This guide is intended for anyone who has looked at or who is considering paying for eBay items that indicate that they will fix your printer when it stops working (usually reporting it requires a service)

It's already free??!

First thing you need to know is that in 99% of cases the eBay listing is actually selling you something that is already FREE but because the main site is not particularly well publicised you need to know some keywords to find it on google. Those keywords are:
- SSC, epson, printer, reset

That will help you find a site in Russian that will provide you with the utility. Or of course you can pay between £1 and £4 on eBay for the same thing as a download link or a CD. It's perfectly legal but why pay someone for it?

Whoops we forgot to mention the smallprint

Secondly, many of these utilities are NOT the "cure-all" healer of ill, disabled or maformed printers... Many of the eBay listings will use quotes like:

"Will fix 99% of all your Epson printer problems"
"Get your printer working again without a service"
"...utility allows you to do many amazing things with your Epson printer"

It's true that a program will be required to reset the printer for use but what the eBay seller will conveniently forget to mention is that your printer will be an ink time-bomb waiting to leak everywhere and eventually kill your printer as it drowns in waste ink.

The magic fix is the "Printer parts have come to the end of their life. Service required" which is usually when the waste ink blotting pad in the bottom of your Epson printer becomes completely saturated with ink and requires replacement. What you must realise is that:

1. The pad still needs replacing even if you can reset it
2. The utility will not reset all printers (Many are not fully compatible)
3. If you don't replace the waste ink pad or find another way to redirect waste ink flow (search on google for "external waste ink mod R300") ink will eventially overflow all over your desk, carpet, etc..
   
4. Many of the newer printers will not actually reset at all because the SSC utility is unable to communicate with the printer once it displays the "service required" message.. (this is particularly true of the C64/84/66/86 and D68/88 printers)
   

The SSC utility also has a slew of other potential features (again not available for all printers) but you need to know what you're doing to use them.. There are countless users who have complained that features did unexpected things and resulted in dead printers and because it's not an official utility (you can't get the official ones unless you're an accredited service technician) you don't have any comeback.

Reset possible BEFORE service required displayed.

Most people will find out about the "service required" message after their first printer has decided it's "full" and unless you have a printer that accept reset commands after the message appears (eg: R200, R300...) then you're plumb out of luck using the free utilities.

HOWEVER!! if you're thinking ahead or forewarned it's worth noting that the SSC utility can be used to reset your waste ink counter for a working printer on a regular basis so that it never reaches the failure limit. This approach works with models that won't accept resets when it's too late (eg: C8x models)...

Amendment: I've been informed that the C64 can be reset after the "service required" message displays but as a rule of thumb, avoiding the message is obviously the better policy.

The critical bit is that you reset the waste ink level regularly while the printer is still working and not waiting until it starts screaming for a service you save yourself a LOT of heartache. See, being organised does pay off sometimes (but don't tell my mother I said that!)

Of course, this doesn't mean your waste ink just disappears.. the normal rules still apply... You must make sure your waste ink is being handled properly (eg: external waste ink tank, etc..) so it won't overflow and ruin the printer.



IMPORTANT: I've generalised in this guide as there some other utilities available on the net. However almost all of the Quick fix reset utilities/programs listed on eBay seem to be the SSC utility. Also, the coders responsible for SSC offer very useful assistance for printer users who take the time to read the small-print but you are always responsible for using it. EBay hawkers don't make all the information available so don't blame SSC for those looking to make a profit.