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HP Deliberately Cripples Third-party Inkjet Cartridges?

Octopuss said:
It's not jus InkJet. I had a thread here where I was boiling mad from HP fucking me over with a firmware update that turned third party toner for my LaserJet printer unfunctional.
I hope they get sued their asses off.
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So glad I moved away from HP.
 
I still use an old HP LaserJet 1012. This is a simple, yet extremely fast 600DPI Laser printer.

HP didn't screw up using aftermarket toner, they killed off the whole printer working after Windows XP.
It doesn't work on Vista, Win-7, Win-8, or Win-10. Driver support is non-existant.

But I found a workaround for it, and it works great on Win-7 with any cartridge. I found eight of them online for 6 bucks apiece.
It's by far the best little printer I have used.
 
This is an interesting issue. My first reaction is people should be able to use third party ink, but I can see why companies dont like it. Sure, they want to make money from selling their own ink, but theres also the issue of poor quality inks breaking the printer, clogging up the printer head. Should the company be held responsible under warranty if someone uses poor quality third party cartridges?

My personal experience with third party cartridges has not been good. They worked for a time, then I started getting problems with weird colours and constant blockages.

Now I just buy the genuine ones and I dont have problems.
 
To be honest I am not surprised at all. Is a known FACT that HP, Lexmark, Cannon and Epson are all doing that, making life miserable for 3rd party cartridges. I mean is no wonder, as long as a set of Black+individual R.G.B. cartridges costs more than the printer itself....
 
I have been wondering as to why my print cartiage constantly read empty or error with a newly installed cartiage
 
My Brother inkjet doesn't care about off-brand cartridges. In fact, I'm pretty sure there isn't even a chip on the cartridge because it just sucks the ink out of it and can tell it is empty when the pressure drops. That said, my inkjet is old so the new ones might have changed the design.

The only problem I've had with off brand cartridges is that, when printing photo quality, you kind of get a mixed bag of results. Sometimes they look great, sometimes they look like shit. It doesn't make any sense to me. I gave up trying to fix that. I'm not sure using genuine cartridges would even fix that though.

I always use Brother branded toner though because the amount of power and heat involved, I don't want to risk the thing starting on fire.
 
thesmokingman said:
So glad I moved away from HP.
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So was I, then they bought Samsung's printer business...

HP claims that they use a different, better black ink and that's why you should use HP ink only.

One thing that isn't a problem with HP printers though is clogged print heads, as they're part of the cartridge and this is in part why their cartridges cost more.

Epson offers a range of inkjet printers that have an external ink tank that you can easily refill, but it's quite messy. Maybe this is a Asian only thing though?
 
My Brother printer goes through an occasional head cleaning routine (happens randomly from what I can tell, I never tell it to do it). It's many years old and has never clogged. Ironically, this is often when it also discovers there's no ink in one or more of the cartridges.

Epson does offer ink tank models (designed to remove cap and pour ink in) but they are *very* expensive for an ink jet ($200+ USD).
 
Playing devil's advocate here, but why would HP deliberately do this?

I mean, if I used an inkjet and my 3rd party cartridge caused an error on the 13th of September I would replace it with another 3rd party cartridge which would then work until it was empty, okay the problem would occur the next year with another cartridge but it's not like I would rush out an buy a HP one unless the replacement 3rd part one also failed to work which wouldn't happen.

IMO an issue with the firmware the printers shipped with sounds more likely than HP doing something sinister and potentially brand damaging for zero reward.
 
If true, let's hope they don't get away with this evil act.

Glad I ditched my old HP inkjet about 5 years ago for a Canon model.
 
buggalugs said:
This is an interesting issue. My first reaction is people should be able to use third party ink, but I can see why companies dont like it. Sure, they want to make money from selling their own ink, but theres also the issue of poor quality inks breaking the printer, clogging up the printer head. Should the company be held responsible under warranty if someone uses poor quality third party cartridges?

My personal experience with third party cartridges has not been good. They worked for a time, then I started getting problems with weird colours and constant blockages.

Now I just buy the genuine ones and I dont have problems.
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Future ink and toner sales are the incentive for them selling us printers so cheap.
They take a loss on the sales of many printers because they know that they'll have a good income stream from that cheap printer for as long as it works. They'll never sell the supplies for a reasonable price because they have their customers locked into their ink/toner.
Every one of these companies has a statement in the printer's warranty that voids it if you use third-party ink. None of them will fix a printer that has signs of someone else's product in it.
Somebody mentioned that there is a chip in some printers that keeps track of your toners and stops the use of aftermarket supplies. Now you can buy a new chip that lies to the printer about it so that it will keep working properly.
 
Here's an idea: standardise ink - printer communication. That way you can use any brand printer with any brand ink.
 
Fourstaff said:
Here's an idea: standardise ink - printer communication. That way you can use any brand printer with any brand ink.
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That's not going to happen, I'm afraid.
 
Well that sucks. I'm going to keep using my $20 Chinese knock off brand laser printer. When I replace the toner in it I'll let everyone know.
 
Fourstaff said:
Here's an idea: standardise ink - printer communication. That way you can use any brand printer with any brand ink.
Click to expand...

Or just buy a solid ink printer, then you can use genuine or third part ink and the printer will never know the difference ;)
 
Ubersonic said:
Playing devil's advocate here, but why would HP deliberately do this?

I mean, if I used an inkjet and my 3rd party cartridge caused an error on the 13th of September I would replace it with another 3rd party cartridge which would then work until it was empty, okay the problem would occur the next year with another cartridge but it's not like I would rush out an buy a HP one unless the replacement 3rd part one also failed to work which wouldn't happen.

IMO an issue with the firmware the printers shipped with sounds more likely than HP doing something sinister and potentially brand damaging for zero reward.
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Companies like HP etc makes more money/profit off of the ink than the printers. Most printers are sold at a loss(once) to to be a base for continued revenue(ink sales). If you dont buy the branded ink....no profit. All third party ink becomes a liability. They also want to "protect" the printers from ink dying out. The heads (on the printers that are replaceable) usually come close to the price of the printer also. So for your "benefit" they install these safe guards. The newer wifi HP printers can also preemptively order you ink based on your printing habits.

Its just sky-net in its infancy

upload_2016-9-20_13-46-12.jpeg
 
It sounds like it was pre-coded into the firmware so it's breaking if people don't change firmware and on printers that have no internet access.
 
And exactly which planet have people been living on for the past 10 years or so ? this OEM-ink/chipped cartridges crap has been going on for many, many years...same ole same ole same same, corporate GREED takes precedence over everything else :)

And to take it one step further, just think how some businesses feel....

They buy/lease these large, superfast, super high-capacity AIO machines that can do just about everything except cook you breakfast, only to find out that they are also locked into buying ink/toner that is way overpriced, AND that they have to place a service call to get the stuff as part of the service contract.

Then someone looks on OD/OM.com and finds the branded supplies for like 1/3 of what the contract price is (and 3rd party ones even less) and suggests to mgmt that they start buying and installing it themselves, to save the company some serious $$$$......

Well that sounds all fine & dandy, until mgmt finds out that doing so would not only break the terms of the contract, but also (supposedly) voids the machine's warranty to boot !!
 
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Just another reason why I stick with epson!
 
Yes. This is true. They've done it to me twice, and the local ink refill guy is aware of the practice. They've gotten me to buy the name brand ones once, and I'm never going to buy an HP printer again.
 
I'm surprised no one has come up with a cheap device to reprogram the chips on the cartridges.
 
Caring1 said:
I'm surprised no one has come up with a cheap device to reprogram the chips on the cartridges.
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Quite popular in East Asia to reprogram chips to accept big 3rd party tanks.
 
TheGuruStud said:
Brother is the best consumer stuff overall. Cheap and easy to get dirt cheap ink/toner for with no shenanigans. They're all in ones are killer for 50 bucks.
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I had to hack their cartridges so I'd get all of the ink out.
 
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