Today we're going to talk about how to solve the problem that your Epson's ink light is on or is blinking. If you're using a PC, you'll probably get this message said, "The ink pad has reached the end of life." Then you'll have to contact Epson support. If you use your Mac, you probably need to install the original Epson's driver, not just by adding a printer from your desktop, and then you get that message.

The reason that caused this is simple. Every time your printer do a self-cleaning, Epson dump some waste ink into somewhere called a waste pad. The printer has a counter. It counts how many times you did self-cleaning. When you reach that maximum number, 100%, the printer will stop working and ask you to call support.

To solve this problem like here, you have two steps. The first step is, of course, you have to reset that counter back to zero. In the second step, you either clean out the path or install a permanent external tank to collect the waste ink. Today, the first thing I want to show you is how to reset that counter to zero. In then the second part, I will show you how to install an external waste tank.

Step one, there are a few software that can reset the counter. However, you have to turn off your antivirus software or your Windows Defender for most of them. The reason is simple. That antivirus is looking for software that could reach inside your hardware to change the hardware. Of course, that's what you're going to do. If you decided to reset your waste counter, you have to use software that you trust. InkChip (Click to Visit). This is one of the programs that I trust. The website is called inkchip.net. I'll be using it to reset my counters.

The software interface is super intuitive, and the rest is easy. Let me show you. Then we go to "WIC". Before you purchase it, it's better to test it and make sure it will work on your computer. What you do is based on your language. I guess it's English. Just download it. Just click "English" and download this version. Oh, by the way, this software only works for Windows, so there's no Mac. After you download it, you can double click and install it.

If you have a problem install or use the program, you can go to the "Forum" to see anybody else have a similar issue or go to their contact and open a support ticket. Let me put there a job to show you if your software is caught by the antivirus or Windows Defender. In that case, when you try to open the program, the program has been deleted. Just go find out what antivirus you have. For me, I'm only using Windows Security. Double click it, and if you have Norton or something else, it's almost the same procedure.

I go to "Virus & threat protection," and I go click "History," and they're going to say "Threat blocked." I was looking for files removed or restored. This is the one that I just installed. I got it removed by this Windows Security. "Action" will only allow or restore. It'll put the program back. Once we have the program, we can double click and open it and see what I said is the interface is intuitive. I'm going to the Waste ink counter. Now, I can plug in the printer. After we plug in the printer, here is the "Refresh." You click on it, and it will show you the printer just plugged in, and then now it can read the ink counters.

You see, this one has 24%, and this counter is OK. You still have some life left. If it's more, then you can reset it. This printer seems OK to go ahead and purchase the key, and also, you can go to their website, and it gives you a list of compatible printers. Now, it's time to get the key. You can click "Reset waste ink counters" now. Put your key in. It's going to be a long string. You can copy and paste. After you click "OK," it will ask you to restart the computer, and after you continue, you can check the counter and the meter is zero. The counter is reset to zero. Now, it's the second part that we have to do something physical. What you need is a screwdriver, Phillips number 2 screwdriver. I use this EcoTank 2720 as an example. For this one, the waste tank can be removed with one screw in the back. Now, you can use your finger and poke it and remove this cover. Now, you can see there's another screw here if you remove it. Now, you can slide out the waste pad. The counter was 24% full when we reset it.

Some people take those pad out, put them inside a pantyhose, throw them in the dishwasher, wash it, and then just dry it and put it back. That works. After a couple of times, your sponge will look like this, and it's not as absorbent as before. What you can do is you can go to eBay or Amazon. There should be somebody who sells those kinds of sponges; then you can cut them into shape. We got some leftovers of those same kinds of sponges. If you want to buy those, it's available on our website.

Oh, somebody mentioned our website. If you go to bchtechnologies.com, go to "Accessories" and go to "Waste Tank." There are a couple of things. You can buy it as a kit or buy it individually because some stuff is just household stuff. You may already have it. For example, the bottle is generic. What's notable is this dual connector. Also, you need one of these tubes. This is a small tube, 2.5 millimeters, and there's a 4 millimeter larger tube. It would be best if you had some Velcro or something. That's all you'll need: a tube, a connector, a bottle, and a Velcro.

As I started, we need to remove two screws. This screw here, this one here, and then we can lift the scanner. Now, the scanner can lift. Slowly lift it. If you lift it too high, you're going to pull those two cables out of the motherboard. It's not hard to put them back, but we don't have to do it if we don't have to. I'll put a box here to keep the scanner unit open. Now, we can take out the conversion kit. For the connector, if I get it close, you can see it has two sections. This one can connect to a smaller tube. This section can connect to a bigger tube and can be connected to both a small and a bigger tube.

For the tube, we got two choices. The smaller tube has the same diameter as your Epson original OEM tube. The larger tube is a lot larger than the small tube. When you want to use a larger tube, you have plenty of openings. The bigger tube is less expensive than, the smaller tube. If you have a bigger opening here, you can choose a larger tube. For this demo, I'm going to use a small tube. What you need is something to catch the ink when the ink comes out. For this one, I'll use this bottle.

You don't want to knock this bottle over. You can get something like a Velcro to stabilize it. You can see this is the Epson cleaning pump right down there. Then they pump out the waste ink. Waste ink goes into the waste pad from here. We can pull out the waste tube. Now, we use this connector and insert it into Epson's waste tube. On another end, you can either connect to a smaller tube or a larger cube. In this case, I want to use the same hole as Epson. I'm going to put it in a smaller tube.

All right. If you don't want to keep this open, you can drill a hole through for the cover. Then now, we put this screw back, and you can decide where to put this tank. Now, we can do self-cleaning and see if it works. OK, not bad. If you worry about this tube is too high, maybe just put this bottle underneath somewhere.