Epson Stylus SX400

Got this brand new all in one printer from epson. Bought this for my office work. Excellent Scanning features included. Print resolution is the best. Upgraded printing technology used in this printer. A must try product. Great purchase, value for money.

This is a cheap nasty printer where the manufacturers appear to have designed the software so that you have to constantly replace ink cartridges. It is particularly frustrating when all you want to do is perhaps print a simple letter in black and white, yet the printer refuses to cooperate because one of the colour cartridges is running low on ink. It appears you cannot simply get the printer to work using the black ink cartridge. Utterly idiotic, the only purpose of this is to get people to constantly go out buying their stupid expensive ink cartridges. Avoid this like the plague, I will not be buying any Epson products in future.

This all-in-one was easy to set up, initially printed fine and worked well. The problems started when the inkjet cartridges had to be replaced...

Epson firmware in these printers uses a chip which can get fatally corrupted by a number of sequences of events, usually when changing ink cartridges, and usually when using refilled or 'non-genuine' cartridges, many of which are relatively cheaply available compared with the expensive 'genuine' Epson ones. The chip appears to be programmed to 'not recognise' any cartridge that is less than three-quarters full which has been taken out and put back in again for any reason, regardless of whether it is a 'genuine' Epson cartridge or not.

Usually, one empty cartridge can be replaced by a 'non-genuine' one without problems, although it may have to be taken out and reinserted a few times before the printer chip accepts it. But when two or more cartridges have to be replaced at the same time with 'non-genuine' ones, the chip can get confused, and post an error message saying that none of the cartridges are recognised. This can also happen if all the cartridges are removed at the same time, including any 'genuine' Epson ones, and put back in with a replacement 'non-genuine' one or two amongst them.

If a 'genuine' cartridge is taken out when less than three-quarter full it may not be recognised when it is replaced.

The chip can get into a fatal loop, and refuse to recognise any further cartridges, whether 'genuine' or not. This can sometimes be overcome by switching the printer off, removing the power plug from the mains, leaving it for between a minute and half an hour, and then plugging back in and switching it back on. It may then decide to recognise the cartidges, and all will be well for awhile. For awhile because there have been reports of the chip sometimes stopping printing in the middle of a page, and again posting a 'cartridges not recognised' error, which can be very annoying, to say the least.

The problem is compounded because many companies who are 'recyclers' of Epson cartridges do not check the chip on the cartridges before they are refilled and sent back into the domestic printing world. As many as 25% may be defective or in some way no longer servicable. So in these cases the chip in the printer quite legitimately cannot recognise the cartridge, as the cartridge chip is not working properly.

We have tried a number of ways around the fatal loop problem, including trying to overwrite the firmware in the printer; but while the printer is posting a 'cartridges not recognised' error, it will not allow its firmware to be overwritten. Taking out all the cartridges and then retrying to overwrite the firmware made no difference either.

From reviewing many comments available on the Internet concerning these Epson printers, one can have little faith in them. There are complaints of 'genuine' Epson cartridges being clocked as empty by the printer chip, when in fact they are more than half-full or three-quarters full. There are also complaints that when one cartridge is replaced, say for example the most-used black cartridge, that the chip will then decide that the others are becoming empty, even though previously they have registered as half-full or more. So the customer is badgered into replacing cartridges which still have plenty of ink in them, because the printer will not work until they are replaced.

Taking all the above into consideration, these appear to be a good printer to keep away from, as a general rule. Epson appear to be putting the same kind of chip into many of their newer lines of printers, and with much the same result as above.

I have had an SX415 for a couple of years now and like many other purchasers have been generally happy with the quality of the prints, ease of use, scanning etc.

What is REALLY beginning to bug me now is the fact that I must clean the heads several times after replacing the cartridges. Obviously this uses a lot of inks. I especially chose this machine because it had separate inks but am now seriously disappointed with the usage. Like other users I am using non-original cartridges from a reliable source as I refuse to pay rip-off prices for originals.

If other manufacturers can produce cartridges for approximately 1 GBP each why the heck can't the original manufacturers - after all they hold the patent.

This will be another manufacturer that I will probably not consider next time I have to replace a printer combo.

rubbish extremly noisy sx400 origional ink cartridge is worthless

you can buy replacements and find your printer will neither recognise the oem or non oem

epsome have added some nice little scam touches like

a page print counter , exceed that and you can not use the balance of your ink

a circuit which prevents the printer recognizing the cartridge , this basicall leave you sranded theres no rest no override

get there techies to fix it or throw it out 2nd epsom , what did i learn never ever waste your money with these sharks

This printer is either badly designed and built and/or it has protective software which prevents the use of non Epson branded inks. It then tells you to clean the head and half empties a cartridge when you do this. It also indicates a cartidge is empty when it has ink in it. Don't get one even if it free. It is rubbish.

I had problem after problem with this printer after initaling thinking it was very good. Half way through printing a very large piece of university coursework it decided that it didnt want to recognise the ink cartridges that had been in it for several weeks. I replaced these and the problem apeared to be fixed until half way through the new catridge when the same problem occurred only this time I couldnt get the problem to correct itself. Next time I'm going to avoid epson as this isnt the first model I've experienced problems with and will also check that I am buying an up to date model which I was not told this was not before I bought it

I have a Epson SX400 inkjet printer and it consumes print cartridges like theres no tomorrow. A set of Epson cartridges cost £42.00, and the machine doesn't like non- Epson makes.Cheap to buy, but very expensive to run. I will shortly be discarding this printer, and investing in a more expensive, ink friendly type ( not Epson )

Good quality printer, very easy to set-up - up and running in no time. not quite as fast as I expected, but still not slow. Let's see how long the ink lasts!

I am on my FOURTH faulty EPSON SX400, what a load of rubbish! ( four faulty printers... four different faults) EPSON are no use and it costs 10p a minute for their 'support' average time on hold for 20 mins I bought it from COMET, they wont intervene and say' contact EPSON' I wont be using COMET again either. To add insult to injury , every new ' faulty' one they deliver has to have new ink... at £25.00 a go .... RIPOFF!!!!