My 4 year old Epson Stylus Colour 480 SXU inkjet printer is showing an unknown error, and the maintenance wizard is advising I unplug it and get it to a dealer/service centre.

Is it worth it? What's the minimum I'm likely to be charged?

We don't have special printing requirements in our household (gave up on printing digital photographs a long time ago), so I figure the current basic Epson Inkjet (C46?) at £29.99 would do as a replacement?

Yep, not worth buggering about with. Once you start spending on repairing it you feel obliged to keep repairing it, to get your moneysworth out of the original repair. Before you know it you've spent 60 quid and got nothing to show for it.

When any of my inkjet printers go kaputt I just buy a new one.

About 10 days ago Staples were selling inkjets fro £29.99.

It's fine getting a cheap new printer - just watch out for the price of the cartridges!!!

Ink jets are so cheap to buy these days, even Lexmark have reduced their cartrifge prices. If your PC is as old as the printer just check that you have a USB connection and not just a serial/parrallel

I reccomend a Canon, they are decent printers, with decent priced cartridges, they hafve one for the same price as the Epson, and they are a damn sight more reliable.

Joel

Epson do have good printers and the replacement cartridges are readily available, I even spotted our local Spar shop selling both Epson originals and third party ones aswell.

Do u have cartridge World near you there good cos they do refils so you save money

Should also like to add I only suggested an inkjet printer as an interim measure to tide you over until January sales. Laser printers are much cheaper to run if you only need monochrome and dont mind the wait.

Laser printers are now only around £60.

The HP 1000 series are very good, and I've had a Samsung for a few years that has only ever required one £30 toner.

Epson printers have a feature that means they insist on seeing a technician for a service when there's actually nothing wrong with them.

I've heard of a few utilities on the web that can reset the printer so it works again if this is the issue but I can't make any promises whatsoever..

Some searching on google and/or ebay should turn up what you need..


I hasten to add I've only heard of this 3rd hand and not actually had to use this approach myself but it's on my list as I now have a LOT of epson printers to maintain.

Hope that helps anyways.

My 480 was the same.

You possibly need to reset the counter in the printer.

This is I believe a safety mechanism which gives you this message after so much ink is used, to prevent it overflowing.

The printer has sponges in to soak up this excess, but they don't soak for ever.

You need the SSC service utility which can be downloaded. On it there is a topic "Protection Counter" followed by RESET protection counter.

This is what I used - give it a try - you have nothing to lose, except all your spare cartridges, and a decent little printer. I kidded it on that the sponges had been replaced when asked. I now keep the printer on paper towel JUST IN CASE, but no sign of ink yet!

Don't go paying for this download, if you're stuck, I'll try and send you a copy as an attachment.

Hey everyone, thanks for all the help so far.

Originally posted by FORE
My 480 was the same.
You possibly need to reset the counter in the printer.
This is I believe a safety mechanism which gives you this message after so much ink is used, to prevent it overflowing.
The printer has sponges in to soak up this excess, but they don't soak for ever.
You need the SSC service utility which can be downloaded. On it there is a topic "Protection Counter" followed by RESET protection counter.
This is what I used - give it a try - you have nothing to lose, except all your spare cartridges, and a decent little printer. I kidded it on that the sponges had been replaced when asked. I now keep the printer on paper towel JUST IN CASE, but no sign of ink yet!
Don't go paying for this download, if you're stuck, I'll try and send you a copy as an attachment.
Fore - is this the utility? (http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml)
I forgot to mention that it threw a wobbler right after I put a replacement black ink cartridge in. Someone at work mentioned it might be a dodgy cartridge, but I can't get to them cos the holder is frozen at the extreme right side of the printer, in the 'body' of the printer if you see what I mean.
Let me know if that's the right utility. I'll DL it and see what happens.
Originally posted by FORE
...give it a try - you have nothing to lose, except all your spare cartridges
Typically I'd ordered £40 quids worth of cartridges a few months ago and I see the TO13 & To14 aren't used on the new Epson C series printers !!

Interesting to hear about the running costs of a laser printer. These inkjets go thru carts in no time - and we don't do much printing. Something to think about if a new printer is needed.

This Canon printer is cheap to buy and cheap to refil aswell. Also has very few parts that actually need replacing unlike the major brand lasers that need multiple parts after so long, ie fusers, drum kits, maintenance kits, etc etc

http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=CANLBP5200

Yep that's the utility.

When I sorted mine it requested new cartridges during the process - I see you have some spare!

I also had almost £40's worth.

Originally posted by FORE
My 480 was the same.

You possibly need to reset the counter in the printer.

This is I believe a safety mechanism which gives you this message after so much ink is used, to prevent it overflowing.

The printer has sponges in to soak up this excess, but they don't soak for ever.

You need the SSC service utility which can be downloaded. On it there is a topic "Protection Counter" followed by RESET protection counter.

This is what I used - give it a try - you have nothing to lose, except all your spare cartridges, and a decent little printer. I kidded it on that the sponges had been replaced when asked. I now keep the printer on paper towel JUST IN CASE, but no sign of ink yet!

Don't go paying for this download, if you're stuck, I'll try and send you a copy as an attachment.

Thank you for that try it on my epson 580. It now works fine.

Originally posted by baza1
Thank you for that try it on my epson 580. It now works fine.

No such luck for me.

I DL'd the utility (which looks v.nice and user friendly) but it shows the printer in an unknown state.

The config tab shows that a 480SXU is installed but the resetter shows no available data for the model, the ink monitor is blank and none of the other options (Extra, Reset counters, Protection counter) have any effect.

I've tried removing the hardware, unplugging, disconnecting etc etc - Nada, zilch. It's screwed.

Time to hit the shops me thinks?

Thanks for your help again. The utility does look good.

Originally posted by Ginner
Interesting to hear about the running costs of a laser printer. These inkjets go thru carts in no time - and we don't do much printing. Something to think about if a new printer is needed.
If you're interested I've been working with a system of continuous ink feed that I put into use at a primary school that I help with advice and tech support..

Their printing output has gone through the roof while their actual printer and ink expenditure has dropped to way below the previous budget.


If you're only using your printer sporadically though, it's hardly worth it... Let me know either way :)

Originally posted by Ginner
Time to hit the shops me thinks?
If you're after a C84/86 then I'd recommend a few ebay options.. I can recommend one seller as I've used him before to source a C86 for £46 (inc delivery)..

Of course the down side is that you have to be patient and snipe bid a little but if it's worth saving £15 or £20 you can't go too wrong.

Originally posted by Martin_s
....If you're only using your printer sporadically though, it's hardly worth it... Let me know either way :)

V. sporadically. Once or twice a week so I guess I'm looking for a cheapish replacement.

Can you PM the details of the C86 e-Bay seller? Sounds interesting.

Ta.

Sorry Ginner - thought you may be on a winner.

I only had a 2nd go with mine when I was ready to chuck out. I told a load of lies during the process - i.e. the sponges are replaced new or similar, but had luck.

Disappointed you've dipped!

One win for epson and their con trick for servicing.

There was a bloke in a shop at the bottom of Marlcliffe Rd S6, and his offer was £15 to repair, or if he fails, donate the printer as parts to him.

I suspect he had some success with the SSC programme.