How To Reset Waste Ink Pad Counter

[Jonelle Rycroft]

Assumingyou've learned about waste ink pads, the process of replacing the pads or redirecting the waste ink to an external tank/kit, is only half the job. If your printer started displaying the "service required" or "waste pads in printer have reached end of service life" error, you still need to reset the printers internal waste counter(s).

When this article was originally written (back in early 2005 or so) the situation regarding options was pretty poor and there were very few printers that had accessible waste pads, much less the chip equipped maintenance boxes. So things have changed considerably.

In early 2000 or so, Epson USA made an Ink Pad Reset (IPR) utility that would allow customers of some inkjet models to reset their waste ink counters and allegedly make use of the excess capacity likely to be available in the printers pads. Epson has since removed this utility and all newer versions from their site. The utilities were limited in compatibility and usage so this isn't as big a loss as it might appear.

The original SSC utility, is now ancient and has almost no utility for all except those with printers more than 17 years old and while it was compatible with what was a wide range of printers it only dealt with those really old printers.

For quite some time the only way anyone was able to reset waste counters was to use the official service utilities available to sevice centres that had found their way onto the wider web with various protections and limits removed. Use of these utilities was limited to earlier versions of Windows operating system and while these sorts of utilities are still appearing on eBay, etc... for newer models, they still require substantial technical knowledge to use.

In 2009 came the release of the pay per reset utility called "WICReset" which stands for Waste Ink Counter Reset. This new tool requires the purchase of a digital "key" (basically a credit) which then allows the user to reset the waste ink counter once. The tool started off somewhat shakily in the early years but has matured into an effective tool that is reasonably user friendly.

I have tried every method I can find for resetting the waste ink counter and cannot get any of them to work (I wonder why there are so many). I have an iP1600 so can someone give me difinitive instructions on how to reset that counter? I currently have the green light go off then the amber light flashes 8 times, then the green light goes back on and the cycle starts again. It does not seem to effect printing so I assume it is just another waste ink mesasge. I just have to keep clearing the waste ink message every time I print. TIA.

Using my Mac 10.7.5, does anyone know of a download that will reset the waste ink counter on my Epson Artisan 730 printer. I have changed the waste ink pads, but my 730 printer has locked me out until I change the waste ink counter back to 0. The printer screen message is:" A printer's ink pad is at the end of its life.Please contact Epson Support. Turn Off." Epson support says go to an Epson Service Center and have the machine serviced. The Service Center charges over $100 to do a reset. I found a reset program online but it was only used on PCs not Macs. Any help would be greatly appreciated, to get my printer back in service.

That out of the way, to answer your question there are Windows only utilities that will work to reset the printers waste ink counter and just need to be used to complete the reset. Once reset the printer can then be returned to the MacOS machine and not need the windows machine again (well, not until the waste counter hit maximum again).

Alternatively there's a MacOS compatible pay-per-reset option in the form of a utility called iWIC. This requires the purchase of a one-time digital key to complete the reset itself but the utility can be used without a key to read the waste counters and get some other information from the printer.

One critical thing to note though is that resetting and then ignoring the waste ink is a bit of a daft thing to do so if you do decide to reset, then consider replacing the waste pads or fitting something like a Printer Potty to you don't later discover you need a new carpet, etc...

Hi I have the same problem...first key didn't work. Down loaded Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages x86 and x64. Bought another key and tried it again still didn't work, keeps saying ( not Responding) , feel like a waste of my time and money.

You received instructions and a link to install Microsoft Visual C++ x64 and x86 2017-2022 packages in an email with the WIC reset key. This is a prerequisite for the WIC reset utility to work correctly. You must install them before running the utility and before using the WIC reset key, otherwise the key may be corrupted.

Please email our support team at sup...@inkchip.net

Make sure that your printer is connected to your computer with a USB cable. Also make sure that you insert the key without spaces or extra characters before or after the key, and that Microsoft Visual C++ x64 and x86 packages were installed. Send a confirmation from the download menu please.

yes, the printer is connected with a USB cable and I downloaded Microsoft Visual C++ x64 and x86 packages PRIOR to using the product key provided by email. see attached picture for proof. I then ran the WIC program and select my printer, which once again IS connected with a USB cable. once I run the read waste ink counter the program does not respond for quite some time and then will give me a printer read error and tell me to restart the printer. I restart the computer and have tried every other USB type A option on my motherboard just to get the same error. And like I previously stated in my last post, I tried resetting the waste ink counter and was given an invalid product key error, and yes I ensured there were no errors by copying and pasting the provided key.

Same problem. I put in the code and the program stated NOT RESPONDING. I am now unable to reuse the code bc the program tells me it was used previously. ALSO I am unable to even use the Read WIC function for the same not responding/Printer communication error. All appropriate programs downloaded, connected with USB, Restarted computer and printer multiple times. after reading this thread, I went back and removed all the dashes and its telling me the code is invalid. Please help me.

INKCHIP provides the best software to reset your printer's waste ink pad counters. Just download our utility and with the WIC reset keys you can reset the ink pad counters to zero. It only takes a few seconds to easily reset your printer.

I have been trying everything I can find on google and youtube (short of downloading a sketchy exe file), but I can't reset the page counter. I already cleaned out the ink absorber pads, but my printer won't print until this has been reset. I hate planned obsolescence.

There are various reset methods for different Canon printers. None allow resetting of the 'ink pad full' on the MG2550S, thought you may get limited access to other features like 'nozzle check'. Even physically transfering the eeprom to an eeprom reader/writer doesn't help unless you know what parameters to change.

No, this didn't work. When I plug in the printer while holding the power button, the green light comes on, but nothing else happens. When I release the power button, the light goes off again and the printer does not come on without having reset anything.

I can't speak for any other brands, since I've always used Epsons, right from day one. But from what I can figure out, this 'function' is peculiar to Epsons, and is all part of their efforts to 'encourage' you to have your device serviced regularly (for outrageous sums of money!) at their approved 'service centres'.

As if selling you a device at a reasonable price, followed by gouging you, ad infinitum, with extortionate ink prices, wasn't enough, the WIC value - once it reaches a certain point - will cause your printer to just quit working, without warning. All you'll see in your wee display panel will be something along the lines of

There used to be a free reset utility for Epsons, years ago, that worked under Windows. I had to use it, several years ago, because one of my Epsons gave some very heavy-duty service for a couple of years printing photos.....and I eventually hit the WIC value.

I've never been able to find one that functioned under Linux, until now.....and, TBH, I don't print anything like as much these days. Following a browse around the web, I located a repo of .deb packages for the WICreset utility. I downloaded an age-related one for my daily driver - jrb's lite version of BK's Quirky April 64 - installed it, annnd.....it works perfectly.

Most after-market ink vendors nowadays will sell you these reset keys - single-use, I'm afraid, though there's NO 'expiry date' - for a small fee (a few dollars or pounds). Many people will just chuck away and buy new again, but I intend to hang onto my SX218 for a while longer yet. The printer works, the scanner works, the drivers I have for it give full functionality.....why add to the growing e-waste problem? (And most EPSON users will probably only ever need a reset key perhaps once - or maybe twice - in all the time they own one.)

There are some sites out there purporting to offer this software when what they are actually distributing is some kind of malicious program. One site presented the files in a .rar and when I attempted to scan the compressed package at VirusTotal it could not see into the individual files. I was curious and dumb enough to download it anyway. I then opened it and uploaded the individual files to VirusTotal. It turned out to be some kind of porn trojan.

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