HP keeps updating its printers to block third-party ink cartridges

[midian182]

WTF?! It's been seven years since HP first became embroiled in controversy for pushing out a firmware update to its printers that disabled third-party ink cartridges. Since then, it has faced lawsuits and countless complaints about its cartridge DRM, which it claims is about protecting quality for the customer, and definitely not a way of forcing people into buying its own expensive products. Yet despite all the outrage, HP is still pushing out these updates.

HP's Dynamic security feature works by having the printers check inserted cartridges' security chips or electronic circuitry to confirm they are from HP. "The printers use the dynamic security measures to block cartridges using non-HP chips or modified or non-HP electronic circuitry," explains HP, which adds that the feature is "to protect the quality of our customer experience, maintain the integrity of our printing systems, and protect our intellectual property." Nothing about money, then.

The backlash from the Dynamic security's introduction in 2016 led to HP apologizing and initially removing the DRM. However, it reappeared in 2017.

New, official ink cartridges are expensive, so introducing a feature that prevents HP printer owners from buying discounted third-party ink isn't going earn the company a lot of goodwill. HP has already paid out millions in settlement fees after class-action lawsuits were brought by consumer groups and users accusing the firm of "underhanded" tactics and anti-competitive behavior. The most recent of these was a $1.35 million payout to customers in four European countries.

But HP hasn't abandoned its cartridge DRM plans, as Reddit users (via Ars Technica) are discovering. "HP have updated their printers to outright ban 'non-HP' ink! They no longer shows the 'can't guarantee quality' message, but instead cancels your print completely until you inset a HP ink cartridge," wrote Redditor grhhull. "After contacting HP, they advised 'this is due to the recent 'update' of all printers.'"

It's unclear which printers have received the updates and when they were pushed out. The OfficeJet 774, 6978 and 6968, and the OfficeJet Pro 6970 are some of those named on HP's support page.

What's even more jarring for users is that the updates could, without any notice, brick third-party cartridges that they had been using in their HP printers.

Ars notes that HP has been careful to admit no wrongdoing even when paying out its class-action settlements. Instead, the company has focused on making it more clear which of its printers have the Dynamic security function. That's certainly not going to appease people who've just found their printer is no longer working.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/97884-hp-keeps-updating-printers-block-third-party-ink.html

 

[nismo91]

Sigh... I don't know how hp still managed to sell a lot of these junk one-time-use-cartridge inkjet printer when the market has been filled with tons of ink-tank inkjet printer for years, even way before windows 10 came out. all you need to do is just pour the ink.

just checked amazon. there are so many ink-tank printers from brother, epson, canon and even from hp itself. if you have 7-yo printer that keeps asking for genuine cartridge, maybe it's time to buy a new one. if you just bought it then you should've done more research before buying next time.

 

[envirovore]

My one experience in owning a HP scanner/copier/printer 20 years ago was bad enough even then to never want to own another, nor suggest owning one to anyone else.

Bought a Brother scanner/copier/printer a few years ago now, expecting another nightmare due to my experience with the HP unit, and it's been great.
Easy set up, no driver crashes, their software actually listens to you when you tell it to not auto-start with Windows and isn't even required to load up to get full functionality out of the machine - it's just an option to use if you want. Not that we print novels or anything, but still have yet to change ANY of the cartridges out.
It's the brand I'll suggest to anyone looking for a printer/scanner/copier now.

 

[wiak]

Lol printer manufacturers are still doing **** again lol, hopefully EU will step up and force them to open up

 

[Uncle Al]

Yep .... just reminds me why I dumped any HP product 20+ years ago ......

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Sigh... I don't know how hp still managed to sell a lot of these junk one-time-use-cartridge inkjet printer when the market has been filled with tons of ink-tank inkjet printer for years, even way before windows 10 came out. all you need to do is just pour the ink.

just checked amazon. there are so many ink-tank printers from brother, epson, canon and even from hp itself. if you have 7-yo printer that keeps asking for genuine cartridge, maybe it's time to buy a new one. if you just bought it then you should've done more research before buying next time.

Because your average tech illiterate individual will go buy the cheapest crap from wal mart then call you and as you to hook it up for them instead of listening to you and buying a decent laserjet instead.

Source: everyone I know. Help.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

The IT guy at my work okays all the printers around here and they're all HP printers. Just basic run of the mill HP printers - laser jet and ink jets.

He's then outsourced to a few of different companies over the past 7-8 years to maintain the printers and provide ink cartridges. Two of the companies couldn't fix a printer that's brand new out of the box and only requires you to plug it in to get it to work and the ink cartridges were knock offs that had awful quality in terms of printing and usually every other cartridge was broken somehow so they needed to send another replacement.

The current company that handles the printers for repairs and replacement cartridges, at least they're good at their job. They also offer replacement HP cartridges and 9 our of 10 cartridges that comes in work without fail and the quality is solid. I don't know if the quality is simply because HP hinders the quality of non-HP cartridges or if the non-HP cartridges are just that crummy.

On the up side, we haven't updated any firmware on our printers in the past few years so this update that HP has pushed out hasn't impacted us if we wanted to use non-HP cartridges.

 

[Tetr1s]

I love monopolistic practices!!! Are there any other good printers that don't do what HP does? Might buy one for my family since they print a lot out and we're having the same problems with cartridges.

 

[masaaya4]

I am not going to comment on HP's policy on third party cartridges, what I will say is that we aren't using third party cartridges anymore.

For a few years I purchased cheaper refilled ink cartridges, and when the printer went unused for a few months the ink cartridges were completely clogged up and unusable, and had to be replaced. no cleaning methods would help, not printer self cleaning and not warm water or cleaning alcohol.

I switched to official HP cartridges and now it is no problem for the printer to be sitting unused for months, the printer fires up and prints without problems.

in the end, it is not cheaper to buy third party cartridges when they have to be replaced before their ink is used up.

 

[return]

I am not going to comment on HP's policy on third party cartridges, what I will say is that we aren't using third party cartridges anymore.

For a few years I purchased cheaper refilled ink cartridges, and when the printer went unused for a few months the ink cartridges were completely clogged up and unusable, and had to be replaced. no cleaning methods would help, not printer self cleaning and not warm water or cleaning alcohol.

I switched to official HP cartridges and now it is no problem for the printer to be sitting unused for months, the printer fires up and prints without problems.

in the end, it is not cheaper to buy third party cartridges when they have to be replaced before their ink is used up.

I use 3rd party laser ones and they last me for years.

 

[andyross]

My one experience in owning a HP scanner/copier/printer 20 years ago was bad enough even then to never want to own another, nor suggest owning one to anyone else.

Bought a Brother scanner/copier/printer a few years ago now, expecting another nightmare due to my experience with the HP unit, and it's been great.
Easy set up, no driver crashes, their software actually listens to you when you tell it to not auto-start with Windows and isn't even required to load up to get full functionality out of the machine - it's just an option to use if you want. Not that we print novels or anything, but still have yet to change ANY of the cartridges out.
It's the brand I'll suggest to anyone looking for a printer/scanner/copier now.

I also updated to a Brother printer a little over a year ago. The software does have some background stuff that leaves messages in the Event Viewer. I found some registry settings to disable that. Otherwise, the printer (MFC-J5330DW) works fine. Around noon each day, it does some form of cleaning on it's own. Sometimes just a brief spit/wipe, and maybe once a week it does a full clean.

Had many HP's over the years. The last two were an OfficeJet 7310, which would just start not recognizing that an ink cartridge was installed, even if it had been in there and working for awhile. At least I got good life out of it as it had heavy use for several years. The last was an OfficeJet Pro 6978. It got very light use for only 2-3 years, but I think something broke inside and it kept complaining about paper jam, when it was really a carriage jam. I opened it up, and did find some tiny piece of a plastic clip, but never figured out where it went.

 

[p51d007]

I'm an HP service/dealer. They also on their larger MFP's, LOCK the toner cartridge so they can't be removed, until the machine indicates they are empty. First thing we do is disable that, because even when they are "empty" you can shake them up, and tilt them to the front and get the rest of the toner used up.
The thing people don't understand is they are being overcharged for toner.
Black is cheap compared to the color, which is sometimes 2-3 times or more HIGHER than black.
It's THE SAME TONER, just the pigment is different. In the field for troubleshooting, we will sometimes swap drums from k,m,y,c to see if a copy quality problem changes. If the toner wasn't the same, then the image would be really screwed up. Same with the carrier/developer. You can use a color developer in place of a black developer, just run a crap load of solid prints to use up the black toner. But, the carrier/developer is again, 3-4 times as expensive for the color, versus the black.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I use 3rd party laser ones and they last me for years.

That's because inkjets dry up over time. Lasers do not.

Inkjet printers are scams. Aside of the ones with refillable tanks.

I love monopolistic practices!!! Are there any other good printers that don't do what HP does? Might buy one for my family since they print a lot out and we're having the same problems with cartridges.

Brother is the go to. Basic printers, basic functionality, no BS. Easy to maintain. And never, EVER buy a cartridge inkjet. Buy a laserjet, you will save money after the first set of inkjet cartridges dry up after 6 months.

The IT guy at my work okays all the printers around here and they're all HP printers. Just basic run of the mill HP printers - laser jet and ink jets.

He's then outsourced to a few of different companies over the past 7-8 years to maintain the printers and provide ink cartridges. Two of the companies couldn't fix a printer that's brand new out of the box and only requires you to plug it in to get it to work and the ink cartridges were knock offs that had awful quality in terms of printing and usually every other cartridge was broken somehow so they needed to send another replacement.

The current company that handles the printers for repairs and replacement cartridges, at least they're good at their job. They also offer replacement HP cartridges and 9 our of 10 cartridges that comes in work without fail and the quality is solid. I don't know if the quality is simply because HP hinders the quality of non-HP cartridges or if the non-HP cartridges are just that crummy.

On the up side, we haven't updated any firmware on our printers in the past few years so this update that HP has pushed out hasn't impacted us if we wanted to use non-HP cartridges.

My favorite part of the new HPs that work keeps buying are the new laserjets have always online DRM. You MUST be connected to the internet to print. Even if used as a USB printer. And you MUST use the HP app to print, with a MS account of course.

Never EVER buy HP anything. Ever. Screw them. Brother printers or bust!

 

[Neatfeatguy]

That's because inkjets dry up over time. Lasers do not.

Inkjet printers are scams. Aside of the ones with refillable tanks.
Brother is the go to. Basic printers, basic functionality, no BS. Easy to maintain. And never, EVER buy a cartridge inkjet. Buy a laserjet, you will save money after the first set of inkjet cartridges dry up after 6 months.
My favorite part of the new HPs that work keeps buying are the new laserjets have always online DRM. You MUST be connected to the internet to print. Even if used as a USB printer. And you MUST use the HP app to print, with a MS account of course.

Never EVER buy HP anything. Ever. Screw them. Brother printers or bust!

4-5 years ago when the IT guy got me a new HP printer (model M402dn) and he installed the printer driver, all the extra bloated crap that comes with it....I spent 15 minutes to uninstall it all. I just wanted the driver, not the half dozen different HP pieces of bloatware that puts pop-ups on the screen when the toner is low or suggest you buy from the HP store or it tells you an update is available.

No thank you, HP. Just the driver, nothing more.

I wouldn't chose HP as a printer option. I suggested a Brother printer, but since we have HP printers throughout the company he wanted to keep it HP.

 

[sdms96825]

Dropped HP years ago for Brother and never went back.

 

[amghwk]

I love monopolistic practices!!! Are there any other good printers that don't do what HP does? Might buy one for my family since they print a lot out and we're having the same problems with cartridges.

Canon used to be the better alternative. But now, Brother seems to be the best.

 

[RudyBob]

OH Brother

 

[ragreeen2646]

As part of the DEC/Compaq buyout I worked for HP that last few years before retirement. I have used HP, Epson, and brother printers over time. HP printers are decent. I'm currently in love with Epson printers. I have had 2 brother lasers which broke within 18 months (low usage). I'm not sure about the new HP firmware, but in the past you could get past "cartridge expired" by removing the battery in the printer. I suspect somebody will come up with a work around. I have used non-vendor approved cartridges in the past and it can be hit or miss.

 

[dthesleepless]

I'm mystified why anyone bothers buying an inkjet. I have a Xerox color laser multifunction that is 10+ years old and is still kicking ***. I've used the printer part of it so sparingly I've been on the same toner cartridge for half a decade and it's still going strong.

HP be damned (no, really, damn them), inkjets are a total waste of money.

That's because inkjets dry up over time. Lasers do not.

Inkjet printers are scams. Aside of the ones with refillable tanks.
Brother is the go to. Basic printers, basic functionality, no BS. Easy to maintain. And never, EVER buy a cartridge inkjet. Buy a laserjet, you will save money after the first set of inkjet cartridges dry up after 6 months.
My favorite part of the new HPs that work keeps buying are the new laserjets have always online DRM. You MUST be connected to the internet to print. Even if used as a USB printer. And you MUST use the HP app to print, with a MS account of course.

Never EVER buy HP anything. Ever. Screw them. Brother printers or bust!

 

[bazz2004]

I’ve tried Epson, Canon and HP printers. The best and most reliable were the single function basic designs. We ran a Canon for many years but when it died everything seemed to be changing for the worse. The all in one units just strike me as too complicated and laser printers with colour wouldn’t work for a home set up. An Epson XP 55 (single function) gave great service but died one hot summer because the ink dried out in the separate print head. We have an ancient HP 6940 as backup that must be over 15 years old. We set this up and it clanked away after years in a cupboard. Compatible cartridges work fine with it if you avoid the cheapest ones and genuine HP cartridges are readily available on ebay - many years past their expiry date. These two sources work for me. The compatibles bring up a warning about using non HP cartridges and you can only monitor the ink levels with genuine HP cartridges but that’s not really much to worry about. What is best is that the print head is part of the cartridge with older HP models so lack of use is not necessary game over.

The build quality of HP has always looked good to me. When we move on from our vintage HP 6940 I’d be tempted to buy one of their new units with refillable ink tanks. Apart from one single function model they are all in one systems.

 

[StupidPeopleSuk]

The ONLY HP's I've ever found to be reliable and long lasting were their older laserjets.... up until 3 years ago, I was still using an LJ1100 that I brought home during an office remodel in 2012 cause the boss said it stopped working years ago and that we were getting all new printers anyways....

Once I fired it up & ran it thru a few cleaning cycles, it worked great for several more years....then eventually, I had to replace the toner cartridge and noticed that the empty one was date stamped from 2004....

However, I made notes after hearing about their quality going to sh^t in the years since then, so when it finally died for good, I replaced it with a Brother MFC color laser. That was in 2017 and I've only had to replace the toners 4 times to date....

I have not used or bought a single inkjet printer since 2012 & aint gonna start now

 

[bazz2004]

Yes, Brother looks a good make even for inkjets. There is a difference though between printing in a business environment and home usage. Inkjets suit home users very well because colour is an economic option. They are not going anywhere in the forseeable future.

 

[plplplpl]

This just in: Toyota bricks its cars unless you use Toyota brand gas.

 

[hwertz]

Someone's aching for a lawsuit! That was really why they were sued in 2016 too! If they had started making new printers that could not use 3rd party cartridges, and this was documented on the box, I don't think they would have had a case. People could see the restriction and buy from somebody else. But what they did was update EXISTING printers that COULD use 3rd party cartridges so they no longer could. Sound familiar? They are doing the same thing now, taking printers that "recommend" a genuine cartridge and crippling them so they require one. I know better than to buy HP printers after the first go around, but if I had an HP printer that could take 3rd party carts and they removed the ability with an update, I would definitely feel that HP owes me damages for making printing on my printer unaffordable.