counter has has reached the maximum value allowed and printer refuses to operate, you need the Ssc Service utility to reset it. Download and install it, at first execution the configuration panel will be showed, check that your printer model is correctly displayed in both boxes and close the window. If available, be sure to select the check box "Do not load Epson Status Agent service at startup". This software monitors comunications between your Pc and the printer and may hinder Ssc Service functions. Picture on the left shows a grayed box since I had already removed ESA service before installing SscService. Close the windows and reboot your Pc.
	Now right click on the icon in the tray area and select Protection counter -> Reset protection counter, it will clear the error message and the printer will operate correclty. Clearing the error is not sufficient, you should also clean the waste pad located under the printer to avoid possible ink leakage. You can find directions and informations about waste pad removal and cleaning in the excellent InkJetPrinterHelp site maintained by Wes. NOTE: Sscservice needs that printer driver has been already successfully installed, otherwise it won't be able to communicate with printer.
	If you get an error message your printer has probably deeper problems. Before giving up you can try a softreset, it usually solves problems due to NVRAM corruption and it should let you complete the reset process. Warning: use the Softreset function at your own risk, it doesn't support all Epson printers and it may cause further problems or it may render your printer unusable.

Epson status monitor ink levels are grayed out. What can I do?
	Some kind of error occured and printer driver is no more able to interpret ink level data.
	To find whether this behaviour depends by driver or by the printer itself, download and install the Ssc Service utility to make an easy test. At first execution the configuration panel will be showed, check that your printer model is correctly displayed in both boxes and close the window. Check also the box "Do not load Epson status agent service at startup", close the window and reboot your pc. As you can see my box is grayed out since I had removed the Epson status agent before installing Sscservice.
	At startup launch the Sscservice utility, the main windows will appear. Select the Ink monitor panel, check the radio box "Printer Report" and hit the refresh button. If levels change to an appropriate value (like the ones showed here, cartridges have just been reset) your problem is in the driver, you need to reinstall it.
	If values stay at zero the problem is in the printer. Sometimes it helps the "Softreset" function, which restores NVRAM values if they have become corrupted. If it doesn't work, the only possibility left is to find the appropriate service program for your printer or (better) to contact Epson support service. Warning: use the Softreset function at your own risk, it doesn't support all Epson printers and it may cause further problems or it may render your printer unusable.