Had reported about that within my post HP: New printer firmware re-enables refill ink cartridges.Īlso the site Motherboard has published the article Printer Makers Are Crippling Cheap Ink Cartridges Via Bogus 'Security Updates' in October 2018.
They was forced to release an update that overrides the 'protection mechanism'. I've blogged about that within my blog post HP printer firmware disables refill ink cartridges and other articles (see the links at the article's end). Anyone using new third-party ink cartridges also received this error message.
The printer driver reports that the ink cartridge is faulty or damaged. Those using third-party ink cartridges or refillable ink cartridges received an error message. From that point on, third-party ink cartridges were no longer accepted on certain HP ink jet printer models.
From 13 September 2016, the time bomb within the firmware became active. HP had distributed a firmware update for various ink jet office printers on March 12, 2016.
We recommend blocking any automatic update feature baked into your printer, to avoid this happening in the future.In September 2016 it became public, that HP has begun to block third-party ink cartridges with a firmware update. If your system has already been locked out by the firmware update, the newer driver may be your only option. HP has published instructions for its driver update method, available here. There’s a huge range of affected models, though all appear to be OfficeJet Pro printers. Especially in this day and age, when most printers offer plug-in-and-it-works functionality, people aren’t likely to think of a print driver as containing a DRM scheme or the means to bypass one. If they can’t get ink to work properly from a third-party, they’ll purchase it elsewhere. Of course, you’re not meant to know that - and HP is well aware that most office managers will just buy more ink. Instead of giving anyone the freedom to use printer ink they select themselves, HP locks you out of the device by default, then gives technically proficient users the option to sneak back in. I have to admit, it’s a clever workaround.
But it’s a manual download you can grab, rather than one the company is pushing. HP does still offer a printer driver that doesn’t activate this lockout. The company has started again, because if you’re going to reserve the right to piss off your customers, why wouldn’t you use it? The firmware update it’s pushed out to re-enable cartridge lockouts will once again tell you you’re using the wrong ink: Last year, everyone blew up about this and HP sensibly stopped doing it, though the company announced that it reserved the right to start again - because nothing beats pissing off your customers for a second time in a row. Of course, the “correct” ink cartridge happened to be for branded ink you buy directly from HP, at vastly inflated prices. Roughly six months after the last firmware update had been installed, multiple HP printers suddenly stopped working, claiming they had been filled with the incorrect ink cartridge. The company took considerable fire for the move, particularly since it had distributed the lockout as an invisible trigger in a previous firmware update. Last year, HP pushed a stealth firmware update that started killing printers that used ink sold by third-party vendors.