How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

Fun story. I had a printer for a while, and then I just didn't after university. I don't print anything anymore. To no loss at all. It's either on my phone or I write things with a pen.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#5

Post by krzyk » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:56 AM UTC

Is it ink cartridge or toner cartridge? The post is about LaserJet

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#6

Post by ilikejam » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:57 AM UTC

HP printers do in-band firmware updates via print jobs?

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#7

Post by mschuster91 » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 11:58 AM UTC

Oh, HP and their black magic "prints". Back when I had to restore a Z2100 plotter for my employer, I found out that all the "clean printhead", "print test plots" and other commands - including when you launch them from the printer buttons instead from the web interface - are just ordinary print jobs under the hood.

If you ask me, this is one huge security hole waiting to be exploited.

And if anyone ever wants to play around with the Z2100 or the formatter (HP50XI/SCR or HP50XISCR)... they're x86 Linux based!

Reboot the printer in Service mode, navigate to "Service Utility", then "Enable/Disable Firewall" and upon a reboot you get a SSH root shell. Kill all processes, sync the disk, and dd it out to your computer, as the laptop PATA disk on the formatter is encrypted. If you're afraid of the PATA disk ever failing, take a CF card, a CF to 2.5in mini IDE adapter, dd the image from the previos step and replace the old disk.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#8

Post by netflixandkill » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 12:02 PM UTC

gonzo41 wrote: post #4

How is this not something akin to an anti-trust issue? Fun story. I had a printer for a while, and then I just didn't after university. I don't print anything anymore. To no loss at all. It's either on my phone or I write things with a pen.

I'm sure some clever executive figured out they'd increase revenue enough before they were hit by a regulator or lawsuit to more than cover the subsequent apologies and announcement of their new firmware that loves free markets and customers SO MUCH that it accepts other cartridges again (but HP can't guarantee quality! So sad!).

I generally print things on the order of single digit pages per year, but some people do things like print PDFs to read them or still live in fax land, etc. E-ink is making some inroads, but a fair portion of the population does like text on something physical and highlightable and pen-markable.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#9

Post by alpanka » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 12:05 PM UTC

A VP at HP once told me they make 3/4 of their profits from selling inks (I am sure he exaggerated but still).

You can buy original laserjet cartridges for $150 or third party cartridges for $40-60 (or $25 if you are happy with noname Chinese cartridges). So there is big money involved.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#10

Post by a012 » Tue, Nov 10, 2020, 12:06 PM UTC

Most of printer drivers are BS. I also bought a printer after lockdown, and had to spent hours to do research on the printer model that's interested me: Mac & linux compatible. The result is Brother is the most reliable and less BS than the rest printers. In the end, I bought a wireless Brother printer, and you can throw whatever cartridge in to it.