HP Secretly Rendering Printer Cartridges Unusable?

Momoru writes "Looks like a woman is suing Hewlett Packard, claiming that their "smart chip" technology, besides giving information about ink usage, is also secretly programmed to not work after a certain certain date." From the article: "HP ink cartridges use a chip technology to sense when they are low on ink and advise the user to make a change. But the suit claims those chips also shut down the cartridges at a predetermined date regardless of whether they are empty." We've reported recently on printer companies making questionable business decisions.

Comments

Proof?

[nuclear305]

Does this woman actually have proof of this or is she just angry about having to pay HP's prices for replacements?

It wouldn't surprise me at all, but I'll believe it when I'm able to read the alleged expiration date off of my own HP cartridges. I've had an HP printer for 2 years--some of the cartridges are original and some have been replaced just once. I can't say I've ever had them stop working or falsely report empty. The nice thing is the cartridges are even a clear case so I can easily optically verify whether they are empty or not.

Re:Proof?

[taylortbb]

I've had many (3) printers do that (1 HP, 1 Epson, 1 Lexmark) but there is something in common with all of them. They had all been turned off and not used for over 3 months.

My conclusion was that the ink had dried/solidified. I don't think that is completely implausible, and probably much more likely than embedding expiry dates.

Also, with my HP printers (2 multifunctions) it is possible to have it keep printing even with ink warnings, and I have always noticed that the printouts start to have gaps of fade right when it tells me its run out. It would be far too much work in my opinio nto program the printer to fade out blotches and signal low ink at an early date just to make you buy new catridges.

I also examined the packing for my HP cartridges, the expiry date is 2 years after when we bought them, 2 years sounds like enough time for things to dry/solidify.

Ink dries out eventually

[ExMember]

I'm sure dried ink can reek havoc on printer heads. This is not necessarily an attempt to screw over their customers

Re:Legitimate reason:

[algae]

Reliable document date-stamps seem like a very good reason for the drivers of your (presumably) $X0,000 plotter to query the system date. However, this article is about a cheap inkjets with high-margin cartridges.

That doesn't stop Epson from selling ink

[Webmoth]

So, my Epson R300 has ink cartridges that are just ink. However, it meters use, and assumes that a cartridge lasts for so many seconds at such-and-such coverage. Therefore, the cartridge can still have a fair amount of ink in it before it tells you to replace it, OR it can go empty before it tells you to replace it. I'm guessing they build in a pretty good fudge factor to ensure that it never goes dry.

Here's the stinker: most Epson printers will NOT let you replace the cartridge until it says it needs to be replaced. So if it tells you it needs to be replaced, and you just pop the old cart out and put it right back in, it will assume that a new, full cart is installed. Then when it DOES run dry, it won't let you replace it because it doesn't think that it's empty.

There's a workaround though: turn off the printer. Then look under the printhead carriage, there'll be a plastic tab that prevents you from sliding the carriage out to where you can change the cart. Just flip this tab forward, and replace the cart. Slide the carriage back, and turn on the printer. It won't even know that you've just changed the cartridge.

Since the cart is separate from the head, and the head isn't replaceable, it's probably a good idea to NOT let it run truly empty, as then you'll end up with air in the head that you'll have to purge.

I've got another gripe about inkjets, and they all seem to do this. If, say, your cyan has a blocked head, you can't just clean the cyan. You have to clean them all. This wastes ink from colors that don't need to be cleaned!

It's not cleaning the heads, it's cleaning out your wallet.