I'm a little confused by the fact that Epson says, "If the lights are flashing ALTERNATELY". My lights are flashing in synchony - on and off together.
I know how to do the waste tank reset. I'll give it a try. I've done this procedure several times on the 1400 and even changed the pads once. Changing the pads is not terribly difficult, I'd rate it as a minor PITA, but upon opening the machine and getting the pads out, I found that they were barely full of ink and quite dry. I think it's safe to leave them in there and just do the reset forever. Not to mention that the pads themselves were fairly expensive.