Inkjet printers and unbranded ink?

I’ve got an old (10 yrs?) HP inkjet printer and have used generic cartridges and/or top up ink for a couple of years without problems. Suddenly the printer is refusing to do anything, the display just says dodgy cartridge and won’t let me do anything except switch it off. It’s been fine and trouble free since new.

There’s been no surreptitious remote upgrade – the firmware is the same as it was 2 or 3 years ago. I only use the printer a couple of times a month, if that.

Any ideas how to get around this?

Or recommendations for printer brands that don’t lock you into their ink cartridge treadmills?

is this an issue with a particular cartridge? or have you tried several cartridges and had them all rejected?

The printer itself could just be on the wonk and just not recognising cartridges at all- without trying them you don’t know if it would just reject HP cartridges too.

IIRC my old HP would reject genuine cartridges if it decided they were past their sell by date

Why bother with aftermarket when you can get HP subscription ink? Our printer came with 12 months free subscription too.

Do not buy HP! They are bloodsuckers of the printing world. If you have a HP subscription and it runs out or you cancel it, you cannot print anymore even if you have ink left, they will disable your printing. And as stated above, they reject carts by date even if they actually have ink and would work.

https://www.howtogeek.com/403346/hps-ink-subscription-has-drm-that-disables-your-printer-cartridges/

I will never buy an HP printer again, and neither should you
byu/InhibitionExhibition inprinters

https://www.slashgear.com/1062301/this-is-why-so-many-people-hate-hp-printers/

See HP forums for an example:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/HP-Instant-Ink/My-printer-is-locked-because-my-card-expired-but-i-have-ink/td-p/7168047

Guess what happens after the “free 12 months” runs out? They will disable your cartridges even if they have ink left, unless you continue to pay after the free period! I do not think it is very reasonable to give any money to a company that uses such predatory, asshole methods to extract (blackmail) money out of its hostages. I mean, customers.

Brother makes good printers (that also have Linux drivers) and if you do not need color printing, get a cheap Brother laser. Cartridges are very cheap, you can use refilled ones also – I am on my original cartridge that came with the printer and I have printed over 500 pages. That printer cost 60 euros when new, 6 years ago.

https://www.pcguide.com/printer/guide/best-brother-printer/

https://www.rtings.com/printer/reviews/brother

I have an epson printer and it will use generic ink although they are not necessarily as good ( colour match and stability) as the original ones. But instead of being £17 each they are £2 or less bought in bulk. So as I don’t print high dpi photos on premium gloss paper any more on it it’s a no brainier to use the cheap ones.

If I was going to buy an inkjet printer, it would be an Epson Inktank, although my printer woes were solved by a cheap Brother mono laser.

Do you have a link to the epson you are using?  I’m still using an old B&w samsung printer but increasingly the kids need to have colour prints for school work.  I do not want to be tied into a subscription model or pay inflated cartridge prices

HP instant ink +1

I think it’s the first time I’ve actually had a working printer since the mighty HP 550C.  Even printing from my phone over wi-fi works “just works”!

They could commit war crimes on a Canadian scale and I’d still shrug and say “yea, but £2.99* and it just works”.

*which work pays for anyway

I also have an Epson and use the cheaper ink cartridges. The printer pops up a warning every time I put one in but then just gets on with the job.

I also have the HP subscription but am looking at changing to either a laser or a inktank printer.

To be fair to HP this has been the least troublesome printer I have owned, it occasionally needs a restart but generally printing form PC, android phone or iPad just works. I have just received my first colour cartridges since the first ones when I bought the printer. If you do print more than your monthly sub it just charges you extra, something to be aware of.  I have had it since March 22 and had free trial for 6 months then was paying for 10 prints a month till the start of this year when I moved up to the 50 page plan. So if you are low user the subscription is possible worth it.

If you have a HP subscription and it runs out or you cancel it, you cannot print anymore even if you have ink left, they will disable your printing.

Did you vote for brexit by any chance?  It’s somewhat myopic to cancel a membership and then act all surprised when you no longer get the membership’s benefits.

Do you have a link to the epson you are using?

Epson XP55, I think it is discontinued now, I bought six or seven years ago when I was printing high resolution images regularly, I think cheaper ones can be bought and still get generic ink off eBay etc.

edit: I think the XP65 is the current equivalent

I’m another with an Epson who buys dodgy cartridges off eBay without issue. However, I had to buy an Epson branded cartridge a few weeks ago and the ink colour and colour match to what was on the laptop screen  was noticeably much better.

Cougar, I am still very much in the EU, thank you (not from UK).

The issue with not being able to print after sub ends is that you cannot even use the rest of the carts that you already paid for. Not at all the same thing. And HP scumminess is not restricted to just that, as you could easily find out if you read a bit on their printers. They also have had lots of other issues. Like printers refusing to print black and white when low on yellow, etc.

And just preventing refilling carts with DRM is simply stupid and environmentally irresponsible.

https://www.techspot.com/news/98844-hp-has-found-new-way-add-ink-cartridge.html

When HP is not bricking its printers with poorly-coded firmware that stays unpatched for weeks, the company is hard at work finding new ways to prevent its customers from using third-party ink for fear of leaving money on the table for other companies.

This behavior has landed HP in hot waters in Europe and the US, which is why last year it agreed to pay compensation totaling $1.35 million to customers who were impacted by its printer cartridge DRM shenanigans.

That last part is important because there’s no such thing as free in the printer industry. On paper, claiming the free ink means buying into a subscription service called HP+, which extends your printer’s warranty by one year, gives you access to the HP Smart app, and gives you bragging rights for helping the company protect the environment by planting trees for every page you print. Once the free period runs out, you can choose an appropriate payment plan best suited to your printing needs.

In reality, once the six months of free ink have passed you’re automatically locked into a subscription that draws you away from cheaper ink or toner and into the land of genuine HP supplies. This practice had gone unnoticed until this week when the International Imaging Technology Council (IITC) filed a complaint against the company over what it deems as improper use of the EPEAT label to promote its HP+ products as eco-friendly.

The EPEAT certification requires the products in question to allow the use of non-manufacturer and remanufactured cartridges. However, The Verge was able to confirm with ink distributors like CompAndSave that third-party manufacturers have yet to find a way to serve customers that bought an HP+ printer.

You can technically cancel your HP+ subscription, but you’d still be using the same firmware that blocks third-party cartridges. IITC says HP has issued several firmware updates over the past two months that are designed to strengthen the ink cartridge DRM. And the company clearly states in the Instant Ink terms and conditions that it reserves the right to perform remote monitoring of everything you’re doing with your printer, including what devices you use to initiate print jobs. It will also remotely patch the firmware on your printer without informing you ahead of time.

More importantly, disconnecting your HP+ printer from the Internet will disable the cartridges, and the only way to use your printer again is to buy “regular HP cartridges.” It’s like the online-only DRM that video game companies employ with technologies like Denuvo, with the added inconvenience of being charged for your HP+ subscription until you decide to cancel it. And the moment you cancel HP+, the associated cartridges are disabled.

Remote monitoring of your printing, silent firmware patching with no user approval etc. and blocking ink refilling and 3rd party carts and false advertising of eco certification and so on. Scummy.

I guess you would also like this – https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscriptions-microtransactions-heated-seats-feature

I guess you would also like this – https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/12/23204950/bmw-subscriptions-microtransactions-heated-seats-feature

Similar but different, I don’t like the idea of  paying for a feature on a car but:

Firstly, a car is already a very similar model. You pay for a piece of hardware, then end up paying through the nose to keep it going with fuel/ink.  A better specific example would be something like the PSA ELOYS system which mean you’re locked into buying their proprietary catalytic fluid for the life of the car.

Secondly, if I did pay for a heated seat subscription, yes I’d expect the seats to be turned off when I stopped paying.

The issue with not being able to print after sub ends is that you cannot even use the rest of the carts that you already paid for.

But you haven’t paid for the cartridges, you’ve enrolled into a subscription service.  You cancel the service, you no longer get that service, this isn’t complicated.  There’s a metric shit-ton of stuff still on Netflix but I couldn’t watch it after I cancelled my subscription.

What’s the alternative?  Subscribe to Instant Ink’s bottom tier service for whatever that is now, three quid?  Receive the cartridges, immediately cancel and then carry on printing merrily away until I need new carts several months later at which point I re-subscribe for the fifteen minutes it takes HP to pop them in the post and then cancel again?  Sure, that sounds like a viable business model.

Remote monitoring of your printing

So?  Who cares. This is tinfoil hat territory.

silent firmware patching with no user approval etc.

Good.  More of this sort of thing, users cannot be trusted.

and blocking ink refilling and 3rd party carts

This has been going on since the dawn of time across all inkjet manufacturers with – arguably perhaps – good reason.  Folk fill up their printer with whatever shite they’ve just drained out of a cartridge pen and then go running back to the store when it inevitably munches itself.

and false advertising of eco certification and so on. Scummy.

No idea what you’re referring to here, sorry.

I guess you would also like this

Irrelevant whataboutery.  If you could pop to ASDA to trivially replace non-subscription seats then you might have a point.

Look.  I’m not defending HP, I’m of the opinion that there’s a reason that HP split its consumer and enterprise arms.  Rather, I feel you’ve chosen a strange hill to die on.  HP Instant Ink is one of the better options amongst a bad bunch IMHO, inkjet ink is bastard expensive however you slice it because (corporate greed aside) it is shockingly complex stuff.  And if you don’t want to subscribe to it then don’t, just use regular cartridges.

It is fine really, you are free to like HP if that is your thing.

The EPEAT eco certification stuff was explained in the quote in my previous post above.

I was just pointing out the negatives that have some people looking at alternatives (like requiring an active internet connection to be able to print with HP+? Why?). I have been happy with Brother and it cost me about 50 euros and has worked for 6 years now, so under 10 euros per year for around 500 pages laser printing that I have needed during that time.

I did own one HP inkjet around early 2000s, but that was well before these subscription things. Only problem with that one was having to install a driver package of several hundred megabytes, bundled with unnecessary HP software center that could not be left out if all you wanted was the driver.

These days, I use Linux, and Brother works much better with that.

Sorry, ninja edits.

If I were to buy another printer tomorrow, would it be HP?  Maybe, maybe not.  I’d probably look to a laser, if I had the funds and the space.  I have no particular love for HP printers, but I’m looking at one right now and you haven’t owned one in twenty years.

Your driver grumble is a non sequitur, that’s a Linux issue and “several hundred megabytes” is sod all.  I remember NEC WinWriter drivers filling a CD thirty years ago.

The EPEAT eco certification stuff was explained in the quote in my previous post above.

Apologies, I missed that.  So there’s “been a complaint.”

Yeah, lets just call it a day. What grinds my gears here is mostly  the DRM and preventing refilling used cartridges, as that would be better for the environment and users. I do not like anything that prevents end users from fixing or maintaining their equipment, no matter if it is a tractor or a printer. Or a bicycle. It does not bring any value to anyone else but the corporation.

And not owning a HP printer does not make commenting on them invalid – I do have to deal with them at work, and do Windows maintenance for computer illiterate acquaintainces.

Because this kind of stuff is very tempting for other equipment manufacturers too – like for example a fridge water filter that could not be replaced with a generic one because DRM chips are used by the original manufacturer –

https://www.hackster.io/news/hacker-defeats-ge-refrigerator-drm-that-doesn-t-allow-third-party-water-filters-80e51cb86878

But that is on me really.

The issue with not being able to print after sub ends is that you cannot even use the rest of the carts that you already paid for.

I haven’t paid for the cartridges though, I’ve paid to print 15 pages a month. And at £.1.49/month struggle to get annoyed about this.

Previously I was spending about £50 for a set of cartridges at least every 12 months, sometimes more frequently if they’d decided to stop working properly.

This HP just sits there and quietly does its thing when needed. I think the printer itself was under £50 too.

What grinds my gears here is mostly  the DRM and preventing refilling used cartridges, as that would be better for the environment and users.

I don’t disagree.  But printer ink is weird stuff and, having been on the other side of the fence working in support, I can understand a manufacturer being reluctant to let people fill their printer with any old crap that takes their fancy and then come screaming back shouting about warranties when it all goes breasts skyward.  Yes, of course it’s a money-making racket, that’s corporates for you and it’s how they stay in business, but it’s not quite that simple.

You have consumer-grade HP inkjets at work?  Where do you work, the 1990s?

for example a fridge

More whataboutery.  We’re discussing printers, not fridges.

shouting about warranties when it all goes breasts skyward.

I didn’t start using unbranded ink until till well after any warranty ran out. Having said that I have not had any more  issues with the inks requiring head cleaning with them compared to the branded products- both require cleaning if left a long while between uses ( like months) . I have a cheap monochrome laser for day to day use but if I need a colour document it is often 20 odd pages full colour so expensive if using branded ones.

Fair.  I similarly never had any issues with third party ink, other than slightly off-coloured prints.

Wouldn’t want to support it though.

I work in bike shops, no they don’t have inkjets, but consumer grade laser printers from HP I have dealt with at work. Home users tend to have inkjets.

HP seems to be the only manufacturer with this drm chip fetish, many others can exist and turn a profit just fine without. It is a choice they made to go with vendor lock in and to sell printers perhaps at a loss and then recoup costs with ink. A bit like console makers of old – sell console at slight loss, recoup by marked up game prices.

And as the question that started this whole thread was “Or recommendations for printer brands that don’t lock you into their ink cartridge treadmills?”, my complaints re: HP are pretty on point.

We were given an HP printer for free and, entirely due to their naïve misconception that they were in control, promptly binned it and bought a Canon G4510 inktank that takes aftermarket ink costing £5.86 for 135ml. We will never buy an HP product and sincerely hope they crash and burn for being greedy barstewards.

is this an issue with a particular cartridge? or have you tried several cartridges and had them all rejected?

No, it’s on-and-off. Sometimes if I turn off the wifi it works, sometimes not, no knowing how it’s going to work. Maybe it’s just the printer failing.

I know I’m shouting at the wind but HP are a bag of shite and it honestly astounds me that people not only tolerate their anti-consumer policies but actually talk about them as if they are a good thing.

Hook,

Line,

Sinker.

Just wait till they bring the model to the UK where it is LITERALLY 15 pages per month you can print. Not 15 pages worth of ink, 15 actual pages. It’s real and it’s already happening. Oh you messed a page up? Tough shit, you’ll be wanting a higher tier to print more.

I was paying christ knows what for HP ink before and it would always dry up in no time flat, without fail. Absolute epitome of false economy.

Why bother with aftermarket when you can get HP subscription ink? Our printer came with 12 months free subscription too.

Yes, good idea, but I print rarely and then it’s usually parts of OS maps (from various apps) to go for hikes rather than carry a whole paper map. A sub makes no sense for my volumes. The printer is also well past any ‘bogoff’ deals.

Yes, good idea, but I print rarely and then it’s usually parts of OS maps (from various apps) to go for hikes rather than carry a whole paper map. A sub makes no sense for my volumes.

Actually for you a sub might be just what you need.  The problem with inkjets is that the ink dries in the nozzles so they have to do a cleaning cycle that uses quite a lot of ink.  If you print a lot that isn’t an issue but if you only print occasionally you will probably use more ink cleaning than printing.

But, I think the answer to your original question on how to get round the blocking is just to try another cartridge from a different third party manufacturer.  When I used to use 3rd party ink sometimes one wouldn’t work and that’s just how it was.  Changing it would usually work (I use a sub now as I find it cheaper and always works. ymmv)

Or just buy a second hand laser printer for buttons.

Just changed my mind on HP Instant Ink. Cartridge runs out, great got a brand new replacement cartridge ready to. But it won’t print, checked there was no tape on the head, restarted the printer, run various diagnostics, cleaned print heads, nothing. Trying to get hold of HP, next to impossible. Will cancelling my subscription and chucking the ruddy printer. Off to look at Epsons.

Trying to get hold of HP, next to impossible. Will cancelling my subscription and chucking the ruddy printer. Off to look at Epsons.

Try HP via Whatsapp.   I needed something sorted and that worked well.

Have you got HP Smart installed?

Cheers, I wouldn’t recommend Facebook messenger which was the route I took, useless. Got it sorted by myself in the end, the brand new cartridge has dried up, had to run it under a tap to clear all the nozzles, so much for hassle free subscription printing. In future I will be installing the new cartridges as soon as they arrive.