Epson Stylus Color 480SXU Error

Second time this has happened. “An unknown error has occurred. Unplug your printer and contact your dealer or authorized service center.” Info found here.

A Service Error where you get an “Unknown Error Message”, or a “General Error Message”, is normally a Maintenance Request Error. The maintenance request error is actually a Waste Ink Ink Pad Error and usually your remedy is to replace the Waste Ink Pad/Pads with a new one/ones and then reset the Internal Waste Ink Pad Counter. If you just reset the counter and don’t replace the pads, then your printers old pads will eventually overflow and normally start leaking ink out the bottom of your printer. You can see “Exploded Parts Diagrams” of most Epson Ink Jet Printers and can also check on possible parts ordering, by Compass Micro Inc, at http://www.compassmicro.com/parts_select.cfm . Some people actually wash the ink out of the old pads, by holding them under running cold water. Then they simply dry them out and reinstall them back into their printer. The choice on what to actually do, is yours to make. I would at least recommend getting that Waste Ink Counter reset procedure and performing it first, to make sure your printer will then work.

The Epson reset program download location is http://www.ssclg.com/download/sscserve.exe. To check printer compatibility, see http://www.ssclg.com/epsons.shtml.

The program has also features as well. The “SSC Service Utility” doesn’t work on all Epson Printers nor on all Operating Systems, and sometimes not even if the printer is a listed model, so you’ll just have to try it to see. If it doesn’t work, you might have to search for a Service Manual or the actual Reset Procedure to buy and download for reference while disassembling, troubleshooting, and servicing. You can normally find the Reset Procedures for most Epson Printers from 2manuals.com. The reset procedure is usually available for about $10. There’s a free download of an Epson Stylus Color 480 Service Manual from fixyourownprinter.com. This manual may be of some help in actual disassembly and servicing of the waste ink pads. However, you’ll still need the actual reset procedure in order to remove the waste ink counter error condition.
Here’s info about how to clean or replace the waste ink pad. I still need to do it sometime. I just had the program reset the counter, even though I didn’t replace the pad. That could be bad later on, but hopefully it won’t have much effect on the little bit of printing that I do between now and when I wash it.

Update: I actually came home after being out for the weekend, the printer suddenly started working again. I think it was the waste ink pad counter, but it needed some time to reset.

Another interesting thing to note is that the print queue was saved. On Friday I had tried printing something from Firefox, and it failed due to the abvoe problem. I shut down my computer for the weekend (power off). When I returned and powered on my computer, I opened a Word document and started printing it. The printer then started printing the page I had tried to print on Friday.