Fix: Epson Error Code 0x97

Thank you for this info. The first fix worked for me! Much appreciated.

Thank you for the info. After using the first fix I was able to get one more page to print, then nada. I tried the others and printing would start then quit with the error message. I’m afraid my printer is done for 🙁 Well, it’s been about 5 years so I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. 🙂 Thanks again!

Thank you! I can’t believe it was as simple as unplugging and plugging everything back in.

The second “fix” worked for me. Thank you so much!

The second fix worked for me. Thanks so much!

This is my 2nd Epson printer the first one did this and could not fix it with these methods and this one is only 7 months old that it is doing this again! If I cant get it to work I am going to Hewlett Packard 🙁

Working so far after doing second fix. Fingers crossed and thanks for the tips!

I’ve done them all and nothing helps!

Help! Nothing works!

Epson has replace my printer twice. I third time I bought another one, and returned an old one. Three printers in two years, and none lasted more than a month, with very little printing, still using the 3 sets of starter in to show how little printing I’ve done. This model is an absolute joke.

Thanks for the tips. I have a WF7600 printer, which is giving the 097 error. The first method has not worked. I have moved the print head OK, but what should I be looking for in terms of the ‘head cleaning mechanic pad’? Theres a white plasic bit that looks clean, and some little sponges one black one with colours, theres some ink on these butlooks like its probably normal. Behind is a some black plastic bits and some greasy looking whitish stuff on the right. Is it worth cleaning this away?

The way it reads Epson knows it has this problem but yet they could care less. I have about had it with Epson

Thank You, i tried the first option but it didn’t work, tried the second option it finally worked.

Model WF4640 Have tried all to method 3, with no success. Taken to agent who got a new master broad FOC from Epson says it still does not work. putting good money into this for no return. NO MORE EPSON

The biggest fraudulent junk of a printer!
In the meantime we found out that if you use other quality ink you can successfully eventually de-clog almost completely the print head and resume almost normal printing!
Here is where it gets legally really interesting: replacing the alternative ink with Epson ink, (Something Epson strongly discourages and even warns you that non-authentic cartridges have been inserted) the print-head eventually gradually clogs up again and to clean it you need a lot ink, which of course Epson, insisting that only their relentlessly overpriced ink is to be used, which they are of course happy to sell you!
I smell a rat here!

Read this well-documented factual story/ordeal with an Epson WF 7620:
(if you wonder why I put up with this Epson garbage for so long the answer is that In our small business we required certain features that apparently only this printer has unless I spent thousands of dollars on another product.)
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UPDATED 11/07/17

Guess what!? Today at 12:56 PM PST the fifth replacement printer from Epson died again with error code 0X97!!!
THIS IS ASKING FOR A LAWSUIT, THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS! FIVE (5) REPLACEMENT PRINTERS SINCE LATE DECEMBER 2014 AND ALL OF THEM DYING WITH THE SAME ERROR CODE!!! THE SAME PROBLEM STARTS AFTER 5 MONTHS!!!!
Smudgy fuzzy printing using up cartridges by the handful for cleaning with no result! Eventually Error code 0x97!!!

UPDATED 08/13/17
This is an unbelievable worthless defective product!
It is now after 4 warranty exchanges and the 5th piece of garbage Epson printer I’ve gone through in 2 1/2 years!!!
It’s not even worth as a paperweight!
The best thing is to shred it to small pieces and force feed to the engineers and management at Epson!

A few days ago, after only four months (!!!) the 5th (!!!) replacement printer starts to irreparably smudge and smear again!
I wasted 2 sets of cartridges (!!!) (more cost than the printer!) with no improvement. (See attached print out scans)

This time so far it is not the electronics that crapped out. For a change on the theme it’s the printhead that fails after a few months.
I still had the original first set of cartridges in it this replacement printer that came from Epson!!!
Of course, two cleaning cycles emptied completely the remaining ink in these cartridges. I had to replace all with a whole new set of new cartridges (an extra set the print came with, outrageous courtesy of Epson…)
Of course, again I had to go through several cleaning cycles but to no avail!
It smudges and the print out is not legible anymore! (see attached images)
Truly un effing believable!!!

This is the fifth (5th!) printer from Epson which becomes useless within a few months. 5 printers in about 2 1/2 years!
Despite that OEM original cartridges are in the printhead, for inexplicable reason after a few months but no longer than six months the print-outs become smudgy and this time In addition the yellow starts to print intermittently with cyan smudges and cyan lines!!!
(I have scanned images of the print outs)
A a few days ago the black started to smudge so I went through several full cleaning cycles but it did not correct the smudging and now I’m out of black ink again and low on all colors!

A completely useless and defective product throughout!

UPDATED 04/04/17 BE WARNED! A PIECE OF GARBAGE
A WORTHLESS TROUBLESOME AND AGGRAVATING JUNK!
WHAT A RIP OFF!

They must have hordes of incompetent and inept engineers specializing in producing useless garbage printers!
I’d like to smash the printer their head until it goes to pieces!

Read this story and tell me how long you would put up with this nonsense!

“TAKE 1”
Bought this printer in late December 2014 t a special “trade-in-your-old-printer-get-$50” discount deal at Office Max.

“TAKE 2”
5 months later fatal error code 09xD
Epson support shipped a new one in June 2015, told me to dump the old one.
several months ago again developed printing problems, nozzle clogging.
Now not even 1 year is up and it does not print well.
To many lines drop out.
Head cleaning doesn’t fix it.
Wasted a full XL ink cartridge ($ 35.-) on head cleaning!!! No go.

Epson Ink can cost you after average small office use quickly more than the printer purchase price!
You ‘ll end up spending a multiple on ink vs. the actual printer purchase in a year!

“TAKE 3”
Today April 9, 2016 the replacement printer stopped after printing 1/3 of a page.
Error code 0x97 (NOT EVEN LISTED ON THE EPSON SUPPORT SITE!!!)
No go again. Dead again.
Called support again.
They will again ship a new one again, told me once more to dump the old one.

“TAKE 4”
Today APRIL 4th 2017 this glorious inane piece of a garbage of a printer failed again:
Error code 0x97
This is un effing believable! I’m in the middle of doing my taxes and now this!!!!
Can I print with this piece of garbage or is it a “let’s play defect” junk?

“Take 5”
Around mid April 2017 I received after some elevated support back-and-forth with Epson a refurbished unit but was damaged in shipment because of poor packaging by Epson. They sent me a new unit (For the fourth time!) requesting the old unit to be sent back (free).

Around early August 2017 the printer started to smudge. So I invoked Nozzle cleaning cycles. The print output quality improved a little bit but then shortly thereafter smudged even more. Looking closely at the paper it looks like the ink gets squirted around all over the place, the edges are very fuzzy and diffuse. (see attached images)
I went to another cleaning cycle and another one and another one without improvement but emptying All the ink cartridges In the process! I replaced the whole set of ink cartridges went again through several cleaning cycles with no improvement!
now have again almost empty print cartridges and a printer not capable of printing clearly!

What a piece of crap! What a defective product this is!
Hello Epson! What about product liability? You produced a defective printer were the only thing that works reliably is that it fails!

This is clearly a defective poorly engineered product! In my opinion, this should be looked into by the FTC as this is a product that does not deliver what people paid for! This is half a fraud and half criminal to dump such defective product on the market ripping people off with selling overpriced ink cartridges to the defective product. Your print head needs cleaning just after about every 20 pages consuming one-third of the ink in the cartridge!!

Just imagine if this were a car…! Or for that matter any other product you need to rely on!

(If Epson tells you to just dump the old one, then you can imagine what worthless piece of low-cost junk this is to them, the main thing they can sell you overpriced ink cartridges, making a killing!)

If that is not enough alternately the printer fails again!
This is completely ridiculous and TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE!

My advice: Get another brand! Stay away from Epson, they’ve gotten sadly too cheap, crappy and unreliable.
A real piece of real worthless dysfunctional unreliable poorly engineered junk!

Quick fix #2 worked! My warranty ends 4/18, though…what should I do???

Regarding the Epson printer error code 0x97…Make sure all of your ink cartridges are snapped in. My black ink was just a little lose. Took two months to find and fix.

Grr, figures now that I’ve got all new ink cartridges and even a dust cover for this horrid printer, in spite of rarely getting a decent printed page out of it since I bought it 6 months ago, getting this error code 0x97 is pretty much the last straw for me. I have never had a problem with HP Printers, and this thing is going into the trash once I get a new printer. What a waste of time and money. Lesson learned.

Or…It may be as simple as replacing the maintenance box (where all that ink goes each time you clean the print heads!) in the rear of the printer. I didn’t even know that the WF3640 and similar models had one! Part Number T6711 same as T671100.

Kevin, thanks for posting these instructions. I have two WF-7620s, bought roughly a year apart (just after first printer’s warranty expired 😉 ). The newer one just started this 0x97 business this week but your Method 3 worked like a charm. The older printer gives this error very frequently, once it started months ago, and all other methods of trying to fix it have failed, including your Method 3. The problem with your method is that the whole print head assemble cannot be moved when the printer is off (I’m not about to stick my hands in there when it is powered up).

The printers were manufactured about 13 months apart and I immediately saw one difference. Both have a metal strip that seems to be the print head guide. On the newer printer, the strip is completely vertical (perpendicular to the floor) while on the older, the strip is angled at about 45 degrees. I haven’t been able to find any type of release that will allow me to slide the head towards the center to exposed the cleaning pads. Do you have another neat trick to get around this problem?

TIA

WOW! Cannon thank you enough for Method #2 above. Excellent! I had a sudden, unexplained, and seemingly unfixable 0x97 error that was about to end the life of this printer, early, at a time I really needed it. And that fix worked like a charm! Thank you. How did you (or someone) figure out this method?? What does it actually do for the printer? Thanks again. And I recommend trying this fix.

Method #3 worked for my WF3640. Also, I did check that the ink was engaged as others suggested. I’ve liked this model better than my WF610 that died and Epson sent me a replacement.

I have an XP 520 which has suddently stopped working. The error message is: “An ink pad needs service – contact Epson” with the code number E-11. I can’t find that error code on Epson’s website.

I almost gave up, but I continued to use Method 3 and Method 2 alternately. I removed all of the cartridges, and used moist paper towels to clean the inside of the cartridge holder as well as the pad. I left the towels in place for 5 to 10 minutes at a time and also wiped the pad. I used a lot of paper towels which soaked up a lot of ink. After significant cleaning of the cartridge holder and the head cleaning pad, I used Method 2 again, and my printer finally started working. I’ve had my printer for about a year and a half and never had an issue until I decided to try the XL color cartridges. I had used the XL black from the time I initially purchased the printer. When the XL color cartridge are used up, I plan to go back to the regular color cartridges.

I tried Method 1, 2 and 3 a number of times on my WF-7610 but nothing worked. Eventually reset all the settings to default from the control panel. That seemed to work and printer is currently working fine again, both from the control panel and when printing from a network computer.

Thank You!! Method 3 worked!!
I did the moist tissue method 3 times before I tried restarting the printer!
It was really dirty.
Thanks Again!!!

Thank you very much. I worked method 2 (I did not try any other).
I think mine also needs head cleaning but I’m afraid of damaging them. Again, a thousand thanks

Creo que la mía también necesita limpieza de cabezales pero me da miedo dañarlos. De nuevo, mil gracias

I’m only getting the error code on my WF-3640 when I try to print 2 sided. None of the above fixed the error. What does that say?

i called epson they said its hardware failure and they ll send me a new one for no extra cost.
i m getting it next couple of days
by the way m from canada

I have Epson WF 3640. Step 2 helped me and fixed the issue…at least for now.. Thank you

Clean your printhead in an attempt to fix the issue, if that doesn’t work take it in for service

It might indicate a hardware issue with the ink pad. Best to get it into service.

I do have a WF7610, i did try method 1,2,3 but nothing is working, wenn i try to print, the printer gives a blanco paper and then i got the message 0x97 error code ;-( This really sucks, does Epson has a programm for to repair this????

You forgot to mention “Method 5: Best way repairing the Epson.”
Obtain a suitable 10 pound hammer and smash the thing to pieces because it is pure garbage.
I went through 7 Epson printers workforce 7620 in 4 years, now as of early June 2020 number 8 is failing.
It is a useless mal engineered piece of …….. and Epson should be held liable for this defective product they created in the first place!