Epson Printer "...end of life message ..."

[Radio Fixer]

My excellent R300 gave this, apparently its saying the waste ink pads are full and need replacing + counter reset. A waste bottle would have been nice but read on.

   

This resets the counter but the pads were definetly end of life so ...

   

Both from Web forums and I have to get on to thank the guys. I would imagine the chap who posted bottle trick was from a service department somewhere.

So it goes on, seems like 8 or so years now, and still producing wonderful images.

Gary

[Retired]

Hi,

Well done with your Epson printer Gary it has given you good service.

I've only ever had one Epson printer and it will be my one and only from this maker. It was an all in one and everything worked fine apart from its huge cartridge appetite.

I bought this for half price in a sale and thought I'd got a genuine bargain then the ink ran out very quickly; new OEM cartridges cost a lot of money so I bought £30 of non OEM cartridges from the web.

As it quickly devoured these cartridges with extremely little printing I did what I should have done in the first place and surfed the web for reviews. Sure enough it was a heap of rubbish and it didn't matter whether OEM or none OEM cartridges were used it gobbled them up.

I would install a new cartridge print a test page and the cartridge would then be reduced by a third with the remaining two thirds printing very little before it needed yet another cartridge. I'm not surprised because the physical size of each cartridge just did not have capacity to hold much ink.

I did however gain immense satisfaction hearing it thud into the recycling skip at our local tip; I wouldn't have wished this on anyone. The only function I missed was the scanner.

Another pain was that it took ages to download the drivers from the supplied CD.

Before the Epson I had bought a Samsung Mono laser printer from Farnell all in One costing £80. When the toner cartridge ran out I surfed the web for an OEM replacement; the cheapest on offer was £79.95. I bought three containers of toner powder and used this to keep the printer running. I actually do very little printing as I find printers are cheap to buy but the replacement cartridges are not.

At the moment I have an HP LaserJet P1102w which is still on the original toner. At a time when we are encouraged not to waste resources why does a replacement toner cartridge cost the same price as the printer?

The last time I wanted some pictures printing I added them to CD and took the CD along to Asda where 150 prints cost very little indeed as long as I left the CD a few days.

I think by the above notes Gary you might think I'm not happy with printers; if so you are bang on.

Keep your Epson working as long as possible Gary because I've read lots of reviews regarding the new Epson printers and few owners were happy with their purchase; I certainly wasn't.

I would urge anyone to check reviews on the web before buying these days as most items are covered and it could save a costly mistake.

Kind regards, Col.

[Robert Darwent]

I've had this too Gary, 4 or 5 years ago with my A3 Epson Stylus Photo EX, which is a very similar model to yours I believe.

I can't remember the exact website I got the information from but I downloaded a small program off of one of the forums which reset the ink waste counter. Its been fine ever since!

My printer must be around 10 years old now and still produces excellent sharp images. I'm sure this built 'end of life' message is for no other reason than to try and force you to buy the latest model. Of course many will do just that believing their printer to have truly expired!

Regards

[Radio Fixer]

Well Colin I nearly put "Please dont mention the cartidge issue again", that got well chewed in a previous thread. I think you were just unlucky and bought a bad model. I always go for the high end price and never a combined thing of scanner and what have you. I dont print many pics as most of my stuff gets rendered into video so ink isnt really a problem ... it seems to last quite well and I have always used Epson cartriges and never even done a head clean. What I really appreciate though is having, a high quality photographic (6 ink) printer alongside the desk for radio work etc and experimental stuff in Corel Draw and Paint. It allows iterative tweaking that just couldnt be done going to Asda.

If I have to replace it it might be an Epson again and the P50 that has 124 reviews and 4 star rating (the lowest is 3 star) on Amazon so it cant be all bad.

I did look at the site Robert where you can get a software counter reset but it says for my model that option is not available. So it was very nice to find the '3 fingered salute' posted. Glad your 10 your old model is going strong.

Gary

[Keithstv]

I've had 4 Epson printers, the first gave stirling service but the head started getting clogged up so I bought another one, different model though. Not long out of the warranty period the head clogged up so I took it to a local Epson service centre who tried a more agressive clean but failed to unclog it. I then bought another Epson printer and after about 2 years the head clogged up so disposed of it and bought a Canon printer which has proved more reliable and has a replaceable head. I also bought a second hand Epson printer off a colleague at work to use as a networked printer so the kids could print out school work. This was fine until the dreaded "end of life" flashing lights came on. I replaced it with a cheapish mono laser printer which has so far worked perfectly every time without having to go through the inevitable clean cycle.

Have you noticed that the printers fail just after you've bought a brand new set of cartridges? This happened on three of the printers I've had, can't be a coincidence. I did manage to sell some of the cartridges to someone at work and threw in a free printer as a challenge.

Keith

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks Gary. I mentioned the cartridge issue once again because every time I see Epson mentioned it brings back the vivid memories of when I had mine.

I agree Gary that it is highly possible to get a "rogue" printer; one that is downright poor whilst other owners are delighted as you and Robert are with your own printers.

The printer cartridge problems of my all in one Epson was unfortunately not only confined to mine. Had I seen the reviews on this Epson all in one before buying it I would never have touched it and I'm not surprised it was being sold so cheaply.

Some of the reviews I read stated that the older Epson printers owned had given top class service over many years as yours has but when eventually the printer failed and they bought another new Epson printer the new printer was poor by comparison and in each case cartridge life was short.

Perhaps it was simply a bad model all in one I happened to buy and this could be why it was being sold so cheaply to clear the remaining stock but it certainly put me off buying another Epson product.

As you know Gary I'm shortly buying a new computer but before I do I'll spend time surfing the web for reviews of the computer I'm interested in buying before parting with cash. The computer you recommended looks an excellent choice though and I might even end up with one. I'm waiting for the New Year sales to see if prices are reduced as I've been caught out before in paying full price for goods only to see the same goods reduced shortly after purchase.

Sorry to add doom and gloom onto your thread Gary but I can only judge Epson by the one I bought.

Kind regards, Col.

[Radio Fixer]

No probs Colin: guess you are still bleeding!

Seems to me dont buy at the low end of the market (a friend says that his old mum used to say "We are too poor to buy cheap") and read the reviews first but dont expect to find a 5 Star review, for a hundred or more purchases, with 100% satisfied buyers. There will always be spoilers, mchs that fail early, stupid people who bought the wrong thing etc etc. So I go for the average and 4 Star is about as good as can be expected from a large sample (a small one is an indication but thats all).

You will possibly find PC reviews difficult. Mag ones tend to be relatively uncritical and I am amazed at the difference when you look at buyer reviews on say Amazon. A PC you might have gone for will make you shudder and run for cover. Some of that may be because different folks want and expect different things.

Good luck and I'm glad that Epson dont make PCs even with 5 Stars that we can recommend to you .

Gary

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks Gary for the good advice. Yes Epson did cut deep and even after all this time I'm still bleeding. I bought my Epson all in one at half price it costing £50; had I paid full price I would have taken my bat and ball home big style.

I agree with your comments about reviews Gary as we are all different and what pleases one possibly upsets another. In the case of my Epson printer had I read the reviews I would have been put off buying by the many comments regarding cartridge problems. If something is very poor it's unlikely to receive glowing reviews from lots of people.

I always promised myself a new DELL computer when I retired. Reading up to date reviews it would appear the quality of DELL is not what it was hence I took your suggestion seriously regarding the computer you kindly suggested.

Price is not always an indication of quality either in my opinion. As an example; over the years we have bought a number of washing machines paying middle of the road prices but all broke down. Now we buy the cheapest BEKO at around £200. This is cold fill only without masses of programs we would never use; its a basic washing machine and as such does the job we want it to do; wash our clothes. We've had this BEKO for quite a while and once it does break down it will immediately be recycled and another BEKO bought as replacement. When our previous washing machine broke down it was the circuit board which failed; £90 for a new circuit board or £200 for a brand new machine. This is progress?

David and I were discussing modern computers whilst at Rufforth and we both agree that a 2TB hard drive is way over the top for average use. My current computer has 80GB hard drive and free space is 61.9GB. I expected to pay around £500 for a decent computer but an entry level computer will do everything I need.

Sorry to ramble off topic but so much modern equipment is only built to outlast the manufacturers warranty before it is recycled. We live in a throw away age. I'm not at all happy to buy a complete printer with a one year warranty only to be expected to pay the same price again to obtain an OEM cartridge as in the case of my previous Samsung laser printer. I've said many times I'm a dinosaur and I can't understand this modern way of thinking.

Kind regards, Col.

[Radio Fixer]

We buy Bosch white goods and being German they seem to last 7-10 years which is OK. Most low price items to me havent been good buys.

Goods are bult down to a price 'cos thats the way society wants it. But with luck they still give a very low cost per year of ownership.

HDD size depends upon the user and a big one now costs only a few quid more than one a 1/10 the size, thats why they put them in. The HDD will not so long now be obsolete in PCs but stay for backup as SSDs have so many advantages and are falling in price (50p a Gbyte now).

On user sizes my 256 GB SSD is over half full and the 2TB backup has 0.99 TB free of the 2 TB (actually you dont get 2 but 1.81 in my case).

Going on your current mch an OEM one with a 128 GB SSD and no HDD would do you but you probably wont be able to find that. Also take into account that W7 needs 20 GB and for me I dont like to run with disks more than about 1/2 full.

Gary