HP’s move to sabotage third-party cartridges and recycled cartridges with replaced chips is about more than protecting “innovation”-printer ink is one of the company’s biggest profit centers”.
Advertisement
On HP’s support forums numerous complaints were posted and Dutch online retailer 123inkt also received a large amount of complaints on that day and chose to investigate the matter.
The company told the BBC that the error was down to a firmware upgrade, the objective of which was to “protect HP’s innovations and intellectual property”, and Cartridge World CEO Paul Callow noted that similar issues from firmware updates are far from new.
It also said some devices already had the functionality built-in. But the more startling revelation that the “expiration date” might have actually been pre-programmed into a firmware update dating way back in March this year, considering there hasn’t been any firmware update since then.
HP said such updates were rolled out “periodically” but did not comment on the timing of the last instalment. The reason, according to a statement from HP, was a firmware update meant to “protect HP’s innovations and intellectual property”.
The news was revealed when thousands of HP printers showed the exact same error on 13 September.
“Others must have the same problem”.
It wasn’t Friday the 13th, but it was precisely that for people who depended on their printers working daily.
Chipped cartridges filled with alternative ink would still work, HP told the BBC. And HP even says that refilled official HP cartridges will continue to work, as long as they have the original security chip.
Advertisement
The maker of expensive printer ink, HP, appears to have programmed all its printers to reject other people’s electronic cartridges on 13 September. It also noted that many printers with stock firmware and internet connection were also rejecting non-HP cartridges. The (un) intended result, however, is that the use of cheaper private label cartridges is made hard and / or that error messages are caused.
