HP re-blocks unofficial ink cartridges

[OyaYansa]

A year ago we collected the controversial news in which HP began to block unofficial cartridges of many of its printers thanks to the publication of a firmware, which was released without warning of its consequences. Following criticism, and with more than 10,000 people organized around the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the company reversed and removed the circulation firmware by replacing it with another without this protection.

Now almost a year later they re-release another firmware without warning that seems to disable the unofficial ink cartridges of most of their OfficeJet series printers. Since ghacks ensure that a new firmware update for HP printers, specifically the OfficeJet line, has a new DRM protection against third-party cartridges.

After this update is installed, printers no longer recognize unofficial ink cartridges forcing the user to purchase HP branded ink cartridges to continue using the machine. Specifically the message error appears:

"One or more cartridges appear to be damaged. Remove them and replace with new cartridges. "

It seems that the error can be overcome if any of the printer's sockets are released and leaving only one of the cartridges on, but it is a way of getting by temporarily.

If you have been affected by this firmware and want to continue using your unofficial ink cartridges in the HP printer, you can reinstall a previous firmware and disable automatic firmware updates, even if you end up losing security support.