Epson L1455 Not Responsive and Firmware Cannot see USB

Today we’re going to be doing something a little different. I selected some questions that customers and friends have asked me, and I’ll try to answer them as best I can. There’s no way for me to give the best answer, though, because it would be a bit like trying to diagnose an illness over the internet.

The first question we’ll be looking at comes to us from Poland. The question read:

“Hello! I have a problem with my Epson L1455, such that after connecting to the power supply, the printer starts up by itself and the date and time reset message appears. The printer is not completely responsive. Epson Firmware Updater cannot see the USB and LAN devices. I have run out of ideas for a solution, and I am looking for help.”

Date/Time AND LCD issues?

Right off the bat, there are two issues here. Firstly, I’ve never seen what they mentioned about the date and time reset. Secondly, having never seen this person’s specific printer, I don’t know what their LCD screen looks like. From what I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do from the computer’s side. That means you will need to do something from the LCD side.

Most likely, the printer is failing to identify itself over the USB connection. My first suggestion is to see on the LCD side if any other choices are available. See if it offers you any options other than resetting.

The second idea I have is to force copy the firmware. This is what I would do if I ran out of solutions and had nothing else to try. Try doing it from the software first. Some printers will allow you to force copy the firmware by turning your printer into firmware update mode. You can do this by pressing a couple of keys.

After you put your printer into firmware update mode, the printer should now be able to accept your computer’s request for an update. Otherwise the printer usually won’t accept it when you try and force the firmware to copy onto the printer.

Research Needed

The 1450 printer model is not a US model, so I don’t really know anything about it, if I’m being honest. Your best bet is probably to look it up on the internet. After a quick search, I couldn’t find anything about this problem that offered a quick solution. If you try to do this search yourself, be careful because there will be a lot of spam websites or potential scams that pop up.

One of the links I came across was definitely a scam. In the link itself, they tried to tie themselves to Epson. Upon clicking the link, it’s apparent that they’re attempting to disguise themselves as an Epson website.

If you’re struggling to find a website that looks trustworthy, I always use InkChip.net, and I have used it enough times without incident that I am very confident in recommending it to you. InkChip.net, although not really for EcoTanks, provides you with extensive instructions that you can use for advice. I would suggest going there and taking a look around. At the very least, they have instructions for how to put a few different printer models into firmware update mode. Even if your printer is an eco tank, you could try some combinations and methods they give you. Odds are one of them will work for your printer as well.

The third idea is to copy the firmware into your printer using WIC. WIC is software that is made to help with this exact kind of thing. You can obtain it by going to WIC.support. You can easily find the WIC program they have available for you to download.

Downloading this to your computer may cause a few more error codes because it’s trying to look to see if you have any of their other software or if anything you have is compatible. Either they want something backward compatible or capable of a forward update. You can try installing a copy of the firmware to your printer using this.

Lastly, if none of those other things work, you could always try to copy the firmware onto your printer physically. There are going to be a lot of links that you need to do this, and copying them is rather tedious. You can text the phrase “firmware1” to (855) 452-8332, and I will text you back a direct link to the article you need. If you check the references, all the links you need will be there.

Looking at the circuit board for your printer, search for a piece marked SOP-8. This is usually where Epson stores its firmware. It’s fairly easy to identify. It’s a black, square shaped piece. The one I use in the demonstration video is a Spansion brand with eight legs.

That one had three chips, but most of them only have two. For example, the one for the EcoTank is marked IC5. The chip will have the name of the brand that made it on the top. The EcoTank one I use in the video is a Winbond chip, and you can tell at a glance that something is wrong with it. The bottom was almost completely melted.

Find a Healthy File

To do this, you’ll need a file from a healthy, working motherboard. You can get a physically functional board to copy or our bin file from my website, BCHTechnologies.com. You can find it under the Epson tab on the printer parts page. Then select Electronic Board and Assembly.

To copy it, you’ll need something called a programmer, which is unfortunately not available on my website. You can easily find one if you go to Amazon and look it up. I have the XGecu and Sofi programs. Either one costs around $75.

Those are mid-range programmers. I usually don’t use the $10 programmers because of the poor quality. What you’ll do is put the eight-leg adapter clip on it. You can see a more detailed explanation if you go to this time stamp in the video I did about this.

Then you take the big black clip and put it on your printer’s memory board, on the part marked SOP-8. Doing the firmware copy saves you the hassle of having to solder the firmware chip off. All you have to do is redirect from the memory board.

If you bought the bin file, go to your computer and tell it to load. This will move the information from your bin file to your computer. The programming tools that I think are the best come from Poland and are made by a company called Reveltronics. They’re pretty cheap, and the one I bought cost more to ship than it did to purchase.

For more printer-related tips and tricks, check out my YouTube channel, Kevin at BCH. I hope this blog helped. For a video walkthrough, you can watch my video here. Happy Printing!