It’s easy to get confused by the term “reset utility” or “Adjustment program” as the terminology gets bandied about like some kind of technlogical mantra to ward off “out of ink” messages or flashing “General error” reports.
So, to make life a little easier to provide a little introduction here’s what it all means, can mean and/or is often confused for.
1. Waste ink Counter Reset Utilities
On this site in particular the term “Reset Utility” is used in the context of a piece of software that can be used to reset the waste ink counter for an Epson (and sometimes Canon) inkjet printer.
Its use and availability is detailed in other articles in the site so I will not repeat it all but if you’re looking for such a utility then the QuickFind tool is the best place to start.
The terms “AdjProg” or “Adjustment Program” are also used in this context.
Common utilities that handle this role are:
- WICReset and iWIC utilities
- SSC Utility
- IPR (old official utility now defunct)
- Epson (AdjProg) Adjustment Programs (see 3. below)
- WIC (this is another third party utility with some malware scanner issues currently unresolved)
2. Cartridge Chips (Ink Levels)
If you’re hoping to be able to reset the ink levels for your cartridges then there was once such functionality built into the SSC Utility. This utility also covered the waste ink counter functionality (discussed above).
Unfortunately for a number of reasons, no software utilities capable of resetting the ink levels have existed now for 10 years or more. Instead ARC (auto reset chips) and cartridge chip resetter now exist to handle this task.
Chip “Resetter” units are little hand-held devices that you press into the chip so the resetter can “do its thing”.
Note: There are a number of cartridge chips that simply cannot be set for various reasons (This list is not exhaustive!):
- PFI-300, PFI-1000, PFI-1300, PFI-1700, CLI-65, PGI-580, CLI-581, PGI-280, etc…
- HP 364/564 => Simply not enough interest/demand?
- Epson Claria & other new Cartridges => Utilises a new chip that “burns out” a fuse when low on ink, making them impossible to reset
- Lexmark cartridges => Rumoured that these use an RFID wireless chip(?)
3. Adjustment/Service Programs
We no longer actively support this type of utility app.
These utilities were historically used to handle waste counter resets but are considerably more feature rich than a simple reset utility.
However, it is important to note that use of any of these additional features is almost certainly going to result in a non-functional printer unless you know what you are doing (in which case why are you reading this?!). So, if you are using any utility of this type, stick to whatever instructions provided with it and avoid the temptation to “play” or “experiment”…. Seriously!