Waste Ink – lings

I’ve been wanting to post this message for a VERY long time now so it’s a real sense of achievement and relief that I can unveil a new tool for locating detailed mod, waste ink and reset utility information for most (if not all) Epson Inkjet printers.

The Tool

This link will take you to the tool directly
QuickFind Tool

What Does it Provide

The new tool allows you to locate the key “waste ink” information relating to your printer, specifically:

1. Instructions for modifying your printer (if they exist)
2. A waste counter reset utility (if available)
3. Compatible waste kits
4. Even the sales zone the printer came from

The tool can now be found on its own page complete with introductory information and a guide on how to interpret the information it provides.

After a bit of confusion regarding the plugin structure, the FAQ section is now up and running

It’s still very early days but I’d welcome any suggestions for FAQ questions and/or categories to include so it can be built up over time.

The new section is easy to find via the “FAQ’s” link above.

Canon MP830

This was something of a unique situation for me as a power surge caused untold problems with my network but particularly bizarre was the discovery that my Canon MP830 printer had managed to turn itself into Japanese mode and presented an error… Uhoh!

As reported yesterday there was a major problem with the 2Manuals.com website. Thanks to a bit of persistence and a lot of work the 2manuals site owner was able to resolve the problem and finally remove the iframe malware that was polluting all pages.

Whilst it’s good to see the site up and running again, this is where my “Security conscious” self kicks in and recommends you still ensure you scan all utilities and downloads purchased from this and/or received from this or any other site. It’s far too easy to ignore this basic advice and end up with an infected PC if you’re not careful.

There have been some other lingering issues with downloads being unavailable or similar so I’ll follow those up with the site owner but for now it seems 2Manuals is back up and running again

Here’s a quick pop-test to see if you remember any of these:

• inkjetprinterhelp.us
• ssclg.com

Ring any bells?

Chances are both of those will be vaguely familiar, especially the latter as it’s the home of the useful SSC utility. Both have helped, to varying degrees, offering useful insight, utilities or support to inkjet printer owners. and both have had their content stolen and in some cases rebranded and re-sold. The SSC utility in particular has been “sold” as a link on eBay for years and is still mis-sold as the magic bullet cure much to the disgust of many.

If you check these sites you will find a common theme… They’re dormant.

A newer vidcap tutorial/guide is also available

Epson Adjustment Utilities are notoriously complicated and about as user friendly as the small print for a pre-nup’. Well, let’s be honest they are not intended to be used by untrained end-users but some of the instructions provided with these things have left a LOT to be desired.

Until now!

I’ve realised that support requests relating to these utilities are increasing so I’ve finally managed to put together a screencast tutorial to fill the void.

The new tutorial shows a detailed run through of the whole process including date changing, clearing a few tell tale folders/registry entries, etc… I’ve even included a few “DO NOT!” warnings too…

Feel free to tweet, email or otherwise spread this link: http://bit.ly/Ko6Dm remembering to credit wasteink.co.uk please!… and if you have any feedback please let me know.. but no comments about the “Erms“, and “Ah’s“… This voice over stuff is not that easy!

What you find behind the trapdoor

The Epson RX700 seems to have been one of those experimental projects where Epson decided to put a lot of the technology and design features, normally found in a bigger printer, in a multifunctional unit.

Thanks to Bernard Mas, of Go Micro in France, I was able to avoid the error of assumption, and can now add this long overdue guide on how to modify this somewhat unique printer

Despite some quirks the task of installing an external waste ink system is much the same as other double waste tube printers so here’s how it’s done…

A few users have pointed out problems accessing and reading the help file provided with the SSC Utility. This is a particular problem when accessing the file through Windows 7 (and possibly Vista)

To help side step this problem I’ve produced a PDF version of the manual which you can download from here.

Inside the Workforce 600

The Workforce 600 or BX600FW business inkjet printer has a few new tricks up its sleeve which don’t make fitting an external waste tank impossible but certainly indicate that Epson is taking waste ink issues a bit more seriously.

Read on to find out a bit more about the tube shield in this double waste tube printer

Produced with thanks to Carl Baxter for helping provide images of this printer model

This request crops up a lot from people who want to use an adjustment utility that requires you to change the date on your computer to fool the utility into letting you use it

Tip: Remember to make a note of the current date before you start so you can return the date to today when you have finished

1. Click on the Control panel from the Start menu.
2. Go to “Clock, Language and Region.”
3. Click “Date and Time.”
4. Click the “Date and Time” tab and then “Change Date and Time.” Enter your password if prompted to do so.
5. Double-click the hour. Click the up or down arrows to set the correct hour, or type it manually.
6. Double-click the minutes. Use the up or down arrows to set the correct number of minutes after the hour, or type it manually.
7. Select the correct month from the dropdown menu on the calendar to the left of the clock.
8. Click the correct date on the calendar.
9. Set the correct year by using the up or down arrows next to the box with a year in it.
10. Click “OK” when you have finished setting the date and time.