Reset Protection Counter for Epson C67, C68 and D68
Mar 23rd
This resetter can reset the protection counter for Epson Stylus C67, C68 and D68 printer. Just select your printer at the first list as shown below.
Next, select “The Upper Housing is Installed” at the third list.
Click “Ok” button and it will show the screen like below.
Select “Waste pad ink counter” and click “Ok” button to proceed.
Click “Initialization” button and it will reset your protection counter.
Bear in mind that you are supposed to clean the waste pad before you reset the protection counter. Read related post for more detail.
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The Right Way of Doing Head Cleaning
Mar 7th
If your printer is Epson, stay tune.
Have you experienced that your print result has straight line in between of your text/image/photo? If yes then your printer’s head is clogged. One way to solve this problem is to do head cleaning. However there is an interesting trick that you have to follow in order to get the best result. This trick is not documented in printer manual. It’s based on my experience. The idea is to run head cleaning maximum 3 times consecutively and stop if it does not improve.
Read this guide first before you take any action to your printer.
- Perform “Nozzle Check” from printer’s software maintenance menu. See whether you get perfect nozzle pattern.
Perfect nozzle means you can see all the color without missing lines in the nozzle check result. - Perform “Head Cleaning” if you get missing lines in step 1. When the printer is done, it will show a window whether you want to print nozzle check pattern again or to stop. (Do not stop in this step)
- Print “Nozzle Check” again and check whether you get perfect nozzle. If you get a perfect nozzle pattern then you stop this process. Leave it for 5-10 minutes to let the printer settle down. If not, continue to step 4.
- Perform “Head Cleaning” again (second time). When it has done continue to step 5. Remember, do not stop in this step.
- Print “Nozzle Check” again and check whether you get perfect nozzle. If you get a perfect nozzle pattern then you can stop this process. If not continue to step 6.
- Perform “Head Cleaning” again (third time). When it has done continue to step 7. Do not stop in this step.
- Print “Nozzle Check” again and check whether you get perfect nozzle. Read carefully, you have to stop at this step regardless the result of nozzle pattern.
If you get perfect nozzle pattern then leave it settle down for 5-10 minutes. You can print your document/image afterwards.
If you are not getting the perfect nozzle then stop here, leave it overnight. Turn off your printer. Let the printer settle down. Try to perform “Nozzle Check” again tomorrow and repeat the 7 steps described above.
Frequently Questions and Answers (FAQ)
Why do you limit head cleaning process to maximum 3 times?
If you perform head cleaning consecutively as describe above, the printer will use more and more ink to flush the dried ink inside your clogged print-head. Subsequently, the printer will use little ink to flush the dried ink and unlikely will solve the problem. Leave it overnight is the best method to solve the problem.
Why does the printer need an overnight to solve the problem?
When you perform head cleaning, the ink inside the cartridge move very fast and create air bubbles inside the cartridge. These air bubbles takes time to settle. Leave it overnight is the best method to solve the problem. Performing head cleaning again and again after 3 times will never solve the problem and you waste a lot of ink.
What happen if I get the same problem again tomorrow?
Too bad, your print-head is clogged badly. You can repeat the 7 steps above again. I suggest you buy the new cartridge to save your time. If you are using compatible cartridge, try another brand.
Any more question? Just post a comment and don’t forget to choose to receive notification when I post the answer.
What is protection counter?
Aug 7th
If your printer is not working anymore and you see the blinking red lights, most probably you have waste pad problem.
To confirm if you have this problem, you can installed status monitor program (come with your printer purchase), it will show an error message like “Parts inside your printer at the end of their service life, contact your dealer for replacement”.
“Why do I get this problem?” you may ask. Simple answer, it’s by design.
The printer has to make sure that it can print smoothly without any missing white line, so sometimes the printer perform the head cleaning. When the printer performs the head cleaning, it flush the ink into a waste pad.
There is some container at the bottom of your printer that has a big sponge to absorb these ink. Of course, the sponge has a limited capasity to absorb the ink. If this situation happen, the ink start to leak from your printer and trust me you don’t like this situation. It’s really disaster.
How to prevent that? Fortunately, the manufacturer aware of this and introduce the concept of “protection counter”.
The printer will “count” the amount of ink flows to waste pad everytime you perform head cleaning. Once the counter reach the maximum value, the printer stop to print anymore. Depends on the printer model, some printers button will blink alternately (red and green). Modern printer display the error message in the lcd panel showing that some parts of your printer has reach its life span. Why it’s happen? It’s to protect you from the disaster that I mentioned above. The manufacture has done a good job, what do you think? 
From my experience, the sponge has not saturated yet. I think the manufacture doesn’t want to take risk to give you a disaster, so they prevent the printer to print anymore earlier than it should. Again for your own good.
What you can do now? You only have 2 options here. First, buy a new printer, second is to fix it.
If you buy a new printer, please consider not to buy the “entry level” printer such as Epson Stylus C45, CX1500 unless you seldom print or feel suit your need. Based on my experience, the printer mentioned above has a limited area for waste pad due to the printer size.
If you want to fix it, quick solution is to reset the protection counter. Some printers have this feature build in such as Epson Stylus Photo R300/R310, RX510, etc. What you need to do is to press some combination of the available buttons and the printer will reset the protection counter by itself.
If your printer is still under warranty, bring it to the service centre. They will change the sponge and reset the protection counter for you.
Alternatively, you can try to reset it by using the software, SSC Service Utility for Epson Stylus Printer. Click here to download. Read their disclaimer, some printers may not working at all.
There are some risks if you use this software to reset the protection counter
The sponge is supposed to be changed because it will not absorb the ink anymore.
Use this software may void the printer warranty
Please remember that you should change/clean your waste pad before you reset the protection counter. It prevents you a disaster.
Why using syringe is the best way to refill a cartridge?
Jul 26th
Peoples always ask me, why using syringe is a better approach when you refill a cartridge.
Simple reason, you take control. Let me explain.
When your printer “declare” the cartridge is empty, actually it is not totally empty. The printer “estimate” the ink level by calculating the ink consumed during printing. So, when you want to refill the cartridge, how do you know how much ink that you need to put into the cartridge?
The best practise of refilling cartridge is not to refill too much. This is one of the rules that I mentioned in Best practise of refilling cartridge page. If you refill too much, the ink inside the cartridge give the pressure to the print-head and you may get ink “blob” in your printout.
By using syringe, you control how much ink that you need to inject into the cartridge. Most HP cartridges inform you how much the ink contents inside the cartridge at their label, so you can inject up to the amount of ink mentioned in the label. Once again, don’t refill too much. You have to stop injecting the ink when you see the ink come out from the refill hole (suck a bit if necessary).
Some refill kit manufacturers don’t like to use syringe in their product for packaging reason. The syringe make the refill kit bulky, taken too much space in their packaging and less attractive appearance, etc.
What is air bubble?
May 12th
When you shake the cartridge, it may form air bubbles inside the cartridge.
Does it harms? It depends. The most critical is not to have air bubbles in the print head. Popular terms is air bubble trap. When you shake the cartridge, the air bubbles will form in the sponge. If this happen, just leave the cartridge overnight, the air bubble will goes up eventually.
If the print head have air bubbles then the quick solution is to perform head cleaning (instructed from your computer). The head cleaning is like flushing the ink into tiny hole inside the print-head. Of course, this will reduce some of ink in your cartridge.
If you can wait, don’t force it. Leave it overnight. Let the air bubble release themselves. If the problem still persists then you need to perform head cleaning.