Epson Printer Error Codes List: Every Code Explained

Every Epson printer error code we could verify against Epson's own documentation — what it means, what usually causes it, and the first fix to try — in one table. Codes differ between model series, so treat your model's tech sheet as the final word.

How to read and retrieve error codes on Epson printers

Codes appear in three places depending on family. Display-code models show the E-/W-/I- code on the LCD itself, and the model's user's guide prints the matching table under 'Checking Error Codes on the LCD Screen'. EcoTank models without an LCD report through blinking-light patterns plus the computer: connect the printer and open Epson Status Monitor 3 (Windows driver, Maintenance tab) or the printer utility, which shows the printer's status and error detail the panel cannot. WorkForce and EcoTank LCD models show 'Printer error' with the 0x## or six-digit number on screen, repeated in Status Monitor. Separately, the network connection report — printed from the network settings — carries its own E-1..E-13 code in its header block, a different system from the LCD codes despite the shared letter. Always read a code inside its own system: LCD table, Status Monitor, or network report.

The complete Epson printer error code list

How to reset / clear error codes on Epson printers

Epson documents no master reset for error codes, and the power cycle is the whole of its documented clearing step for the fatal families: turn the power off and on again, with any paper or protective material removed first (the XP/L guide tables word the E-01 remedy exactly that way, and the WorkForce/EcoTank manuals word the printer-error messages the same way). Warning codes clear by their own documented actions — a jam removed and the on-screen button pressed (W-01), a cartridge pressed down (W-12), the start button pressed to resume printing at W-11. The waste-ink condition is NOT cleared by any power cycle or owner reset: E-11 holds until Epson or an authorised provider replaces the pads, and on maintenance-box models the box's own messages clear when a genuine box is fitted. Restoring default settings from the setup menu resets settings, not error states, and Epson does not document it as an error remedy anywhere in these families.

How to diagnose any Epson printer code

Work the problem in this order: (1) write the code down exactly as displayed — photograph it, because opening a cover or pressing a button can clear it, and note whether it appeared at power-on, mid-page, or when a job was sent, because printers report in families (paper path, ink or toner delivery, printhead or laser, firmware) and the moment of failure names the family; (2) decide which side of the cable the fault is on — a code shown on the printer's own display is the machine reporting on itself, while a message that exists only on the computer (a driver or "not activated" message) is the operating system reporting, and no printer part will fix it; (3) run the external checks for the family first: paper path codes get the full path inspected and cleared by the manufacturer's own route, ink codes get the cartridges reseated and their contacts cleaned, network codes get the connection the printer itself reports checked before the router is blamed; (4) clear the code the way the brand documents (usually a power reset) and print the shortest job that exercises the same function — one plain test page — while you watch; a code that returns at the same point is an active fault, not a glitch; (5) only then follow the brand's documented route for the component the code monitors. Counters are not faults to defeat: ink-absorber and maintenance counters exist because the parts genuinely fill and wear, and the manufacturer's remedy — a replaceable maintenance box where the model has one, service where it does not — is the fix, not a workaround.

Three code systems, not one: how to read an Epson code

Epson printers report in three separate systems that share characters and must never be merged. The LCD display codes (E-01, E-02, E-11, W-01, W-11, W-12, W-13, the I- information codes) belong to the Expression Home XP and EcoTank L guide families, and they are the one system Epson fully defines in print: E- is an error that stops the printer, W- is a warning with a documented owner action, I- is information or a setup instruction. The hexadecimal 0x## codes (0x97, 0xF1 and their kin) are the WorkForce printer-error family: Epson documents the message form and one response for the whole family and publishes no per-code definitions. The six-digit codes (000041, 000043, 031006 and family) are EcoTank's service-code dialect, reported by L- and ET-series machines and likewise undefined in Epson's public documentation. A fourth, smaller system rides along: the network connection report's E-1..E-13 codes, which collide with the display codes (report E-11 is a gateway complaint; display E-11 is the ink pad) and are meaningful only on that printed report. Every page in this section states which system its code belongs to, because a meaning carried across systems is a wrong meaning.

The waste-ink counter: pads, boxes, and what 'service required' really means

Every Epson inkjet deliberately pumps waste ink — from head cleaning, priming and borderless overspray — into an absorber, and counts it. Epson's own framing, consistent across its guides, splits the ending by hardware. On models with internal ink pads, the counter produces first a warning (W-11: the pad is nearing the end of its service life; you may press the button and keep printing) and then a stop (E-11: the pad needs replacement), and Epson states plainly that the pad 'is not a user-serviceable part' — replacement is Epson or an authorised provider, and no owner reset is documented. On models with a user maintenance box (T04D1 on the EcoTank ET-37xx/47xx family, T6711 on the WF-3620 family, and siblings), the box is the absorber and the owner replaces it on its plain-language messages; a full or unrecognized box stops printing and blocks cleaning cycles until a genuine box is fitted. Third-party utilities that reset the counter without replacing anything exist outside Epson's documentation: they clear the number, not the ink, and this site does not present them as Epson's procedure — a counter reset against saturated pads risks ink leaking inside the machine, which is the failure the counter exists to prevent.

Status Monitor 3 and the no-LCD models: where the code actually lives

Half the EcoTank range has no screen, which raises an obvious question: where does a code like 000043 live on an L3210? Epson's answer is the computer. Epson Status Monitor 3, installed with the Windows driver, reports the printer's state — including its error state and the guidance the panel cannot show — and the printer's blinking-light patterns give the at-the-machine summary. Mac users get the equivalent through the printer utility in the driver. The practical consequence for troubleshooting is that a no-LCD code should always be read twice: once at the machine (lights, sounds, where the mechanism stopped) and once in Status Monitor, which confirms the error state and sometimes narrows it. It also means a 'mystery stop' on a no-LCD model is not undocumented — it is documented on the PC the printer is attached to, and checking there is a first step, not an afterthought.

The most searched Epson printer codes, in detail

000041 — A six-digit EcoTank printer-error code. Epson's public documentation gives it only the generic 'Printer error

Error 000041 needs its evidence labelled before anything else, because it is documented in two different registers. In Epson's public register — the user manuals and support pages an owner can actually reach — 000041 has no individual definition: EcoTank documentation presents the printer-error event, the code as evidence to report, and one response (power off and on again; if the problem persists, contact Epson Support). In the service register — repair documentation derived from Epson's own service materials, as written up by repair specialists such as BCH Technologies — 000041 is identified precisely: a PF PID excess-load error, meaning the paper-feed motor's control loop detected more load than the feed mechanism should ever present, and stopped the printer. This page follows that service identification because it is consistent, model-checked (it is the documented reading on machines from the ET-8550 to the wider EcoTank family), and because it orders the owner's work correctly — while stating openly that Epson has not published it to users. Read mechanically, the code says the feed train is fighting something: the motor turns the rollers that pick and advance paper, its controller watches the effort, and when effort crosses the threshold — a jam binding the path, thick or specialty media resisting the feed, debris loading a roller, a mechanism fault in the feed train itself — the printer stops fatally rather than tearing itself or the paper apart. That is why 000041 so often arrives in a story: mid-job on heavy paper, at the first pick from an overloaded or damp stack, right after a jam that 'cleared', or on a converted or recently serviced machine whose feed path was disturbed. It is also why its map description as the 'paper-feed sibling' of 000043 is the half of that premise the evidence supports: 000041 is the feed mechanism's own load report, sitting in a family of mechanism-load codes. The owner's programme follows from the mechanism: unload the feed — clear the path completely, correct the paper and its loading, respect media limits — then one documented power cycle, and Epson's service channel if a light, clean, correctly loaded feed still trips the code.

Most likely cause: A paper jam binding the feed path — The direct mechanical cause: a sheet crumpled at the pick point, a fragment wedged at a roller, or paper accordioned in the path makes the feed motor pull against a load it cannot move, and its controller stops the machine with this code instead of stripping gears or tearing the sheet through. The jam behind 000041 is frequently already 'history' — it happened, the visible paper was pulled out, and what remains is the fragment doing the binding. That is why the checks insist on a complete, torch-lit clearance of the whole path including the rear, rather than a glance at the feed entrance.

First check: Fix the story before touching the machine: what was printing when 000041 appeared — which paper, from which source, how many sheets in the stack, and was there a jam shortly before? This code is a load report; the story usually names the load.

If it keeps coming back: A 000041 that returns is usually confessing its load. Returns only on one media type or one source: a specification or source mismatch you can cure at the paper. Returns after jams: a fragment still in the path, migrating. Returns on plain paper from a clean path, increasingly easily: the feed train wearing into its threshold — the pattern that belongs to service, with the log attached. Note that converted or heavily worked machines (continuous-ink reroutes, DTF conversions and the like, which the repair literature discusses around this code) add their own loads — tubing and rerouted paths dragging on the mechanism — and a return that dates from a conversion is a conversion finding first.

000043 — A six-digit EcoTank printer-error code (L3110/L3210/L3250 family and siblings): Epson's public documentation shows it only inside the generic 'Printer error

Error 000043 is the code owners of EcoTank L-series machines — the L3110, L3210 and L3250 and their relatives — meet when the printer stops dead, often with the alarm lights blinking and, on connected computers, a 'service required' style status report. It is also a code about which the public record needs careful handling, starting with what Epson itself says: in Epson's user-facing manuals and support pages, 000043 has no published definition at all. EcoTank guides document the printer-error event and its response — turn the power off and on again; remove any paper or protective material; if the error persists, contact Epson Support — and the six-digit number is presented to the owner as evidence to report, not as a diagnosis to decode. This page therefore corrects one premise before anything else: the batch research map described 000043 as having 'scanner/motor intent', a sibling split against 000041's paper feed. The scanner half of that split could not be verified anywhere — not in Epson's documentation, and not in the repair literature derived from Epson's service documentation either. What owner and repair reports for the L3110/L3210/L3250 actually cluster around is the paper path and the carriage: hidden or partial paper jams, feed sensing upset by fragments and debris, paper loaded badly enough to fight the mechanism, and carriage-load problems. In other words, the lived behaviour of 000043 on the models that show it most is a mechanical-load report wearing a service-code uniform. That reading also fits its family position: its neighbours 000041 (documented in service-derived sources as a paper-feed motor excess-load error) and the carriage-load codes around it are all mechanism-load reports, and 000043 sits naturally among them as the L-series' general mechanical stop. None of that elevates any single mechanism into 'the' meaning of 000043 — Epson has not published one — but it orders the owner's work correctly: paper path first, carriage path second, documented power cycle, and Epson's service channel when a clean machine still refuses. The sections below are built in exactly that order, and the FAQ states the premise correction plainly so nobody builds a scanner theory on an unverified map entry.

Most likely cause: A hidden or partial paper jam — The leading lived cause of 000043 on the L-series, and the one repair reports return to most: not the dramatic jam you can see, but the fragment you cannot — a torn corner left at the feed entrance, a strip across the paper path, a sheet that accordioned under the rollers and was only partly recovered. A fragment in the feed path makes the mechanism work against resistance it cannot clear, and the printer stops with a fatal code instead of a jam message because the sheet sensors never told a coherent jam story. Every 'no paper anywhere' 000043 deserves a torch-lit, cover-open search before any other theory, including the rear of the path where fragments retire.

First check: Note the timing and the lights: at power-on, at first paper pick, or mid-job — and on no-LCD models, note the light pattern. First-pick timing points at paper and feed; power-on timing points at the startup mechanisms; both start with the same physical pass.

If it keeps coming back: A returning 000043 is usually a cause that was reduced, not removed: a fragment that shifted deeper instead of coming out, paper stock that is fine dry and fights when humid, debris that migrates under rollers. Log the returns against conditions — which paper, how long since the last jam, power-on or at-pick timing — because the pattern separates the mechanical recurrences an owner can still cure from the internal decline that belongs to service. A code that returns faster each time, on verified-clean paths and fresh paper, has crossed that line; take the log to Epson Support rather than repeating the same clean-out.

0x97 — A WorkForce 'Printer Error 0xXX' display: Epson's manuals document the message form and one response

Error 0x97 is one of the most-searched Epson codes and one of the least documented by Epson itself, and an honest page has to hold both facts at once. On the WorkForce models that show it — the WF-3620, WF-3640, WF-4630 and WF-7620 generation and their siblings — the printer stops with a printer-error message carrying the code 0x97, and Epson's user documentation for that whole 0x family says exactly this: turn the power off and on again, remove any paper or protective material in the printer, and if the error message is still displayed after that, contact Epson support. Epson does not publish a sentence anywhere in its user manuals or support pages saying what internal fault 0x97 names. That silence is itself the most useful fact on this page, because the internet fills it with confident inventions — a specific board, a specific sensor, a specific ink problem — none of which Epson has ever stated publicly. What can be said from Epson's own framing is structural: 0x97 belongs to the fatal printer-error family, not to the warning family. It is not a jam message (that is W-01 on display-code models), not an ink-pad message (Epson words that condition in plain language), and not a cartridge message. It is the printer reporting that an internal self-check or operating condition has failed in a way the user documentation does not break down, on a code path whose documented exit is a power cycle, a physical check for obstructions and material, and then Epson's service channel. Owners also meet 0x97 in a characteristic pattern — it often arrives at power-on or mid-job on a machine that was working, and it survives ordinary restarts — which is why the checks below are ordered to separate the recoverable minority (an obstruction or leftover packing material confusing the machine's startup) from the majority outcome Epson's documentation anticipates: service. Treat any site that gives 0x97 a precise one-line internal diagnosis as guessing, and treat the code's persistence after Epson's documented steps as the answer Epson designed it to give.

Most likely cause: Paper or protective material still inside the printer — This is Epson's own first suspect for the entire printer-error family, stated in its guides in so many words: remove any paper or protective material in the printer. On a moved, serviced or recently unboxed machine, the candidates are a torn sheet fragment in the paper path, packing tape or foam never removed, or a label or clip dropped inside. Any of these can stop a mechanism mid-travel at startup, and a printer that cannot complete its startup movements reports a fatal error rather than a jam, because as far as its checks are concerned the mechanism simply failed. It is the cheapest cause on this list and the only one Epson's documentation fully equips an owner to cure.

First check: Note exactly when 0x97 appears: at power-on before any movement, during startup movements, or mid-print. A code thrown during startup movements points at the physical checks first; one thrown instantly, before anything moves, is the pattern Epson's 'contact Epson Support' ending exists for.

If it keeps coming back: A 0x97 that clears and later returns is telling you the cause was intermittent, not cured: a fragment that shifted rather than left, a cartridge latch that holds until vibration works it loose, ink contamination that fouls a sensor only in certain positions, or an internal fault in decline that fails under heat or load. Each return narrows it: note what the machine was doing (startup, first page, long job) and what changed since the clear. A returning 0x97 after a genuinely clean physical inspection belongs to Epson Support with that history attached — intermittent faults are diagnosed from patterns, and yours is the only record of this machine's pattern.

0xF1 — A WorkForce 'Printer Error 0xXX' display from the same family as 0x97: Epson documents the message and the response (power off/on; remove paper or protective material; contact Epson Support if it persists) and publishes no 0xF1-specific definition.

Error 0xF1 belongs to the same WorkForce printer-error family as 0x97, and it inherits the same documentation reality: Epson's user manuals and support pages present the whole family as 'Printer Error 0xXX' with a single documented response, and they never publish what distinguishes one number in the family from another. That has to be said first, because 0xF1 attracts the same invented certainties as its sibling — confident claims that it names one specific mechanism — and Epson has not stated any of them publicly. What the code's behaviour, as owners report it and as Epson's documented checks imply, does support is a careful structural reading. 0xF1 is characteristically a startup code: it tends to appear while the printer is initialising, when the carriage assembly is being moved, parked and sensed, rather than in the middle of a page. Epson's documented owner checks for the printer-error family are all aimed at that startup world — paper or protective material inside the machine, obstructions in the mechanism's travel — and its display-code sibling E-01 is defined in Epson's own tables with exactly that remedy: open the scanner unit, remove any paper or protective material inside the printer, turn the power off and on again. So the owner-useful truth about 0xF1 is threefold. First, it is a fatal error, not a warning: the printer stops and stays stopped. Second, its documented first line is physical, not electronic: clear the machine's inside completely and re-power once. Third, persistence after that is Epson's designed signal to stop and use the service channel, with the exact code reported. The relationship questions owners ask — is 0xF1 the same as 0xF3 or 0xF4, does it mean what it means on an EcoTank L-series — are answered in the FAQ below as honestly as Epson's documentation allows: the numbers are distinct reports inside one family, Epson publishes no definitions that would let anyone rank or merge them, and the EcoTank six-digit family is a different system entirely.

Most likely cause: Paper or protective material inside the printer — Epson's documented first cause for the whole printer-error family, and the only one its user text names outright. A sheet fragment in the print zone, a strip of packing tape from a move or unboxing, or a label peeled off inside the machine can all stop the startup sequence the printer runs before it will accept work. 0xF1's habit of appearing at power-on fits this cause exactly: startup is when the mechanism travels its full range and meets whatever is in the way. The fix is Epson's own — open the unit, remove the material, power off and on — and it costs nothing but care, which is why it leads every list on this page.

First check: Record the timing: does 0xF1 appear before any sound of movement, during the startup movements, or after them? During-movement timing sends you to the physical checks with confidence; instant timing, before anything stirs, is the pattern most likely to end at Epson Support.

If it keeps coming back: A 0xF1 that clears and returns is narrowing itself down for you. Returns tied to startup after the machine has sat point at something in the startup world that is marginal — a fragment that moves, a latch that creeps, a cable that sags with heat. Returns that grow more frequent, or that begin arriving mid-job as well, read as an internal fault progressing. Either way, the pattern is the diagnosis: log when it appears, what preceded it, and what cleared it, and hand that log to Epson Support. Intermittent fatal codes are the ones owners most often describe as 'random'; with a log, they rarely are.

E-01 — A printer error has occurred (Epson's own table wording, Expression Home XP and EcoTank L guide families): open the scanner unit and remove any paper or protective material inside the printer, then turn the power off and on again.

E-01 is the best-documented code on this page, because it belongs to the one Epson system whose definitions Epson actually publishes: the E-/W-/I- display codes printed in the 'Checking Error Codes on the LCD Screen' table of the Expression Home XP and EcoTank L user's guides. Epson's definition is one sentence — 'A printer error has occurred' — followed by the remedy that gives the code its practical shape: open the scanner unit and remove any paper or protective material inside the printer, and turn the power off and on again. So E-01 is Epson's general printer-error report for these models: the machine has failed a check it does not break down further for the owner, and the documented owner response is a physical inspection plus a power cycle, with Epson or an authorised service provider as the destination when that fails. The models the map folds into this page — XP-305, XP-320, XP-342 and XP-345 — span the guide families that print this exact table, and the table's consistency across them is what makes E-01 a genuinely verified code in a way the 0x and six-digit numbers are not. Read E-01 against its table neighbours to understand its weight. It is not W-01 (a paper jam, reported as a warning with its own clearance flow). It is not E-02 (a scanner error). It is not E-11 (the ink pad at end of life, a booked service). E-01 is the umbrella: something in the printer's own operation has failed, and Epson's wager in the documentation is that the commonest somethings are physical and visible — a sheet or fragment in the mechanism, or protective material from packing and transport that was never taken out. That is why the remedy opens the machine rather than the settings menu. When the inside is clean and the code stands, E-01's umbrella covers internal faults the table does not enumerate, and the documentation's silence there is deliberate: the next step is the service channel, not a longer owner checklist. The checks below simply execute Epson's sentence thoroughly — every place paper or protective material can hide on these models, the carriage's environment included — before that conclusion is reached.

Most likely cause: Paper left inside the printer — Epson's named cause, first in its own remedy. A sheet or fragment inside the mechanism — in the print zone, wrapped at a roller, caught at the output — stops the printer's movements or its sensors' story, and the printer reports its general error rather than W-01's jam warning when the situation does not match a clean jam state. The fragment versions are the deceptive ones: the main sheet came out during a jam clearance, the printer was closed up, and E-01 is the receipt for the corner that stayed behind. A full, torch-lit pass through every opening the manual gives you is the check, and it precedes every other theory on this page.

First check: Start with Epson's remedy, done completely: turn the power off, open the scanner unit, and inspect before you power on again — the order in Epson's sentence is inspect first, then power.

If it keeps coming back: An E-01 that returns after a clean inspection is information about where the cause lives. Returns at the same startup point every time point at that point's mechanism or its obstruction that only appears in motion — a fragment that shifts, a label edge that lifts. Returns after paper is loaded or a job starts point back at the paper story. Returns after days of good printing, growing more frequent, read as an internal fault developing. Keep the pattern; it is what a service provider diagnoses from, and 'it shows E-01 sometimes' without the pattern wastes the visit.

Less common and model-specific codes

Search data shows owners also meet these codes on Epson printers: 000025, 000044, 00061, 034004, 100016, 202620, 50H, C9344, D420, E425, E581, E583. They are not part of the core code list Epson publishes for most models — several are series-specific, abbreviated display readings, or codes carried over from a sister platform — so we do not publish meanings for them rather than guess. Treat them by symptom: note what the machine was doing when the code appeared (filling, draining, heating, spinning), run one full power cycle (5 minutes off), and if the code returns, match the symptom to the closest documented family in the table above and check the tech sheet stored inside your machine for the model-specific definition.

Deep-dive guides for the most searched codes

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

Facts on this page were checked against manufacturer documentation: support2.epson.net · download4.epson.biz · support2.epson.net · epson.com · epson.com · epson.com · download4.epson.biz