Epson Stylus Color 280 Ink and Toner Refill Help Instructions Forum

psmurf1 · Joined: 20 Mar 2008 Posts: 1 Location: Phoenix

I have an Epson color 280 and purchased "compatible" cartridges. After installing the machine tells me that it found incompatible cartridges and pretty just didn't do anything after that. I folllowed the install directions I tried to print a test sheet, got the screen showing that the cartridges where incomplatible and no information was known about them. Continue on and got the warning screen mention in the instructions, continued on and then got the screen showing the colors of ink a nd moved no farther. the green light and the red lights are both on on the from of the panel.

inkgirl · Joined: 18 Aug 2005 Posts: 393

Hello,

Check the production date of your printer, typically the newer models will not accept any cartridge other than Epson's own.

These compatible cartridges only work in Epson printers released before March 2007. After March 2007, Epson has updated drivers / firmware on their printers which cause the printers to not accept these cartridges. If your printer was manufactured before March 2007, but you downloaded new drivers from Epson after March 2007, these cartridges will not work. To determine if your printer was manufactured before March 2007, check the serial code number on
your printer (reading from RIGHT to LEFT):

6th digit is for the MONTH of production (for months October, November, December use X, Y, Z respectively)

7th digit is for the YEAR of production

Here is an example:
Serial # C65301002W156Y16332
From right to left, the 7th position means the Year (example 6=2006, 7=2007) the 6th position means the month (example 1=January, 2=February etc. X=October, Y=November and Z=December) the 5th and 4th positions mean the day of production. The serial used as example above means that the printer was built on November 16, 2006.

inkgirl