PrinterIntroduction

Despite a supreme courtroom ruling in favor of tertiary political party ink suppliers, printer manufacturers remain relentless in their quest to eliminate cheaper ink alternatives. Everything from issuing stealth firmware updates disguised every bit security patches, to questionable takedown notices on eBay, these companies are determined to make consumers pay for their high cost ink.

For Epson, new firmware updates are applied past default as office of the routine software update checks. Although the firmware frequency varies by model, many printers were issued a January 2018 update that effectively disabled the majority of 3rd political party ink cartridges. Printers affected by this volition suddenly receive notices that one or more ink cartridges are unrecognized, incompatible or non-genuine. The company expects y'all to replace the ink with their much more expensive name make format in club to continue using the printer at all (east.g., $100.95 from Epson's store for the full 410XL ink pack, versus $27.79 past a competing ink remanufacturer).

Luckily, it is usually possible to restore an older version of the printer's firmware and resolve these newfound and cocky-imposed incompatibilities. The difficult role is figuring out how, since printer companies are notorious for removing old firmware as soon as the new version gets released and they rarely document how to get the printer into recovery fashion or transmit older firmware.

This guide is for the Epson XP series and should work on whatsoever model from 300 through at least 830, and probable many others with minor adjustments in the instructions. Please refer to the video for an illustrated demonstration.

Epson Downgrade Firmware Instructions

  1. Connect a USB Printer cable from the back of your printer to a calculator or laptop. You must utilise  a Type A/B printer cable and plug it into the correct USB port on the printer (square) not the standard USB input port on the front. When in recovery mode, a USB connexion is required to transfer the firmware to the printer, even if you lot already take it continued wirelessly.
  2. Remove all of the ink cartridges from the printer. This will ensure that all cartridge-related errors will be reset after applying the alternate firmware.
  3. Ability off the printer. Every bit soon every bit the printer is completely shut down, perform the following key combination until the firmware update screen appears in white text [if the printer instead boots to its regular screen or IPL mode with crimson text, yous may have to look-up or experimennt to find the proper recovery fashion combination for your printer model]:
    1. For many serial from XP-300 to XP-630: Press and agree the Cease button, LEFT ARROW button, HOME button and Power button simultaneously
    2. For the XP-440 to XP-446 and XP-640 to XP-646: Printing and hold the Cease button, LEFT Pointer button, Down Pointer button and Power push button  simultaneously (thanks to Ken for the combo)
    3. For the XP-800 to XP-830 and like unmarried push button models: Printing and hold the TOP-Correct corner of the TOUCH SCREEN and POWER button simultaneously.
    4. For other models or if you tin can't become the above to work: Try all of the in a higher place and if you still fail to reach recovery style, yous tin bank check this link for additional combo keys.
  4. Download the older firmware onto the connected laptop or figurer. For your convenience, a tabular array containing older firmware for the near common printer models (XP-200 through XP-960) is available below. If you lot have a different model, it may accept some research to find the desired firmware since nearly printer manufacturers remove obsolete firmware from their site immediately and provide no downgrade instructions. Epson'southward printers use a cocky-installing firmware updater that can be run directly from Windows or MacOS. In the instance of the XP-630, the earliest firmware update that is the most compatible with third party cartridges is NQ10F8.
  5. After launching the downloaded firmware installer, pace through the wizard past following the on-screen instructions. In the instance of Epson, you mostly have to click next through a few pages of disclaimers. Assuming the printer is connected to the PC with a USB cable and powered up to the recovery screen, you should meet a single entry in the Model listing and information technology should be checked. Click Kickoff to brainstorm the firmware downgrade, and then click Yeah to confirm. The prior firmware will be transferred to the printer, where information technology will brainstorm flashing automatically. This procedure tin take several minutes, but when it is completed the on-screen display volition indicate that information technology has finished.
  6. Once the downgrade is consummate, press OK or unplug the printer to power it off. Then ability it on once again. When prompted, insert the ink every bit usual and and then permit the printer consummate the ink initialization.

Conclusion

If all of the instructions have been followed successfully, yous should no longer receive errors about incompatible ink when using 3rd party cartridges and will be free to print once more. Make certain to disable or otherwise ignore whatever prompts to update the firmware again to avert this happening in the time to come. For Epson, yous can uninstall Epson Software Updater every bit an actress precaution, or but remember to always uncheck the firwmare updates when prompted (it is safe to update the other software packages).

One unaffiliated 3rd party site that I establish of value is Xtrime Printer Drivers, which includes variety of software and firmware downloads for Epson, Canon and Blood brother printers circa 2015-2016. You may wish to run any downloaded file through a scanner such equally VirusTotal to ensure information technology is clean before running it). You may as well find WIC Utility of interest (also unaffiliated); the free version tin can query many printers to detect older firmware versions and listing them for review, merely to really downgrade using this software instead of manually as described in this video costs $20 per reset. Some boosted firmware downgrade key combination instructions for other XP models tin be reviewed here.

Epson Firmware Download Links

For your convenience, a table containing 2016-2017 firmware files for a wide range of Epson printers is included below. These are official Epson downloads (secure and virus-free).

Update 11/2019: Epson has retroactively removed virtually all traces of the erstwhile drivers from their FTP server. Mirrors are included for well-nigh major printer models (Windows). You may have luck finding models unlisted past searching for the referenced firmware on Google, just use caution if downloading from extenral sources (e.g., scan through through Virus Total to ensure they are make clean). These download mirrors hither are unaltered, direct from Epson.

Model Firmware Date Windows MacOS
Epson XP-200 RF01G4 06/07/xvi Download N/A
Epson XP-300 RJ01G4 06/07/xvi Download N/A
Epson XP-310 OJ28G1 06/07/16 Due north/A Download
Epson XP-320 SJ07G4 06/07/sixteen Download Download
Epson XP-330 JO10G3 06/07/16 Download Download
Epson XP-340 MJ10H8 09/27/17 Download Download
Epson XP-400 RM01G4 09/21/xvi Download N/A
Epson XP-410 OM28G1 01/28/16 North/A N/A
Epson XP-420 SM07G4 07/06/16 N/A N/A
Epson XP-424 SM07G4 07/06/16 Due north/A N/A
Epson XP-430 MO10G3 06/07/16 Download Northward/A
Epson XP-434 MO10G3 06/07/sixteen Download Due north/A
Epson XP-440 SO10H8 09/27/17 Download Download
Epson XP-520 YF07F8 06/07/sixteen N/A N/A
Epson XP-600 MA22G4 09/21/16 Download N/A
Epson XP-610 NA12F8 06/07/xvi Download N/A
Epson XP-620 YE07F8 06/07/16 N/A N/A
Epson XP-630 NQ18G3 03/18/16 Download N/A
Epson XP-640 NK10G8 10/08/16 Download Due north/A
Epson XP-800 MB22G4 06/07/16 Download N/A
Epson XP-810 NX12F8 06/07/16 North/A Northward/A
Epson XP-820 YD07F8 06/07/xvi Download Due north/A
Epson XP-830 NP18G3 06/07/15 Download Download
Epson XP-850 MG22G4 06/07/16 Download N/A
Epson XP-860 YA04G2 07/01/sixteen Download N/A
Epson XP-950 PG12F8 06/07/xvi Download N/A
Epson XP-960 PL18G3 03/xviii/16 Download N/A

An Alternating Method (Scrape Carbon Band Off Cartridge)

This tip comes courtesy of Greg, who received these instructions and images from an ink supplier and confirmed it solved the rejection notice for him. Your success may vary depending on the cartridge type. I would yet recommend to first attempt downgrading the firmware as described above, simply if that fails or still gives yous fault notices you tin can try this equally an culling:

  1. Locate the carbon flick band on the upper right corner of the fleck.
  2. Scrape the carbon film band with a box cutter or scalpel (or fifty-fifty a sharp knife if that is all you have).
  3. Install the cartridge into the printer once again to check if information technology is recognized.