HP sparks fury after disabling printers if customers use ink from cheaper suppliers

Myrtle said:
My last HP printer is sitting here now. It's an ink hog and the worst thing is if you don't use it often the expensive ink dries up. I've been thinking a cheaper laser printer would be better for me. Some are priced at around $100 now.

Does anyone here have a laser printer for home use they would recommend?

https://www.popularmechanics.com/te...JCu79r9LauLKJshbIMdrazsomW871pXRoCOgoQAvD_BwE
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My HP Laser printer has been the best pc thing I have ever purchased, unlike the many others that have been totally useless, and do one very small print, then tell you that you are out of ink, then only use their own ink anyway. Have two new Epson printers in front of me now, and ink unopened waiting to go into the bin. They remind me of WW2 French rifles for sale, unused, dropped once.
 

hollydolly said:
Hewlett-Packard, or HP, have disabled the printers of customers who used ink cartridges from cheaper rival companies.

This sparked an outrage after they issued a 'firmware' update blocking customers from using cheaper, non-HP ink cartridges in their printers.

HP printers will now not work unless they are fitted with the approved ink cartridges after they were remotely updated.

If the cartridges are not fitted with a HP microchip, which are typically more expensive, the machine will refuse to print any documents.

HP ink cartridges can cost more than double the price of third-party offerings.

The printer company told the Telegraph it issued the update to reduce the risk of malware attacks, saying 'third-party cartridges that use non-HP chips or circuitry can pose risks to the hardware performance, print quality, and security.'

According to their website, the printer company also blocked the use of other ink cartridges in order to 'maintain the integrity of our printing systems, and protect our intellectual property'.

Before the update, HP printers would issue an alter to customers when they didn't use HP branded ink but now the machines will not work at all if they are used.

Many angry customers took to social media complaining about the update claiming they felt 'cheated' by the update.

Signing up for a HP ink subscription can set customers back by £4.49 a month to print 100 pages.

This subscription ranges from 99p for 10 pages per month to £22.40 for 700 pages.

It's unclear which printer models are or will be affected by this change in the future.

This is not the first time HP has outraged its customers by blocking the use of other ink cartridges.

The firm has been forced to pay out millions in compensation to customers in America, Australia and across Europe since it first introduced dynamic security measures back in 2016.
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What a bunch of white collar crooks! Glad I have a "Brother" Laser. My late wife had a HP printer. It was coloured because she looked printing photos. Over the years she spent a fortune buying those little ink jet cartridges. After she passed away and after the HP "gave up the ghost," I was glad to buy my present black and white Brother Laser.

Thanks for your comments. I shall keep away from miserable HP. I wonder if HP stands for "High Price" which would refer to the cost of their cartridges?
 
Printer ink was always the hook for printers. I had an early model Cannon color printer and was lucky to get 24-30 color copies or 70 or so black & white.

I notice alot of new HP printers offer a coupon for a free ink refill which means they probably realize their ink costs could be an issue. Especailly since these eco tank printers cameout.
 

I will have to look for the Canon grey scale setting. All I ever print is my daily crossword, black and white, but the printer still tells me it runs out of color ink.
 
I've used HP printers for years. I used non-HP print cartridges ONCE and never again. You get less quality, they smudge, so I only buy the HP cartridges. Plus they last much longer.
 
DebraMae said:
I will have to look for the Canon grey scale setting. All I ever print is my daily crossword, black and white, but the printer still tells me it runs out of color ink.
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I found the Canon black ink only setting and tried it, but I only printed black block style letters. Which it did very well. Not sure if it does shades of grey. I haven't tried it yet.
 
I now have a cheapo cannon combo bought on sale at christmas almost 2 years ago for about 34.00 before that I had a lexmark combo for ages and could no longer get ink.I had a HP computer (my first) and it did not last long at all.
 
These are what cost me $87.00, still a rip-off.
Despite the name, an XL cartridge is not any larger than a standard cartridge — it just contains more ink.
ink.jpg
 
SeniorBen said:
I bought a Brother printer, too. It won't stay connected to the WiFi, but other than that, it works good.

I don't care for HP products, although I am using an HP monitor, so it depends on the product.
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Why do want the WiFi to work are you printing from a distance or another device too?
 
JustDave said:
OK, now I'm going to turn on my printer (first time since I did my taxes in January) and look for that. I'm thinking my printer doesn't offer that. Although Grey Scale seems to do the job just fine.

la dee da dee da.....

Well, I'll be gotohell. There it is. But it's settings/maintenance/ink cartridge settings/. Our paths have crossed before. You seem to be the guy to talk to when searching for obscure deeply buried options in software.
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Thanks, Dave for your reply,I have discovered over the years there is always a way to fix anything, the secret if there is one Never give up!
 
kburra said:
Thanks, Dave for your reply,I have discovered over the years there is always a way to fix anything, the secret if there is one Never give up!
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I'm pretty tenacious about sleuthing computer problems when I have one, but the thing about all those Easter eggs hidden away in menus within menus, within menus is that I don't know they are there. Well, of course I know that there is plenty of stuff there that I don't know about or even need, but I just don't bother to look, unless I intuitively think that the answer I'm looking for is in one of those menus. The black ink only option was something I had no reason to believe was even something Cannon had thought of. All I've needed was a copy of something and when I discovered greyscale, I had basically solved my probem.
 
And talking of printers, often go to other people's places and they want to copy something on their printer, and they say hang on I'll just turn the computer on, well as you know? you don`t need the computer to be on when copying something, but if scanning something you do.
 
I have refused to buy HP printers since I bought my very first one - a Cannon - for which I could buy non Cannon ink. Supposedly they sell you the printer at an inexpensive price to get you to buy them and then make up the cost through the sale of ink at an astronomical price. I would never buy Hp anything. I have even been less than impressed with their computers. The one desktop I bought died when slightly over a year old.
 
kburra said:
Why do want the WiFi to work are you printing from a distance or another device too?
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I want the WiFi to work because it's a WiFi printer. And yes, I'm trying to print from another part of the house from where the printer is located.
 
SeniorBen said:
I want the WiFi to work because it's a WiFi printer. And yes, I'm trying to print from another part of the house from where the printer is located.
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So is it connected to the printer, and drops out, or you can't connect using the setup procedure, and what model is it?
 
kburra said:
So is it connected to the printer, and drops out, or you can't connect using the setup procedure, and what model is it?
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It connects to the WiFi but loses the connection, I guess when it goes into standby mode. It's a Brother printer. Some of the reviews said they had the same problem but I just figured they didn't know what they were doing. :ROFLMAO:

I hardly ever print anything so it's not that big of a problem, but it would be nice if it worked as it's supposed to. One of these days, I'm going to try to figure out what the problem is.
 
My Canon printer works fine with ASDA ink.....which is half the price of Canons.Hope HP don't give Canon ideas.
i buy ink once a year...need some now but I won't buy it until I actually need to print something.
 
Myrtle said:
My last HP printer is sitting here now. It's an ink hog and the worst thing is if you don't use it often the expensive ink dries up. I've been thinking a cheaper laser printer would be better for me. Some are priced at around $100 now.
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I had always bought HP inkjet printers because the print head is on the cartridge, and everything was simple. But, they were always Ink Hogs, and the Windows HP printer software wouldn't let you use the last bit of ink, citing 'concern' over print quality. :rolleyes: In Linux there wasn't a problem using up the ink, but it never seemed like I could print anywhere near the number of pages that the printer literature referenced.

Myrtle said:
Does anyone here have a laser printer for home use they would recommend?
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My Brother_HLL2395DW monochrome laser printer was a good buy, can print-copy-scan and function from a connected computer or take print commands over Wifi.
 
kburra said:
as you know? you don`t need the computer to be on when copying something, but if scanning something you do.
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I've never done either of those things, so I didn't know. My $39 printer doesn't copy or scan, so I've had no reason to know.
 
I have an Epson ET-2750 WiFi Ink tank color printer. It doesn't use any cartridges. You simply pour in the ink from bottles. The bottles last a very long time and are very cheap to begin with. The per page ink cost for my printer is essentially zero. I am very happy I bought this printer. In years past I have owned several HP printers. Thankfully, they are all now in printer heaven.
 
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I had an HP printer in the past and it was so maddening. It wouldn't even try to print black and white if any color was out. It refused to try to print when the ink cartridge was 'expired' even if it was just opened brand new. It would have been okay if maybe the old ink didn't work, but the printer wouldn't even try. Then the wireless connection stopped working and when I researched how to get it to connect again there were a ton of complicated steps. I looked on YouTube for a tutorial, and found one for my model, and the way they 'fixed' the connection issue was to throw the stupid printer out a second story window and have it smash up on the concrete below. It was the perfect fix in my opinion! I rarely print anything nowadays, and when I needed to print, I took the file to a shop (UPS store) that had a printer.
 
We had half a dozen Brother black only laser printers for our business. Inexpensive to purchase and run. We gave most away when we scaled down - as far as I know they're all still operational. The one in my office certainly is.

I buy off-brand laser cartridges and need to replace it less than once a year. I also have a (probably 10 year old) HP laser color printer, which can be wonky, but since I rarely need to use it, I cope with the wonkiness.

All externals (trackball, keyboard, printers) are connected to my desktop via USB and my desktop is connected to the router via an ethernet cable. My desktop's wifi is set to airplane mode.

Wouldn't go back to ink jet printers for a lot of reasons, including that when a page gets wet the ink runs. Not so with laser printers.
 
I stopped using my printer for anything more than a page or two, years ago. I just put the document on a flash drive, or mail it to myself. Then I go to our computer room and print it out there. 10 cents a page for black & while.
 

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