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from the time-bomb dept.
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"?
Related Stories
Submitted via IRC for Bytram.
Following a story that we reported a few days ago which covered how the latest software update issued by HP for its printers prevented them from working with other cartridges, HP have responded and promise another update to re-enable other ink cartridges. But HP is still defending its practice of preventing the use of non-HP ink and is making no promises about refraining from future software updates that force customers to use only official ink cartridges.
"We updated a cartridge authentication procedure in select models of HP office inkjet printers to ensure the best consumer experience and protect them from counterfeit and third-party ink cartridges that do not contain an original HP security chip and that infringe on our IP," the company said.
The recent firmware update for HP OfficeJet, OfficeJet Pro, and OfficeJet Pro X printers "included a dynamic security feature that prevented some untested third-party cartridges that use cloned security chips from working, even if they had previously functioned," HP said.
For customers who don't wish to be protected from the ability to buy less expensive ink cartridges, HP said it "will issue an optional firmware update that will remove the dynamic security feature. We expect the update to be ready within two weeks and will provide details here."
While I'm sure that we recognise that HP cannot guarantee the operation of any printer not using their own cartridges, how often are similar techniques used to lock-out fair competition? What are your experiences and views?.
(Score: 1) by fraxinus-tree on Monday September 19 2016, @11:15AM
so who really bothers buying them today?
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday September 19 2016, @12:11PM
The rot set in with the LaserJet 4. The III was the last good series of HP LaserJets. Those were the days, when the CPU in your printer was ten times as powerful as the one in your PC :-)
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday September 19 2016, @03:56PM
Those were the days, when the CPU in your printer was ten times as powerful as the one in your PC
And back in those days, the bottleneck with printing was CPU speed. I had a laser printer from that era that had a 50MHz MIPS processor and could just about get its rated print speed if you sent it PCL. If you sent it moderately complex PostScript then it would easily take upwards of 30 seconds per page. It took Adobe a long time to realise that a Turing complete language is a terrible idea for a printer. If you were lucky and had a nice fast print server, then the bottleneck often became the parallel port.
These days, a typical laptop (or even mobile phone) has so much more processing power than the printer (recent Brother printers come with 333MHz MIPS cores) and there's enough bandwidth available that you can send pre-rasterised images directly to the printer without causing a bottleneck (though it's still a good idea to send vector data where possible, so that it can perform dithering based on knowledge of the print mechanism).
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Interesting) by turgid on Monday September 19 2016, @04:02PM
I believe NetBSD was ported to at least one HP printer. Was it an i960-based one?
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday September 19 2016, @06:33PM
That was what I'd like to know. The first printer my parents bought was an HP Deskjet 500 and it lasted for many years. The last one we got failed because the mount for the ink cartridges was underengineered. Almost as if it was supposed to fail when you tried to put more ink in.
I won't be buying any HP printers after that. The company itself is a poor image of it's former self. The hardware used to be quite good back in the day.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @11:44AM
H-P should merge with Mylan. H-P customers could use the EpiPen technology to refill their ink cartridges, and their medical insurance would cover most of the expense.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @11:52AM
So, why aren't we calling this an attempt by HP to make their printers a safe space for HP ink cartridges?
That would be about as meaningful as interjecting the term into the story about online reviews.
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Monday September 19 2016, @12:03PM
HP customers who don't want to experience an issue like this again in the future may want to ...
... buy a nice Brother laserprinter multifunction device thats supported linux out of the box with no problems since the 90s and also supports ipv6 and basically "just works".
I mean, seriously, buying a HP product in the current year... what were you thinking?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @12:20PM
> and also supports ipv6
No. Do not want!
So tired of devices that know how to talk to the internet but have no fucking business talking to the internet.
(Score: 1) by t-3 on Monday September 19 2016, @01:12PM
To be fair, a printer is one thing that many people would actually want to be able to access over the internet. It's very convenient to be able to print without having to be in physical proximity to the printer, or even on the same local network.
(Score: 5, Funny) by driverless on Monday September 19 2016, @01:35PM
Oh, that's true, I love being able to access printers over the Internet. Now admittedly it does cause some awkward moments when I walk into the offices of some random company to pick up my 500-page printouts, but I blame them, if they didn't want their printers to be used as a public service they shouldn't have got Internet-enabled ones.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @05:32PM
For bonus points use the CEOs name somewhere.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Monday September 19 2016, @08:26PM
I have done neighbors a service by *accidentally* connecting to their open network when I inadvertantly had shut off my own wifi due to inherent stupidity I sometimes express when figuring out how something works, only to find a device connecting to a nearby open network because Windows was totally fine with connecting to foreign networks without asking first (this was on XP pre SP3 when the bulk of this occured)
To atone for that, I would connect to their printer and print out that they will want to set up a password.
It hasn't actually happened in a while (either I am less incapable or they are more savvy), but every SSID I connected to and found I was able to print... they set up a password after I dropped them a note about it.
Some people do not realize the problem until the friendly neighborhood spiderman (or network man or something) leaves a calling card explaining the reason for the visit.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aim on Monday September 19 2016, @01:18PM
Umm... does not compute. If you don't want it talking it outside your local network, keep the firewall (packet filter) shut, and that's it.
It's sure nice to be able to address such a device from several computers. If your network is IPv6 capable, or even already IPv6-only, that's a sure plus. I'm also quite sure you can disable it if you really don't want it at all.
If the device were trying to phone home to the manufacturer though, that'd be a (very) negative point [big high-volume printers that come with vendor support may be excepted - i hear those are moving back to ink rather than laser].
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @10:28PM
> Umm... does not compute. If you don't want it talking it outside your local network, keep the firewall (packet filter) shut, and that's it.
Yes, you must be a network admin if you want to use your hardware without worry that it will either rat you out or be a target for remote exploits.
That computes!!!
(Score: 1) by aim on Tuesday September 20 2016, @06:56AM
Umm... AC, you seem to be knowledgeable enough to know about privacy violations and worry about remote exploits, but you can't be bothered to see after firewall settings using the web gui of your router? That again does not compute. If you're that willfully ignorant, just connect your printer via USB to your computer, and be done with it. Oh, and please don't connect to Internet, just to be safe.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday September 22 2016, @02:18AM
What the hell brand of router are you buying that by default allows any and all inbound traffic??
Seriously...If such a company does exist I would like to know so I can avoid them at all costs...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @02:29PM
lrn2firewall, or stop using computers. i vote the latter.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday September 19 2016, @02:34PM
So you guys only buy parallel port (usb?) connected printers and then leave the print server accessible from the internet?
(I print from the internet, depending how you define "the internet" but notice there's an openvpn that tunnels the traffic for me, I have the usual stateful firewall everyone else has, I just don't have it do NAT on 6)
(Score: 2) by r1348 on Monday September 19 2016, @01:36PM
Any suggestion for a Brother all-in-one printer that:
- works out of the box in linux
- connects to a wireless network
- supports network printing and scanning
- has separate cartridges for each color
?
Both laser and ink models are fine, as long as the laser ones are not very bulky.
(Score: 4, Informative) by VLM on Monday September 19 2016, @02:39PM
OK here's the problem, back in '08 or '09 my MFC9840 was a nice machine.
Although its the size of a filing cabinet so you won't like it. I never used it wireless (why bother?). Other than that, yeah, it was pretty boring to set up and use on linux, separate cartridges etc.
The use counter is weird in that it counts any color print as one full page on all laser cartridges even if you only underline a couple words in red or have a small company logo in the letterhead. So you will get pretty used to googling and using the maint menu mode counter reset options for cartridges to trick it into printing until it can't print anymore. There's some weirdness with a reset lever that I barely remember and there's a visual window that I cover with electrical tape to get a couple more prints when its almost dead.
I don't know what they're shipping in '16. They can't have descended too far in less than a decade, can they?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @03:48PM
I have a MFC 9340 that I've been pretty happy with. I think I did need to install an additional RPM to use it from my linux boxes. IIRC correctly it supports wifi. although I have that off and just use ethernet. It will also do network scanning. I actually use the scan to ftp server option the most, but you can scan using several other methods.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by jmorris on Monday September 19 2016, @07:16PM
Not quite. I have never found a PPD that will reliably print to a Brother 'out of the box' as you say. But their software fixes that problem. Was slightly annoyed they didn't have a package for CentOS 6 (what? Enterprise users don't print?) but it wasn't hard to open up a package, get the goodies out and installed. Mostly Perl code and that 'just works.' Once that was rolled out to every workstation they could all print to the Brother MFPs reliably.
Good cheap printers with drum and toner sold individually and no DRM in sight. What isn't to love? The branded consumables are so cheap though, we still haven't even looked at the generics. That is why I always look for generics when evaluating a printer though, the mere availability of them keeps the price from the vendor from going crazy.
(Score: 1) by aim on Monday September 19 2016, @12:20PM
This comes as no surprise to anyone already following IT news since Carla Fiorina went about tanking the HP ship. I hear their laser printers still are at least somewhat reliable. Most people I know dumped inkjets ages ago.
Question though as I may have to replace my Samsung multifunction network-connected laser printer / copier / scanner / fax: what make / model might just do the trick, at a reasonable price, with Linux support?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @01:02PM
My Samsung CLP-10 printer came with linux support out of the box. Five years old and still working well.
If you were happy with your old Samsung, why not stick with the Samsung range?
(Score: 1) by aim on Monday September 19 2016, @01:26PM
Well, it depends - if tech service can get it (CLX-3175N, about 6 years old) back to working state (I couldn't) for a reasonable price, fine.
I they tell me it's not fixable or wouldn't be worth it, I may buy something else.
Now, recently there was news that Samsung is selling their printer division to HP... need I say more?
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday September 19 2016, @02:44PM
The problem is that HP just bought Samsung. How long until they get a similar update?
(Score: 4, Informative) by Kilo110 on Monday September 19 2016, @01:20PM
I love Brother printers.
They're great with driver support. Most (all?) of their printers have mac/win/linux support. Some even have Solaris drivers iirc.
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Monday September 19 2016, @04:00PM
Any recommendations? My mother 'borrowed' my printer a few years ago and I've been using the one at work, but have been considering a replacement. I'd like something that's fairly compact, cheap to operate (replacement toner not too expensive), colour, supports double-sided and network printing, and has a double-sided scanner with a reasonable sheet-feed mode and the ability to save PDFs.
My old printer was a Dell which managed to produce PDFs from its scanner that crashed every other model of printer I've tried sending them to and a couple of PDF readers.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 5, Informative) by inertnet on Monday September 19 2016, @12:23PM
It's cheaper to just recycle those HP printers and replace them with Brother printers. I moved from HP to Canon before, but they did a similar trick, all of a sudden the original print head wasn't accepted anymore. Both refused to enable the scanner whenever there was an ink shortage.
I switched to Brother and am happy with it. I doesn't call home as far as I can tell.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @05:32PM
I hate it when they artificially disable the scanner. I've had multiple printers from different brands where they disabled the scanner when the ink levels got too low. The only reason I can think of to do that is they are trying to force you to buy a new all-in-one printer, rather use that one just as a scanner alongside a cheap laser.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @06:01PM
My Canon did this but there is an override. I had to Google it, but there is something where you tell it to keep going despite the state of the print cartridge. Canon says you can damage the print head if it keeps trying to print with an empty cartridge.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @10:34PM
You may have to reread that. I said they disable the SCANNER when the ink gets low. Whatever that has to do with the state of printer ink is beyond me. And it isn't just Canon, but an Epson and HP did the same thing to me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 20 2016, @01:20AM
Nope, I think I misread yours, sorry for the misunderstanding. But either way, there is no business disabling the scanner due to low ink.
(Score: 2) by jimtheowl on Monday September 19 2016, @09:30PM
I'm using a Brother HL5470DW which was relatively inexpensive, has proven itself reliable, supports PostScript (which is *nix friendly) and duplex printing.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Monday September 19 2016, @10:25PM
I loathe ink jet printer manufacturers for the intentional crippling, programmed lies, and other dirty tricks they do to try to force users to spend more money. Like, no black and white printouts when out of colored ink. Chipped cartridges, too aggressive ink expiration dates, declaring that a cartridge is out of ink when it still has near 20% of the full amount, and excusing that as a safety measure to prevent damage to the print head, starter cartridges with a quarter of the ink a regular cartridge has, cleaning methods that waste lots of ink, and the certainty of clogging if you don't print often enough. I automatically doubt any message an ink jet printer tells me. But disabling the scanner part of an all-in-one is a new one on me.
I refuse to own or use an ink jet printer. Wish people would quit submitting to their bull.
(Score: 2, Touché) by sendafiolorkar on Monday September 19 2016, @12:42PM
don't buy hp printers
(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.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stretch611 on Monday September 19 2016, @03:26PM
I would wager that HP created the 6 month window to get its old product off the shelves.
Pretty despicable though.
As for why update firmware, the problem is that their printers are a device on your network like any other IOT device and can be hacked. Not applying updates can be a security nightmare.
But, yeah... never buy HP...
Not a Mega Millions Jackpot winner
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @03:32PM
For about 10 years I shelled out a few hundred dollars per year on inkjet cartridges, printing only 20-50 pages per year. Those frigging electronic fuses in the inkjet cartridge telling you the ink is low every few months is nothing but a sales gimmick, not to mention the ink is more expensive than the best street or prescription drugs. Tossed the inkjet in the trash and bought a laser printer. The starter cartridge lasted over a year. HP can shove those inkjets up their orifice.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Tuesday September 20 2016, @11:21AM
I have been given three almost brand new HP printers.
I took all three of 'em to Goodwill last week. Never even powered 'em up.
I took one look at 'em and saw HP. 'nuff said. More problem than they are worth.
I knew good and well when I saw the HP logo why they were given to me.
In my younger years, HP was a highly regarded company, however once they succumbed to modern management techniques, they became just as much of a whore as many, many, many other companies that have whored themselves out as well. It seems to me like this is a replay of Plato's Ulysses having to put wax in men's ears and tie them to the masts of the ship when passing the island of the sirens, being today its not the companionship of a lovely lady that's the motivator, its ill-gotten gains of a quick buck by creative swindling the customer.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @03:47PM
i wonder why all the comments seem to be rationalizations for why this shouldn't matter. "well you shouldn't buy an HP anyways", etc. Maybe it's to deflect responsibility for forcing HP to not be scumbags?
people who own these printers need to start a class action lawsuit. These stupid ass hardware manufacturers need to learn respect for their customers again. the only thing they respect is financial losses. Every time they use closed source firmware to crippled hardware or restrict it's use, or hide it's deficiencies sue their stupid asses. This is why manufacturers like closed firmware: so they can use it as a means of control. take that "benefit" away and one day you may get open firmware. Until then try not to enjoy your servitude too much.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @04:39PM
Also prior court battles is on their side. See Lexmark
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday September 19 2016, @07:00PM
A lot of this bullshit wouldn't continue if companies doing it weren't able to sell their products.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormreaver on Monday September 19 2016, @04:48PM
First off, I have no financial interest in Maroo, but am just a very happy customer.
I stopped using my Officejet 6500 some time ago, as the ink was atrociously expensive (I forgot what it was, but I'm thinking about $85 for a full replacement). Recently, though, I came across a third party producer of ink cartridges (Maroo). Replacing all four of my ink cartridges cost me a little over $9 (yes, nine dollars), so I ordered some out of curiosity. They are filled to capacity, so sometimes leak a little when first removing the nozzle cover, but that is where the deficiencies end. Print quality is excellent, and the cartridges are transparent.
The transparency is where things are interesting. The printer told me a few weeks ago that three of my four cartridges were critically low, and needed to be replaced. When I took the cartridges out, I could plainly see that they were still half full. So I put them back in, and continued printing. The printer is still telling me that the cartridges are empty, but I'm still printing from them at full quality.
So all those stories we read about inkjets lying about cartridge capacity are verifiably true with these cartridges.
When I first installed the cartridges, the print quality was so bad that I thought the cartridges were faulty. When I emailed tech support, they immediately offered to send replacement cartridges at no charge, and without even asking me a single question to verify my claim. They were even going to pay shipping. It turned out that the printer's heads were very dirty, and a few iterations of print head cleaning fixed the problem.
So now, the cost per page with my inkjet is so close to my laser, and the hit to my wallet is so insignificant, that I love my inkjet again.
Fortunately, I was not subject to HP's sabotage (I don't run Windows), so I can keep using my printer.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday September 19 2016, @08:27PM
This is the danger of non-free proprietary user-subjugating software: Even if it doesn't abuse you today, it could tomorrow. Users have no real control over the software, very little idea of what it does, and they are dependent upon the possibly malicious developers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @05:52AM
But I like my hubby beating me into pulp! I'm worth it!
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Tuesday September 20 2016, @03:41AM
I've been getting the notice that I need to upgrade the firmware every time we turn the printer on, pretty much ever since we bought it. I deliberately don't do it, and just hit cancel.
After all, the printer is working fine as is. What would a firmware update offer? I figured it would just be tighter integration with online services, more proprietary software tie-ins (I just use CUPS), etc.
Seems this was a good idea. Now I just need to firewall it off so it can never connect to the Internet again.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!