Monday, September 19th 2016
HP Deliberately Cripples Third-party Inkjet Cartridges?
A legal storm is brewing for HP, one of the world's largest manufacturers of inkjet printers. Users around the world are adding to empirical evidence that HP programmed its printers to not play well with third-party ink cartridges. Apparently, HP Inkjet printers and PSCs (AIOs) are programmed to malfunction when a non-HP made ink cartridge is used, on an arbitrary date of 13/09.
The printers are programmed to recognize that a non-HP cartridge is installed, and tell the driver to report a "damaged cartridge" error to the end user. HP has been responding to individual support calls from end-users so far, that the problem is caused by using third-party cartridges. The company recently redacted this statement, replying that a firmware bug is causing this error. Users on online boards were quick to retort that printers with no Internet connection, and no scope for OTA firmware updates, too are exhibiting this behavior. The only explanation that make sense is that HP programmed this date to deliberately make third-party cartridges malfunction, and drive up sales of its own brand cartridges.
Source:
MyCE
The printers are programmed to recognize that a non-HP cartridge is installed, and tell the driver to report a "damaged cartridge" error to the end user. HP has been responding to individual support calls from end-users so far, that the problem is caused by using third-party cartridges. The company recently redacted this statement, replying that a firmware bug is causing this error. Users on online boards were quick to retort that printers with no Internet connection, and no scope for OTA firmware updates, too are exhibiting this behavior. The only explanation that make sense is that HP programmed this date to deliberately make third-party cartridges malfunction, and drive up sales of its own brand cartridges.
49 Comments on HP Deliberately Cripples Third-party Inkjet Cartridges?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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).
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.
Glad I ditched my old HP inkjet about 5 years ago for a Canon model.
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.
Its just sky-net in its infancy
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 !!
What the actual fuck?
I guess it's legally unattackable, so hopefully people will use their wallets as arguments instead.
What a piece of shit company.