PrinterIntroduction

Despite a supreme court ruling in favor of third party ink suppliers, printer manufacturers remain relentless in their quest to eliminate cheaper ink alternatives. Everything from issuing stealth firmware updates bearded as security patches, to questionable takedown notices on eBay, these companies are adamant to make consumers pay for their loftier toll ink.

For Epson, new firmware updates are applied by default as part of the routine software update checks. Although the firmware frequency varies past model, many printers were issued a January 2018 update that finer disabled the bulk of third party ink cartridges. Printers afflicted by this will suddenly receive notices that 1 or more ink cartridges are unrecognized, incompatible or not-genuine. The company expects you to replace the ink with their much more expensive name brand format in gild to continue using the printer at all (e.chiliad., $100.95 from Epson's shop for the full 410XL ink pack, versus $27.79 by a competing ink remanufacturer).

Luckily, it is usually possible to restore an older version of the printer'due south firmware and resolve these newfound and self-imposed incompatibilities. The difficult office is figuring out how, since printer companies are notorious for removing old firmware every bit soon every bit the new version gets released and they rarely document how to go the printer into recovery mode or transmit older firmware.

This guide is for the Epson XP series and should work on whatever model from 300 through at least 830, and likely 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 dorsum of your printer to a computer or laptop. Y'all must use  a Type A/B printer cablevision and plug it into the correct USB port on the printer (foursquare) not the standard USB input port on the forepart. When in recovery mode, a USB connection is required to transfer the firmware to the printer, fifty-fifty if you already accept it continued wirelessly.
  2. Remove all of the ink cartridges from the printer. This volition ensure that all cartridge-related errors will exist reset subsequently applying the alternate firmware.
  3. Power off the printer. Every bit before long as the printer is completely close downward, 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 way with red text, you may have to look-up or experimennt to find the proper recovery style combination for your printer model]:
    1. For many serial from XP-300 to XP-630: Press and hold the STOP button, LEFT Pointer push button, Abode push and POWER button simultaneously
    2. For the XP-440 to XP-446 and XP-640 to XP-646: Press and agree the STOP push, LEFT ARROW button, DOWN Pointer button and POWER button  simultaneously (thanks to Ken for the philharmonic)
    3. For the XP-800 to XP-830 and similar single button models: Press and hold the TOP-RIGHT corner of the TOUCH SCREEN and POWER button simultaneously.
    4. For other models or if you tin can't get the above to work: Try all of the above and if you lot still fail to reach recovery manner, you can bank check this link for boosted combo keys.
  4. Download the older firmware onto the connected laptop or estimator. For your convenience, a table containing older firmware for the nigh common printer models (XP-200 through XP-960) is available below. If you lot have a different model, information technology may have some enquiry to detect the desired firmware since nearly printer manufacturers remove obsolete firmware from their site immediately and provide no downgrade instructions. Epson's printers use a self-installing firmware updater that can exist run directly from Windows or MacOS. In the case of the XP-630, the earliest firmware update that is the most uniform with tertiary party cartridges is NQ10F8.
  5. After launching the downloaded firmware installer, stride through the wizard by post-obit the on-screen instructions. In the case of Epson, you mostly take to click next through a few pages of disclaimers. Assuming the printer is continued to the PC with a USB cablevision and powered up to the recovery screen, you should see a single entry in the Model list and it should exist checked. Click Outset to brainstorm the firmware downgrade, and then click Yes to confirm. The prior firmware volition be transferred to the printer, where it volition begin flashing automatically. This process can take several minutes, but when it is completed the on-screen brandish will indicate that it has finished.
  6. Once the downgrade is complete, press OK or unplug the printer to power it off. So power information technology on once more. When prompted, insert the ink as usual then let the printer complete the ink initialization.

Determination

If all of the instructions have been followed successfully, you should no longer receive errors near incompatible ink when using third party cartridges and will be free to print once once again. Make certain to disable or otherwise ignore any prompts to update the firmware once more to avoid this happening in the future. For Epson, you lot can uninstall Epson Software Updater as an extra precaution, or simply call up to ever uncheck the firwmare updates when prompted (it is safe to update the other software packages).

I unaffiliated 3rd party site that I institute of value is Xtrime Printer Drivers, which includes diversity of software and firmware downloads for Epson, Catechism and Brother printers circa 2015-2016. You may wish to run any downloaded file through a scanner such as VirusTotal to ensure it is clean before running it). You lot may likewise find WIC Utility of interest (also unaffiliated); the complimentary version can query many printers to notice older firmware versions and listing them for review, but to actually downgrade using this software instead of manually equally described in this video costs $20 per reset. Some additional firmware downgrade cardinal 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-gratis).

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

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

An Alternate 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 blazon. I would nonetheless recommend to first attempt downgrading the firmware as described above, only if that fails or still gives you error notices you can try this equally an alternative:

  1. Locate the carbon picture show band on the upper correct corner of the chip.
  2. Scrape the carbon film band with a box cutter or scalpel (or even a sharp pocketknife if that is all you accept).
  3. Install the cartridge into the printer once more to check if it is recognized.