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Martin Brinkmann at gHacks reports
HP released a firmware update on March 12, 2016 for several of the company's Officejet printers that renders non-HP ink cartridges useless.
HP customers began to complain about the issue on September 13, 2016 on various online forums, the official HP forum, and on community sites like Reddit.
All reported that a HP Officejet printer blocked non-HP ink cartridges from working, and that the device displayed one of the following messages to the user:
Cartridge Problem.
The following ink cartridges appears to be missing or [damaged].
Replace the ink cartridges to resume printing.
[Continues...]
Cartridge Problem.
Until cartridges are replaced, make sure the printer is turned on to avoid damage to the printer.
One or more cartridges are missing or damaged.
The ink cartridge listed above is an older generation ink cartridge that does not work in your printer. It can still be used with some older printer models.
If you do not own an older printer model and your ink cartridge is a genuine HP cartridge, contract HP support for more information.
It appears that HP programmed the firmware update that it released in March to block non-HP ink cartridges from working starting September 13, 2016.
[...] HP customers affected by the issue cannot do much about it it appears. The printer won't accept non-HP ink cartridges anymore unless they are specifically designed for the new firmware.
[...] HP customers who don't want to experience an issue like this again in the future may want to disable firmware updates for their printer.
[...] The easiest option to do so is to wait for the next HP Update prompt to appear.
- Select Settings on the prompt.
- On the HP Update Settings page, switch to Never under "Check for software updates on the web".
Also, whenever a HP Update prompt is displayed, select Cancel to block the download and installation of the update.
So, what's the complement of "delayed gratification"?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by shipofgold on Monday September 19 2016, @12:47PM
Unless there is some deficiency I absolutely need fixed (ie. security flaw), or some feature that will benefit me greatly, all firmware updates on all products should be disabled.
If my printer prints as expected, why would I need a firmware update?
My experience with firmware updates, they tend to take things away more often than adding new cool stuff.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @02:33PM
Then the terrorists win. [nbcnews.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Hyperturtle on Monday September 19 2016, @03:05PM
Just like any auto-update.
And besides -- firmware updating can brick your hardware if there is the barest of glitches or instability. I make the decision after quaking over it for a while and coming to peace with life without the product in question. Even more so for core network gear and edge firewalls. Imagine if those received auto updates that were hijackable in transmission, or simply getting the solicitation for a hacked update and the wizard was set to accept them because Cloud and Convenience!
I wrote about the difficulties I had recently about updating the firmware on a hard drive. The fact that printers can lock you out of stuff because of convenience is completely on the opposite end of the spectrum. I still haven't figured out a good way to update the firmware on the disk drive and this requires figuring out a good way to block firmware updates from kicking off automatically per stand-alone unit... likely at the edge of the network to prevent accidents from happening when a new printer is purchased and when it first grabs a DHCP address if its put on a network where it can get one prior to configuration. It shouldn't so easy to make things so hard...
It was one thing to sell printers that checked for refills due to firmware already on the printer -- you end up finding that out if you don't do enough research first. For this to happen automatically... I hope they roll it back and get fined for the lost productivity and business of every person that couldn't print out contracts requiring a signature or other time sensitive stuff that required paperwork printed out, but couldn't, because HP needed to shake their customers pockets a little more first.
If this is permissible, it'll only open the door to other great things to be denied to us or sold to us slowly when IoT really takes off. I'm sorry, this universal remote is no longer compatible and will only allow you to automatically visit the official TV and Cable Company Cooperative ordering page to get a fresh, secure, and certified TV or other physically seperate remote control for each and every one of your devices. *Get one today!
*compatibility not guaranteed, seperate purchase(s) required with an active 24x7 internet connection, not transferable between products.
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Monday September 19 2016, @09:30PM
If my printer prints as expected, why would I need a firmware update?
That is a very big if for HP. Their software is the worst that can be expected, or possibly worse than that.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday September 20 2016, @10:22AM
OtherOS all over again.