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HP Printers Have A Pre-Programmed Failure Date For Non-HP Ink Cartridges (myce.com)
An anonymous reader quotes some harsh allegations from Myce.com:
Thousands of HP printers around the world started to show error messages on the same day, the 13th of September... HP printers with non-HP cartridges started to show the error message, "One or more cartridges appear to be damaged. Remove them and replace them with new cartridges"... When [Dutch online retailer 123ink] emailed their customers asking them if they wanted to check if their printer also had issues, they received replies from more than 1,000 customers confirming the issue...
Consumers who complained to HP were told the error was caused by using non-HP cartridges. A day later HP withdrew that statement and explained the issues were a side effect of a firmware update, [but] printers without any internet access started to reject non-HP cartridges. Therefore it's very unlikely that a firmware update caused the issues and the only other logical explanation is that HP programmed a date in its firmware on which non-HP cartridges would no longer be accepted.
"Printer worked fine for nine months," complains one of many angry users on HP's web site. "Then on 9/13 HP uploaded without my permission a firmware update that caused a message 'damaged cartridge' for all my cartridges and then it refused to print."
Consumers who complained to HP were told the error was caused by using non-HP cartridges. A day later HP withdrew that statement and explained the issues were a side effect of a firmware update, [but] printers without any internet access started to reject non-HP cartridges. Therefore it's very unlikely that a firmware update caused the issues and the only other logical explanation is that HP programmed a date in its firmware on which non-HP cartridges would no longer be accepted.
"Printer worked fine for nine months," complains one of many angry users on HP's web site. "Then on 9/13 HP uploaded without my permission a firmware update that caused a message 'damaged cartridge' for all my cartridges and then it refused to print."
Is there a printer vendor that doesn't play games with the consumables?
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
HP, in one of its various forms, has proven that they are one of the most corrupt and dishonest companies doing business in the world today. Shock and surprise... :)
If a printer doesn't have Internet access, how would it know the date? Do printers have battery powered RTCs? ...and, yes, it's been a long time since I bought a printer.
The real scam is the name.
It is an ink dispenser -- they sell the ink, in fact. It's that lame thing again -- expected profits -- and they get pretty p*ssed off if someone does not give them what they expect (just like the media conglomerates).
We'll be truly free the day we get an open source printer with open source ink. Till then it's things like that. I have a laser (for SOHO) which broke after some 5,000 color pages in some 3 years (the thing should print that in a single month). I'm in doubt about getting it fixed after such a dismaying performance. It looks feigned...
you don't start a line in the subject without including it in the comment.
Epson makes an EcoTank printer which supposedly just has a "tank" of ink that you refill *gasp* from a bottle. They charge you more for the printer because they're not recouping costs by jacking you on ink, but once you buy it you can put in whatever ink you want.
If you know printers, HP printers have the nozzles in the ink carts. Nozzles are the primary factor that determines DPI. This means that the Officejet's driver or firmware nerfed it to a lower DPI for no reason other than that it was a lower cost printer.
This was when I stopped buying or recommending HP..
When it comes to 3rd party ink, I can understand a manufacturer that has a separate print head being sensitive to the quality and source of ink. However HP printers have the nozzles/head in the ink cartridge. The nozzles are also extremely low voltage, so the chance of damage to the printer from 3rd party ink is very low. As we all know this is a money grab, as the consumables are where the money is in printing. Margins on the hardware have been driven to nothing or less.
Silence is a state of mime.
Quit using HP long ago and purchased 1000 new Brother printers with zero problems to date with software or hardware. Thank goodness I did.
'You're not entitled to be able to use third party ink cartridges in a printer. The printer manufacturer doesn't have to modify the firmware or hardware in a printer because you're too cheap to pay for quality ink cartridges...'
Do you actually understand how inkjet printers work? Your argument may most charitably be described as a load of small spherical objects.
I think I'm adding HP to the list of companies that I will not do business with.
You're not entitled to be able to use third party ink cartridges in a printer. The printer manufacturer doesn't have to modify the firmware or hardware in a printer because you're too cheap to pay for quality ink cartridges. Why does everyone have such a sense of entitlement these days? I'm getting really tired of millennials and everyone else deciding they can act just as entitled as the millennials. This is ridiculous. If you don't want to pay for ink cartridges, don't buy the printer.
Hmmm... smells like a troll. A really ripe, rotten, shitty smelling troll. An anonymous troll! A cowardly troll... Apparently NOT young enough to be a millennial, yet still living in Mom's basement. Crawl up the stairs, you overgrown little boy - Mommy's calling you, and it's bath time.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
On my Canon piece of shit inkjet, when it complains about the refilled cartridges being empty, I press "Stop" for 30 seconds and it clears the message.
I had two HP printers in different locations that failed at nearly (and it could be exactly) the same time recently. Both hung up displaying "initializing". I threw both away and replaced them with Epson EcoTank printers. I'll buy no more ink cartridges, especially from HP.
Problem solved.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Follow along with my three step plan:
* Throw HP ink jet printer in trash
* Buy laser printer from anyone other than HP
* There is no step 3!
Yup, i have one and I love it. it comes with enough ink to print 11,000 pages of black text with just what is included in the first set of ink. it also cost $450, and not $60
Wasn't this the case way back around 2008ish. I moved away from inkject to laser(aka brother dn..mfp, around 350 usd but every penny's worth) and never bin happier. Instant warmup and for an occasional user like myself, say 20-30 pages a month, no more dried, expired, checking.. run multiple time to store for each color. When did I last change my laser catridge, 1... 2.. ?! wait 4 years. Thats right, I am on second catridge since I bought this around 2009. That too, I used printer for some fun like scanning hand and printing etc..
We learnt our lesson and moved on, but there is always a new generation to repeat the mistakes. And for HP just another bad news cycle. sigh...
Since we have no proof that their carelessness was intended to scam their customers, we will not recommend an indictment. And maybe if will help if you wipe the ink cartridge with a cloth or something.
Well someone ought to sue them. This can't be legal. At best, it's tortious interference: HP is interfering with the relationship between the consumer and another vendor's product/business. At worst, it's anticompetitive behavior. Either way, they need to be slapped down hard for this.
I gave up on inkjet printers last century
I had an HP all-in-one printer/fax/scanner that took both color and B&W cartridges. When the color cartridge expired date-wise, one would have to confirm a panel notice on EVERY print-job, even if only printing B&W, which was the vast majority of the time. (I made sure the document print set-up selected "B&W only".)
Might as well have purchased a Wells Fargo cartridge.
Table-ized A.I.
This is just another attempt at a walled garden. First it was Apple.. the garden was pretty and millions decided to wander around in it oblivious to the tens of feet of concrete block being erected around them. Then more recently... Microsoft brought Windows 10 and with it.. the chance to erect a similar walled garden. Initially the garden was free, and you could enter the garden by clicking a couple of buttons. Months later.. Microsoft decided that their garden wasn't properly filled, and they introduced software updates that by hook or crook dragged the unknowing or unwilling into their walled garden with no way to get out. Now HP has seen this trend and decided to capitalize on it. Why compete for your printer ink dollars when they can program your printer to error out on non-HP cartridges. You will be compelled to purchase your ink from them first-party.. pay the penalty of ultimate submission to the software/hardware restrictions they are imposing.. all the while you get to peek around at a newly created walled garden.
Peace out.
kill yourself
I hope they have a firmware update soon before Monday morning. A lot of printers are gonna be broken in a lot of places. There's a lot of places that use HP printers and there's a lot of places that use "Non-Genuine" cartridges to save costs.
I needed a scanner and could only get a scanner/printer combo locally at the time. Got an Epson. Should have taken it back when it refused to scan unless I installed the ink cartridges. Since they were in, I did try to print something. It came out as about a 1"x1.5" (ish) image on a 4x6 paper that came with it. I thought that was a bit ridiculous, and tried to make it bigger. Next it printed it in four parts, using four pages. What a waste. I never tried to print anything else with it. When the scanner failed, I contacted tech support, which replied with a canned response that clearly indicated that nobody read about the things I tried to do to solve the issue. ("Is it plugged in?")
I got a survey about my tech support experience, I gave all low replies, and it asked "What could we do better next time?"
I replied that there would not be a next time, and that I would tell anyone who would listen what a piece of junk my Epson was, and how abysmal my Epson tech support experience was.
You know the routine, check the license. Chances are you signed over the house.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
My HP Photosmart 5520 Printer has been fine! printed a dozen or so sheets on Thursday using non-HP cartridges.
Did have to change the Black cartridge though, as it was empty, other than that no problems!!
Did get an email through this week about an firmware update, not got around to installing it yet...
Hmm.....
I bought a new HP office-quality printer from Sam's Club. When the ink ran out, I replaced it with used cartridges from Rapid Refill. The printer recognizes that non-HP ink has been installed, and refuses to print. If I replace the new cartridges with the almost-empty HP cartridges, it prints fine. I Googled the problem, and found that a "fix" is to open and close the ink access door. Every time I print a document, I have to open and close the ink access door. Even if I'm standing at the printer to copy or fax a document, I have to open and close the ink access door before it will process the request.
Last week, I ordered refillable ink cartridges from an Internet store. When those cartridges are installed, the printer refuses to print at all, even with the ink access door trick. It complains that the ink cartridges are "empty or missing."
HP now puts a small computer chip on every ink cartridge. That chip allows the printer to recognize non-HP ink cartridges.
This behavior is as unscrupulous as blackmail. "You must buy our overly-priced ink, or we will brick your $170 printer!"
HP's response was to send me a free ink cartridge. That satisfied the BBB, and they closed the case.
I haven't bought another HP product since, and encourage others to do the same.
You realy think it costs anywhere near 450 to make a fsking inkjet printer?
No sir I dont like it.
I will never tire of telling this story until the day I die, or the neo-millennials go "huh" when you mention BSODs or 404s.
Back around 2003 (the last time I volunteered to "help" somebody with their Windows system), I was recruited by my sister to help a friend of hers install a printer driver for her new HP printer.
I thought, "surely this won't be too hard".
So I went to the right website, downloaded the correct driver, and clicked "install". Whirr, whirr. Time to reboot. Oh, shit, BSOD! Reboot again. BSOD.
"Oh well, I guess I'll have to uninstall that POS printer driver."
Boot into safe mode. No problem. Click on HP-provided utility to uninstall broken driver. Dialogue box comes up: "uninstaller can not run in low resolution". Program terminated. I forget the resolution required, but it wasn't available in safe mode. Piss around with the video mode in safe mode for fifteen minutes. No dice.
Start reading the internet about how to manually uninstall broken HP printer driver. God knows what files I deleted or what scary reg-edits were required, but I eventually got rid of the damn thing. Computer now boots normally again, but the printer still doesn't work.
I go to the HP support page to file a bug report, through an HP supplied URL. Many, many, many required fields. Gave them a piece of my mind in the comment box. Click submit. Result comes back: "404 not found". This is HP's own support website, as found in ancillary tools packed with the broken driver. It found the form for me to fill out, but couldn't find the server after I finished filling it out. Submission lost.
HP forever since has resided in my colossal fuck-up bucket. I know people who purchase their expensive HA kit and swear by the organization, but on the consumer side, I can only swear at this organization.
Despite this, I did buy a networked wide-body inkjet from HP subsequently at a huge discount from a going-out-of-business sale, and it hasn't been terrible, but I only replace the ink when I know I'm doing a lot of printing for a few months.
I don't know any company that's fallen further or faster in consumer esteem (once upon a time, a time I still recall, HP calculators represented the pinnacle of consumer esteem) except perhaps for the Hudson's Bay Company, but to comprehend that story you have to know what it once owned: a list of assets many nation states would envy. They spun off oil companies, railroads, real estate. What did they keep? Zellers.
I keep telling my wife that the insurance business has the rare business model of litigating its own customers (just try to collect ...)
But just now I realize that the ink jet market is not so far behind as all that.
Of course not.
The maker and the various middle men have to make their cut.
PC LOAD LETTER. WTF is that?
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
This kind of bullshit from HP that caused us to move to Dell Printers 5 years ago. We started having service issues with HP where they would refuse to service the printer in warranty, then we started having issues like this were our non-HP ink would fail to work no matter what we did. We have never had any issues with Dell plus they will bend over backwards to fix issues as needed. We have never looked back. On a side note: we have discovered over the last few years that HP computers and laptops are also having issues, break faster than normal, or just don't work well. We are slowly switching to Dell computers and have had no issues. We are beginning to think HP is having some major issues with their company. -WS
It always seem to be that the most frustrating and/or ridiculous computer stories have something to do with printers.
One personal experience I will never forget had to do with a Canon multifunctional I purchased. It was a printer/flatbed scanner and was pretty good at both. But one day it simply stopped reading the cartridge. It gave a message that I needed to insert a cartridge even though one was in there. Replaced it with a new cartridge just in case but still wouldn't recognize it.
I thought to myself "well, the scanner still works very well and it's really fast so at least I can use it as a scanner, right?"
Wrong. The printer would remain in 'flashing light error' mode and would not allow me to dismiss it in anyway whatsoever, preventing me from ever using it as a scanner. Seemed like a waste of a perfectly good scanner.
...in the coffin
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
My dad has one of those and its great. That ink lasts forever. He has it for couple of years now and he only added ink (which is cheap) recently. And he prints in color fairly often so I was actually very surprised when he told me that he only just now both new ink bottles.
It prints as well as on the first day so I cannot recommend this line of printers enough.
Trolls are like broken clocks. They show the truth two times a day. The rest of the day they talk nonsense.
+1 immediately and spectacularly
I live in Sri Lanka, and I use an HP Color Laserjet. I got stuck with outdated toner cartridges (genuine HP, but over 4 years old) which just died. So I went to the official HP agent ... and the manager tells me, "No, that warranty is invalid ... are you kidding, warranties on toner?" So I guess the "worldwide" warranty only works if you're willing to go back to the USA and file a complaint there. Anywhere else, good luck.
I'm not defending HP on this one, but it's common knowledge that you get what you pay for when it comes to consumer hardware. When it comes to PCs and printers, you really have to step up into the business lines to get something that has a chance of lasting, or doesn't have artificial restrictions like this put in place.
I've seen HP printers at Best Buy, Costco, etc. for less than $100 in some cases, and certainly the majority are less than $300. At that price point, when you consider how much it costs to market, stock and sell that device, wouldn't you expect tricks like this? Same thing goes for PCs and laptops -- business laptops can still be over $1000 these days, and consumer ones are below $500. But, one comes with a 3 year warranty and a guarantee of a stable hardware configuration, and the other comes with a 90 day warranty and is assembled from the spare parts bin with whatever components they happen to have on hand that day. And it's not just HP -- all the PC manufacturers have a consolidated set of business-level SKUs, plus hundreds of consumer SKUs, all slightly different, to be sold at various levels of retailer (office supply stores, Costco, electronics chains, etc.) In the printer world, you need to buy at least the low end business models to have a chance of them lasting more than a few years. I bought a LaserJet P3015 years back and haven't had any complaints...but the printer retailed for about $900. Buying the office model for home is expensive but it does just work and still has echoes of the old tank-like build quality of LaserJets of yesteryear.
HP, Lenovo, etc. should all just jettison the crap consumer lines, cede the low end of the market to tablets or Chromebooks, and focus on making high-margin quality hardware for people who still need it. Their bottom lines would be much better off, and people wouldn't have to put up with stuff like this.
It isn't that HP are bad printers here, it's that HP are trying to deceive their users into thinking the OEM cartridges are defective. And the timing reveals that its a trick in their software not a true fault.
i.e. pre planned attempt to deceive consumers about the quality of third party cartridges.
At this point the cartridge makers should sue (tortuous interference in business), and the authorities should look at this in terms of the Dieselgate scandal, since its an attempt to deceive consumers.
I have an HP printer (networked, monochrome, laser) that I have been feeding non-HP cartridges for years now. Actually, other than the original cartridge it only got non-HP ones. Works like a charm to this day. It is a 5 year old printer, maybe newer models exhibit this behavior.
I know you are being ridiculous, but who can blame them? When consumers feed their printers $4 cartridges filled with ground tires for 5 years and then it breaks, they blame the manufacturer of the printer.
Another problem with HP- if you run out of yellow (or any single color) you just can't print at all. Even your black only documents will refuse to print.
But the worst problem is tech support. God help you if you ever need that.
On the good side, when other brands were struggling with faulty paper handling, HP was flawless. Never a double sheet draw, never a jam, never a missed sheet, even with the duplex unit, even after it got old and full of crud. The sheet fed scanner sometimes struggled with odd sized or wrinkled pages, but usually worked ok.
...omphaloskepsis often...
I have a five year old MFC-9970CDW (SOHO) laser printer that has thrown an error message saying that the life of the drum unit has been used up for the past three years. Now it says that the paper drive unit has exceeded it's life and needs to be replaced. The printer continues to work perfectly.
Along with this, I've found that when you get a warning saying that a toner cartridge is low and needs to be replaced immediately, it has about 20% of it's life left. It took me a very expensive cartridge or two to figure out that I could run them to the end without any issues.
It is an excellent printer, probably the best one I've ever owned and I would recommend Brother laser printers and buy another one over competing brands.
But, I don't consider them to provide them to be a vendor that doesn't play games.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I will NEVER spend a cent of my own money on any HP product. And I will recommend to friends and family not to buy HP gear either.
And if I am ever in a position to make decisions in an office environment (or recommendations to co-workers/bosses/etc) about gear, I will recommend against HP in that situation too.
Canon MX922 & Sophia Global Ink from Amazon. Stock up on 2 sets, ink does expire in about 2 years.
The cost of an item rarely has a direct correlation to the cost of production. You need to get out more. Maybe take a few business courses.
I am not surprised by this at all. I will say that I have never had any problems with HP's hardware. HOWEVER, their software/drivers suck. I had an inkjet where once you printed from an application, say Word, you could not print from ANY other application (like Notepad) until the computer was rebooted.
There I actively performed the firmware update myself. The new firmware rejected the non-original cartridges. After a few tests the 123inkt-support team said: "well then, it seems your cartridge is broken". So they send me a new one, I returned the old one, and since then I've been printing again. (I was going to say something like "happily", but for honesty I must leave that out....)
I spoke with a product manager at hp several years ago who said that the product meetings they had in the printer groups always focused on how much ink the printer would use and very little on how good the printer would actually print. Welcome to Meg Whitman World!
Not to make it but to also take care of the sales, distribution, support and warranty management. A lower volume also causes the price to be higher.
But you need to look at the total cost of ownership and if the ink is cheap then it pays off pretty soon with a more expensive printer.
A cheap printer may no longer be supported in the next version of your favorite commercial operating system.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I purchased several years back an HP-m475dw. Basically a Color Laserjet 400 Pro with a scanner bed on the top.
I never had one problem with it aside from one jam on the paper feeder for the scanner.
I do need to occasionally get drivers from the HP site as well as firmware updates to fix the occasional bugs - like the one I discovered where the printer would freeze up scanning a 16+ page document to a PDF file. Well, HP decided that such support should not be available anymore to this class of machine without a service contract. That's right, no more updates unless you fork over money - sorta.
If I log in with my account and access the support page for the printer, I'm reminded that it is out of warranty and I need to purchase a service contract to continue and download files.
*but*
If I log out and search for the printer and drivers on Google, it takes me to the very same page where the latest firmware and drivers are freely downloadable to me as an anonymous user.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Back around 2003 i did work for a transportation company which was extremely cheap in their approach to IT.
They need a new Printer for printing connotes - so i just got them a 2nd hand HP LaserJet 4 from the late 90's (it cost $30 to buy).
this printer would print approx 3-400 pages per day (well above its duty cycle), would never have an issue, and wouldn't even need to be serviced. (they ended up getting it services once every 12 months just to be on the safe side).
In 2005 the same company needed a new Printer for their Customer Service area, and after the success with the LaserJet 4, decided to lash out, and buy a brand new high-end HP Laser (with networking, duplex, additional paper trays), and cost them approx $3500 - and it was printing alot less than the LaserJet 4, but its duty cycle was well above what they actually needed for it.
This Printer ended up being replaced 5 times in 2yrs by HP, and every 3 months was having to be serviced (due to continually breaking down).
The company then ended up buying a 2nd hand cheap Lexmark to run next to the HP (due to all the downtime with the HP), and then ended up throwing out the HP while it was still under warranty - as the constant replacing of printers, and constant servicing for it, just wasn't worth it.
Anyway, jump forward to 2013, and i stopped dealing with the company... but at this time, the LaserJet 4 was still running fine, while every other printer in the company was now non-HP after having been replaced gradually, due to the costs involved of 'trying' to use HP equipment.
HP made great equipment back in the 1990's... but since the early 2000's everything turned to crap (including their Server's).
Lol! I'm installing 3 60 foot Inkjet lines next month at 3 million apiece. ;)
Just saying. Mine will print 1000 feet 3 up letter per minute, though. Oce 3900z.
An organisation causes an otherwise safely operating piece of machinery to stop operating by means of a sent message. Does that not constitute criminal damage? A few thousand convictions in courts around the world will probably do wonders for their behaviour in future. However it requires someone with imagination to bring the charge!
I wish the internet would throw error messages when people use extra apostrophes.
ERROR 40'4
IT'S MEANS IT IS
What if this isn't some evil plan from E-corp, but just a bug in HP's printers? or a bug in shared cartridge firmware? If I look at the time, right now, as an integer It is a fairly random-looking number: 1474184572. But if I go back to September 13th it doesn't look nearly so random - using ruby's Time.new(2016,9,13,13,53,20).to_i I get 1473800000. So if some developer expected the low half of the decimal time to never be zero it could get into a weird error state. I could definitely see it happening in a proprietary protocol or in DRM or crypto.
Eating popcorn and watching the show
Even though I'm nearly 40 yo I've bought my first printer not long ago, and my sole criterion to choose the brand was based on customers rates on the customer support. not surprisingly HP was near the bottom, with brother and canon at top.
Apple will brick your phone at the next update if a non-apple approved battery is installed.
"GET / HTTP/1.0" 200 51230 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Setec Astronomy)"
I haven't use a printer in years. Haven't missed it. It's time to embrace the paperless office.
Don't stop where the ink does.
1.Change the date
2.Check that it prints again.
3.Sue their ass off.
4.???
5.Profit!!
Is there anybody who makes significant use of hardcopies anymore?
25,000 pages of emails.
Hey, you asked the question!
oh wait, HP is an American company, so let's try to downplay this as much as we can instead.
Was this a network enabled printer, or a PC connected printer? The article is vague on model numbers. If it was PC connected. there is no need for the printer to have a timekeeping ability.
"Supposedly"? ;)
I have one. And I just love it. I can't believe I had to put up with that cartridge BS for so long. Given how long a tank lasts and how cheap it is to refill it, the ink is now basically free. You don't even have to think about it - you think more about the cost of the paper than the ink.
If you think you want something, you print it - it's that simple. There's no stopping to "second guess" yourself about "is it worth the cost / hassle"?
The only negative I'd add is that you have to be careful during the initial filling - there's not really anything to stop you from spilling ink. But I haven't even gone through the tiniest fraction of one tank, it's not something that one deals with often.
"You abandoned me! You abandoned my hatred!" "I... I have cuttlefish..."
Where am I going to put all those papers anyway? I have a tablet I can carry around to show me whatever I wanted to look at, it beats carrying around a binder with papers I might want, and I submit everything electronically...
Funny, and when you go to the electronic voting booth it will decide for you who to vote for. Amazing how technology takes away your choice. Isn't it?
For those in Europe that's
ERROR 12.29 metres
Point being that it's entirely a marketing ploy, the payback on the extra 400 may well never happen vs 3rd part carts in $50 printer.
No sir I dont like it.
Yet another reason that Carly Fiorina was unfit for the office of President of the United States.
Then they would be Big Brother---at least in the printer market.
It's cheaper to get a color laser with a duplexer than those inkjets. I'll take a nice laser printer anyday.
No sir I dont like it.
We still have an 8150 MFP. Works like a charm. Once, the HDD went bad. Other than that, it just keeps running. Sure, It's a little slow compared to some printers, but compared to printers of the day it was just fine. Besides, how many printers can do double-sided 11x17 prints these days?
However, I doubt that we would ever replace it with another HP. Mainly because all of our more recent HP printers have been utter crap---especially the inkjet ones.
Blame Carly Fiorina.
So, how long until Canon messes-up Oce?
I have a large format Oce printer and I have been very worried that Canon will contaminate Oce.
Didn't HP lose this lawsuit back in 2009 or so?
oh yeah.....http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2010/11/hp-inkjet-printer-lawsuit-reaches-5-million-settlement/index.htm
I use a non-EcoTank Epson, but I have added on a 3rd party Continuous Ink System. It consists of four ink tanks outside of the printer (which you refill with 3rd party ink, cheap), with surgical tubing running to fake ink tanks inside the printer. The fake ink tanks have a little chip with a sneaky-beaky reset button on it, which scrambles the serial number of the ink tanks. This works so well, and is so cheap that I don't take into account ink costs anymore. Cheaper than my laser per page, but I can print out art and sell it.
That's great if you print frequently. But the head will still clog up.
Speaking of consumables, do you throw away the printer when the ink cleaning tray is full like with some other Epson printers?
The very popular HP m451 is a Color Laser with a very attractive price, but the cartridges (e.g. the black CE410X) is priced at HP at $103.99 each. I was replacing that, and the three color cartridges about every six months. But, I got suspicious. So, when the messages started showing up on my computer about the toner being low, I decided to ignore them. Then the printer started demanding I press the "OK" button to print because, it claimed, the "Black cartridge is Very Low." After I punched the button, the next message suggests that print quality will be poor, and "could become gray."
However, I have now printed more than a ream and a half (about 750 pages) with not a single flaw in the quality of black printing without changing the cartridge (yet). It is clearly a scam.
I think there's a specific intent to delude customers into buying excessively-priced cartridges LONG before they're empty, as a means to increase HP's supplies income at the expense of customers. By charging excessive prices, and rigging their printer software to emit scary messages long before the toner is exhausted, HP is reaping huge income increases. Messrs. Hewlett and Packard are spinning in their graves, because the company has now sunk so low as to scam their customers with specifically designed software to encourage them to throw away still usable toner cartridges.
If others can share similar stories, this seems ripe for a class-action lawyer to file a legitimate case of fraud against HP for designing the software to try to scare people into buying over-priced cartridges when the existing cartridge is far from empty.
Do you have a reference you can cite for it being mandatory?
This is what is coming to Samsung printers that HP now own
Unfortunately, those printers have a built-in limit for number of pages (~6000/~9000) that can be printed before you need to take them to the service center.
https://www.amazon.in/Epson-L220-Colour-System-Printer/product-reviews/B00VQ8T2HM
So for those of you new here, the deal with inkjet cartridges has been something of a criminal demonstration of corporate greed and the lengths they will go to ride the gravy train. Inkjet cartridges have been shown to purposefully waste up to %50 or even more of the ink, to have sensors and other mechanisms that the only purpose of which is to ensure that they cannot be 'refilled' and then subsequently re-used again (due to software checks on same), and arbitrary expiration dates, all for the purpose of driving inkjet cartridge sales and locking you the consumer into an effective subscription to that manufacturers inkjet cartridge service, whether you want it or not. At one point in the not too distant past, HP ink was priced at roughly $80,0000 PER GALLON based on ink cartridge prices and size of same. Just google for 'inkjet scam' and the first page alone has everything you need to be brought up to speed.
Disclaimer - HP does make some good printer gear. I have an HP4050 bought in 2002 that has hundreds of thousands of prints on it and it's still chugging along fine today in 2016. Had to replace the drum once and a good cleaning, and have been thru a good number of toner cartridges, but these printers are known as tanks for this kind of longevity.
Fortunately again, I use toner and not ink, so my cartridges don't dry out, and I can actually use everything that I paid for, even if it did cost more.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I got it free with my last computer (wasn't even planning on it but the guy pointed out the printer was free so I took it). My laser drum went south and i'm going to have to buy a new laser printer because a replacement drum is more expensive than a new printer.
I miss duplex tho I can painfully fake it.
It tolerates sitting for long periods without the ink drying up.
I hate the bit about the generic cartridges tho.
Any recommendations for a good cheap color duplex laser printer?
It can be wired or wireless.
I kinda like the wireless on my hp 5630 but my old laser printer is wired.
She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
This is just another failure of our (America's) Federal Trade Commission. I don't understand how they in good fail can accept taxpayers' money.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
I don't see how that works out. We paid 65€ for an HP Inkjet and pay 36€ per year to HP for ink for printing up to 600 pages (via Instant Ink[1], 6ct/page). The average printer lasts about 2 to 3 years. Find me a laser printer that is (1) multi function device (that is, with scanner/copier), (2) duplex, (3) supports WiFi with Cloud Print, (4) and has Linux support. [1] If you print more, it gets somewhat cheaper. Buying ink cartridges yourself might be cheaper, but it is generally not really clear how long they'll last and you probably end up with more costs than expected - Instant Ink makes it clear what your costs are. Not to mention that the first 3 or 4 months with 100 pg/mo were free...
My old HP F4480 have the same issue. I have an old compatible cartridge, still new, and the printer rejected it. The in use cartridge was dead too.
I have the same experience with a HP laserjet 200 color laser. Started nagging for new cartridges 8 months ago.
Keeps complaining that black is "very low". Still every page is unaffected by the low toner.
The fact that it will continue to print is a huge improvement over the other brands. In the other brands, if the 'replace now' message pops up, you are unable to print until you replace the part in question. The fact that they remind you is nothing compared with forcing your hand when you still have ink left.
I bought an HP 6000 series all in one, last year to replace my Canon S820 which died of a bad print head. (I was able lto get cartridges for it for $2.) It lasted 3 months and had print head error, the warranty replacement lasted six weeks til the same error appeared. This appeared to be a common problem for this model. I just bought an HP 8710 to replace it. So far so good, but I wonder if it will recognize when I start refilling refilling genuine HP cartridges?
The day and the month are switched.
I'm using a now decades old HP 6P (black-and-white laser). I've replaced the toner a few times, and eventually gave it a good cleaning inside after a couple of paper jams, and it hasn't had a single problem for years now. I'm thinking that it's built to outlive its owner...
And are those models still in production? Nope, replaced by more locked down and "cost engineered" models
On the other hand, a used or refurbished 4000 or 8000 series will outlast the new models and have lower consumable cost.
I worked at a company making printers and one of the rejected proposal against third-party cartridges was "locking it out to prevent printing" that HP did.
This was rejected because "1. A cheap workaround will be found" and "2. The failure/realization of this feature will create unhappy costumers (= loss of sales)".
Instead, it was decided to stop showing the "low ink" message (but show the "empty" message when it really is) to let the customer know that we know you are using a third-party cartridge and you are missing out on an useful feature.
HP has been a piece of shit company for a long time now. Don't ever buy HP. Their only desire is to make money at any fucking cost. Expiration dates are fine but a warning would suffice. Don't disable my shit. Fuck you HP.
they pulled the same thing with my HP laptop. Except that it lasted only about 42 days and it was all original parts.
Simple solution - never buy HP. Go with one of the many other vendors that make quality product for a reasonable price...
Epson printers did this ages ago. I had to buy a resetter, but ultimately just stopped using the printer because it would actually say cartridges were empty before they were event used (preset shelf life data programmed in the cartridge). https://www.bigclassaction.com/settlement/epson_classaction_settlement.php
I have started receiving these messages from my HP deskjet printer. I only use genuine HP printer cartridges as I don't use my printer often and find refills and non genuine dry out requiring very early replacement so not worth while using non genuine. Even though I use genuine HP cartridges, it's none of HP's business what ink or cartridges I use. It doubly gets up my nose that I use genuine cartridges anyway, and still have this crap happen. I'm VERY upset and HP will be getting the results of my anger tomorrow. Obviously, there's some stupid fuckwit at HP who thought it was a good idea at the time. Whoever it was will be clearing out their desk by the end of this week.
Is this just a shill for some printer ink site? The link to HPs site shows like 6 threads where maybe 2 or 3 people are complaining.
I switched to other brands. lexmark, brother, etc... Work great for a while, then they're a POS. Went back to HP... That's a POS. Wish there was a good inkjet out there.
Some employee team at HP just misread "Stop making the cartridges report that they are non-HP in the next FW release" as "In the next firmware release, make cartridges that report that they are non-HP stop."
Simple language barrier misread. No biggie. No harm intended.
Psh. /narf
Why would anyone buy any HP product?
Between bundled blingware, crapware, unreliability, and devious practices, I cannot see any value in any of HP products.
Installing any HP "drivers" installs all kinds of other crapware that slows the PC down, and always gets in the way. It is as if HP thinks they are the only game in town, and, like Microsoft, thinks they know what is best for everyone.
They are not open to allowing consumer freedoms and options. Thus, are more of a monopolistic-trending company. "Use us, only us!"
This latest incident is, in my opinion, not only grounds for a massive, anti-trust lawsuit, yet also another nail in their coffin.
And it is a shame. Hewlett-Packard was once a revered name back in the pioneering days of computers and hi-tech.
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
Just like you have to install a hack to keep printers from refusing to print because one or more print cartridges is past its "sell by" date. Sorry HP, but ink cartridges stored, sealed, in a cool environment don't suddenly go bad because of a tick of a clock.
NRRPT/RCT
There are multiple models of the affected printers but the one I had issues with and I was able to solve was the OfficeJet Pro 8610. Pushing an older 2014 firmware that still did NOT contain the timebomb code to the printer via netcat solved the problem. Disabling WebServices and any future firmware updates on the printer and banning it on the firewall hopefully keeps the printer working normally with any cartridge. If you are interested, use Google to find the manual I wrote with all the links how to do it: "How to downgrade firmware on HP OfficeJet Pro 8610 to allow using old or refilled cartridges"