2 Surprising Ways to Reset Epson CIS Ink Level Chip. Cartridge Not Recognized?

Epson CIS systems sometimes come with an auto reset chip, or ARC. If you have one of the printers that come with this kind of CIS system, you may or may not have noticed that they make it so you are unable to manually reset your Epson’s in levels in most cases.

Today, I’ll show you how to get around this, so people with an Epson printer that uses a CIS system with ARC can reset their printer’s ink levels. Usually, the ARC will reset the ink levels by itself when the printer registers an ink depletion error. Without getting triggered by this ink depletion error message, the ink levels will never be reset.

This means that even if you notice your Epson’s ink levels getting low and receive a low ink warning, you still won’t be able to reset it. The Epson printer views a low ink warning message and an ink depletion error as two separate problems. Keep printing until the low ink warning turns into an ink depletion error.

When the printer finally encounters the ink depletion error, it will ask you to change the cartridge. Rather than opening the lid and changing the cartridge as it wants, we will simulate a cartridge changing event.

Fool the printer’s lid sensor

First, we will remove the piece of paper that jams the lid trigger. Just like that, the printer now believes that the lid has been opened. It will then respond by moving the cartridge to the cartridge changing position. There will be a reset button to temporarily disconnect the chip from the printer.

This will make the printer think that you have removed and reinserted the cartridge. If you press down on the cartridge gently, you will see the printer’s icon that resembles the cartridge grayed out. Upon releasing it, the printer will think that a new cartridge has been inserted. You can also physically remove and reinsert the cartridge.

Put the piece of paper back in the lid trigger, and the printer should start working again. However, there is a common problem that you may run into during the cartridge reset process. The printer will say, “Cannot recognize the following ink cartridge(s). Try installing them again. <Ink Cartridge(s)>”.

I see this error come around a few times a year. It will also occur as a result of new CIS installation from time to time. Repeating the process will not help. Instead, we will take the cartridge out of the printer. Let it try to run without. If the OEM cartridges are available, you could try installing those as well.

When you close the printer lid and let it try to run after you’ve taken all of its cartridges away, it will get overwhelmed and not know what to do. Press the “OK” button to proceed. From there, open the printer lid and install the CIS cartridges, then close the cover once again.

Your printer should start preparing the ink systems without any additional error messages. Once the ink systems have finished preparing, you should be able to proceed to printing without any trouble.

For a visual guide to this process, I made a video demonstration and posted it on my YouTube channel, Kevin at BCH, which you can watch here. I also have several other helpful printer-related videos, as well as my website, BCHTechnologies.com, where I sell various printer parts and accessories. I hope this blog helped!