Epson ET-2600 Stopped Working with ink + paper lights alternatively blinking
My Epson ET-2600 printer stopped working randomly one day. I love this printer as I can add any kind of ink to the ink wells and don't have to purchase expensive cartridges. The lights next to the ink drop and the paper icon on the printer just started alternatively blinking. It took me ages to figure out what the problem was. I had no idea that there was a consumable I needed to track and potentially replace: a waste ink pad. Basically a sponge on the bottom of the printer that collects waste ink when you print or when you clean the printer heads, etc. I was shocked to learn this. Never saw this before but it seems to be everywhere with printers these days. I was equally shocked to find out that Epson do not at all help you fix this.
I had to scour the internet to find replacement waste ink pads on Amazon. And then after you replace the ink pad, you find out that replacing it is not enough. You need to go and basically, hack the printer, to reset the print counter. Epson set the machine that after so many pages printed (6,207 on mine), it is to assume that the ink pads need changing and the printer should launch this error. And there is no way to get the printer working again without resetting the counter to zero or a lower number. And again Epson provide no help for this.
I was recommended by ChatGPT to go to Orpys to reset the counter to zero, a site based in Ukraine (I think). ChatGPT also helped me in preparing my system just in case there were any issues with the software. There are lots of warnings on the internet about having to turn off your antivirus to run the program and reset the counter. So I was a bit worried. But I followed some advice from ChatGPT on safeguards to take and I plunged ahead.
Orpys were great to deal with, $10 for the software. There are a number of payment methods, I sent via Paypal. Then Orpys send you the links to the software downloads and instruction videos. They ask you for your machine ID as your licence is attached to your machine ID. They send you another file to save in the same directory as the program to link to the machine ID. Everything happens quite quickly, end to end a couple to a few days. And then you're off to the races.
The video links and software was simple to follow. I did not need to turn off my Windows Defender or set an exclusion which was a big relief to me. You just hook your laptop up to the printer via a printer/USB cable and follow the video instructions. I wanted to put this review so others felt confident in using the service rather than getting a new printer. Hopefully one day with 'right to repair' legislation this service is something Epson will be forced to provide. Not providing this support is not ok. However, I am grateful to Orpys for providing this service in the large gap created by Epson and other manufacturers.