How to Downgrade Epson Artisan Printer Firmware

Introduction

Despite a
supreme courtroom ruling
in favor of 3rd party ink suppliers, printer manufacturers remain relentless in their quest to eliminate cheaper ink alternatives. Everything from issuing
stealth firmware updates
bearded as security patches, to
questionable takedown notices on eBay, these companies are determined to make consumers pay for their high price ink.

For
Epson, new firmware updates are practical by default equally part of the routine software update checks. Although the firmware frequency varies past model, many printers were issued a
January 2018 update that finer disabled the majority of tertiary party ink cartridges. Printers affected by this volition suddenly receive notices that 1 or more ink cartridges are
unrecognized,
incompatible
or
not-18-carat. The company expects you to replace the ink with their much more expensive name make format in order to continue using the printer at all (e.g.,
$100.95
from Epson’s store for the full 410XL ink pack, versus
$27.79
by a competing ink remanufacturer).

Luckily, it is commonly possible to restore an older version of the printer’s firmware and resolve these newfound and self-imposed incompatibilities. The difficult part is figuring out how, since printer companies are notorious for removing old firmware as soon as the new version gets released and they rarely document how to go the printer into recovery fashion or transmit older firmware.

This guide is for the Epson XP series and should piece of work on any model from 300 through at least 830, and likely many others with minor adjustments in the instructions. Delight refer to the video for an illustrated sit-in.

Epson Downgrade Firmware Instructions

1. Connect a
   USB Printer cable
   from the
   back of your printer
   to a reckoner or laptop.
   You must use  a
   Type A/B printer cablevision
   and plug it into the correct USB port on the printer (square)
   not
   the standard USB input port on the front.
   When in recovery mode, a USB connection is required to transfer the firmware to the printer, even if you already have information technology connected wirelessly.
2. Remove all of the ink cartridges from the printer. This will ensure that all cartridge-related errors will be reset after applying the alternate firmware.
3. Power off the printer. As soon every bit the printer is completely shut down, perform the following key combination until the firmware update screen appears in white text
   [if the printer instead boots to its regular screen or IPL manner with ruby text, you may have to await-upward or experimennt to notice the proper recovery mode combination for your printer model]:
   1. For many serial from XP-300 to XP-630:
      Press and hold the
      Terminate
      push,
      LEFT Arrow
      button,
      Home
      button and
      Ability
      push button simultaneously
   2. For the XP-440 to XP-446 and XP-640 to XP-646:
      Press and hold the
      Cease
      button,
      LEFT Pointer
      button,
      Downward ARROW
      push and
      POWER
      button  simultaneously (thank you to Ken for the combo)
   3. For the
      XP-800 to XP-830
      and similar single push models: Press and hold the
      Acme-RIGHT corner of the Bear upon SCREEN
      and
      POWER
      button simultaneously.
   4. For other models or if you tin can’t become the in a higher place to work: Attempt all of the above and if you yet neglect to reach recovery mode, y’all can bank check
      
      this link
      
      for additional combo keys.
4. Download the
   
   older firmware
   
   onto the connected laptop or reckoner. For your convenience, a table containing older firmware for the most common printer models (XP-200
   through
   XP-960) is available below. If you have a different model, information technology may take some research to find the desired firmware since most printer manufacturers remove obsolete firmware from their site immediately and provide no downgrade instructions. Epson’s printers apply a self-installing firmware updater that can be run directly from
   Windows
   or
   MacOS. In the case of the
   XP-630, the primeval firmware update that is the about compatible with third party cartridges is
   NQ10F8.
5. After launching the downloaded firmware installer, step through the wizard by following the on-screen instructions. In the case of Epson, you generally have to click
   next
   through a few pages of disclaimers. Assuming the printer is connected to the PC with a USB cable and powered upwardly to the recovery screen, you should run into a single entry in the
   Model listing
   and it should be
   checked. Click
   Start
   to brainstorm the
   firmware downgrade, and so click
   Yes
   to ostend. The prior firmware will be transferred to the printer, where it will begin flashing automatically. This process can have several minutes, merely when information technology is completed the on-screen display will indicate that it has finished.
6. In one case the downgrade is complete, press
   OK
   or unplug the printer to power it off. And then power it on again. When prompted,
   insert the ink equally usual
   and and then let the printer complete the ink initialization.

Determination

If all of the instructions have been followed successfully, you lot should no longer receive errors about incompatible ink when using third party cartridges and will exist costless to print one time again. Make certain to disable or otherwise ignore any prompts to update the firmware once more to avoid this happening in the hereafter. For Epson, y’all can uninstall
Epson Software Updater
equally an extra precaution, or simply remember to always uncheck the firwmare updates when prompted (it is safe to update the other software packages).

1 unaffiliated third party site that I found of value is

Xtrime Printer Drivers
, which includes variety of software and firmware downloads for Epson, Canon and Brother printers circa 2015-2016. You may wish to run any downloaded file through a scanner such equally

VirusTotal

to ensure information technology is make clean before running it). You may besides find

WIC Utility

of involvement (also unaffiliated); the gratis version can query many printers to discover older firmware versions and list them for review, just to actually downgrade using this software instead of manually as described in this video costs $20 per reset. Some boosted firmware downgrade key combination instructions for other XP models can be reviewed
here.

Epson Firmware Download Links

For your convenience, a tabular array containing 2016-2017 firmware files for a wide range of Epson printers is included below. These are official Epson downloads (secure and virus-free).

Update 11/2019:
Epson has retroactively removed virtually all traces of the old drivers from their FTP server. Mirrors are included for most major printer models (Windows). Y’all may have luck finding models unlisted by searching for the referenced firmware on Google, but employ caution if downloading from extenral sources (e.g., scan through through Virus Total to ensure they are clean). These download mirrors hither are unaltered, direct from Epson.

Model	Firmware	Date	Windows	MacOS
Epson XP-200	RF01G4	06/07/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-300	RJ01G4	06/07/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-310	OJ28G1	06/07/16	Northward/A	Download
Epson XP-320	SJ07G4	06/07/16	Download	Download
Epson XP-330	JO10G3	06/07/sixteen	Download	Download
Epson XP-340	MJ10H8	09/27/17	Download	Download
Epson XP-400	RM01G4	09/21/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-410	OM28G1	01/28/16	North/A	Northward/A
Epson XP-420	SM07G4	07/06/16	N/A	N/A
Epson XP-424	SM07G4	07/06/16	N/A	N/A
Epson XP-430	MO10G3	06/07/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-434	MO10G3	06/07/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-440	SO10H8	09/27/17	Download	Download
Epson XP-520	YF07F8	06/07/16	Due north/A	Due north/A
Epson XP-600	MA22G4	09/21/16	Download	North/A
Epson XP-610	NA12F8	06/07/sixteen	Download	Due north/A
Epson XP-620	YE07F8	06/07/16	North/A	N/A
Epson XP-630	NQ18G3	03/18/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-640	NK10G8	10/08/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-800	MB22G4	06/07/16	Download	North/A
Epson XP-810	NX12F8	06/07/xvi	Northward/A	N/A
Epson XP-820	YD07F8	06/07/16	Download	N/A
Epson XP-830	NP18G3	06/07/15	Download	Download
Epson XP-850	MG22G4	06/07/16	Download	North/A
Epson XP-860	YA04G2	07/01/xvi	Download	North/A
Epson XP-950	PG12F8	06/07/sixteen	Download	N/A
Epson XP-960	PL18G3	03/18/16	Download	N/A

An Alternate Method (Scrape Carbon Band Off Cartridge)

This tip comes courtesy of Greg, who received these instructions and images from an ink supplier and confirmed it solved the rejection find for him. Your success may vary depending on the cartridge type. I would however recommend to first effort downgrading the firmware as described above, simply if that fails or still gives yous fault notices yous can try this as an alternative:

1. Locate the carbon film ring on the upper correct corner of the chip.
2. Scrape the carbon flick band with a box cutter or scalpel (or even a sharp knife if that is all y’all have).
3. Install the cartridge into the printer again to check if it is recognized.