Epson error 0xE8: what it means and how to fix it

What causes it

• A torn scrap of paper, label backing or a staple left behind in the feed path after clearing a jam
• The paper cassette pushed in crooked so the paper-present flag never trips
• Dusty or glazed pickup rollers slipping instead of pulling a sheet
• A shipping lock, packing tape or foam left in place on a newly unboxed printer
• The carriage cannot complete its home-position sweep because of dried ink or a foreign object on the rails
• A failed feed motor or encoder on an older machine

How to fix it, in order

Work down the list and stop when the printer recovers. The steps are ordered from most likely and least invasive to last resort.

1. Do a full power drain, not just a restart

   Press the power button to turn the printer off and wait for the carriage to park. Unplug the power cord from the back of the printer and from the wall, then press and hold the printer's power button for 30 seconds to bleed the residual charge out of the logic board. Leave it unplugged for five minutes, plug it straight into a wall socket rather than a surge strip, and power it on. A one-off sensor timeout clears here surprisingly often.

2. Empty the cassette and look at the feed path with a torch

   Pull the paper cassette all the way out and take every sheet out of it. Shine a torch into the empty cassette bay and along the rollers looking for a scrap, a photo, a label or a paperclip. On the WF-3620 and WF-7610 the rear cover pops off with the two side tabs so you can also see the duplex path from behind. Remove anything you find with two hands so you do not tear it further.

3. Slide the carriage by hand while the printer is unplugged

   With the power cord still out, lift the scanner unit until it locks and look at the print head carriage. With the power off the carriage is unlocked, so you can gently push it left and right along its full travel with a fingertip. It should glide with no grinding and no sticky spots. If it stops dead at one point, find the obstruction rather than forcing it, and check for dried ink lumps on the metal rail.

4. Clean the encoder strip

   Behind the carriage runs a thin translucent plastic ribbon with fine printed markings, the encoder strip. This is how the printer knows where the carriage is, and ink mist on it produces exactly this kind of position error. Wipe it with a dry lint-free cloth pinched lightly around the strip and drawn along its length once or twice. Never use alcohol or a solvent on it, and never a paper towel, because either can destroy the markings.

5. Clean the pickup rollers

   The pale grey rubber rollers above the cassette lose grip once they are polished with paper dust. Dampen a lint-free cloth with water only, hold it against a roller and turn the roller with your other finger so the whole circumference gets cleaned. Let them dry for ten minutes before loading paper. Load no more than about half a cassette of fresh paper, fanned and squared, with the edge guides just touching the stack.

6. Check the ink cartridges are all seated

   A cartridge that is not clicked down stops the carriage from reaching its home position and can produce a movement error rather than an ink error. Turn the printer on, open the scanner unit, let the carriage travel to the replace position, then press each cartridge down until it clicks. Close the lid and let the machine run its charging cycle without interrupting it.

7. Update the firmware from a computer

   If the printer boots but throws 0xE8 intermittently, install Epson Software Updater on a Windows or Mac machine, connect the printer by USB, and let it check for a firmware update. Feed timing has been adjusted in firmware on several WorkForce models. Do not turn the printer off during the update.

8. Try a printer-only power cycle test with no paper

   If it still fails, power on with the cassette removed entirely. If the printer boots to a normal 'load paper' message instead of 0xE8, the fault is in the cassette or its sensor rather than the main board, and reseating or replacing the cassette is worth trying before you write the machine off.

Frequently asked questions