Supply Expired - HP Printer Ink Expiration Scam
We own an HP 7100 Deskjet printer and recently when trying to print, I received a “supply expired” message for my nearly new Type 14 color ink smart cartridge.
Due to some apparent faulty thinking in the HP engineering department, they decided that they would protect consumers from bad ink damaging the printer mechanism. The cartridges have a built in expiration mechansim that consists of a tiny microchip on the back of the cartridge.
Ok, so why can’t you simply set the date back a few months? Well, I tried that but it still did not work. The cartridge was still 62% full but totally unusable, what a crock! There have been hacks for third party refill cartridges, but some may or may not work for you.
It’s bad enough that you pay nearly $40 for a so called smart ink cartridge, but then to have them expire the ink on you really bites the big one.
Since when did a consumer product give a damn whether or not the item broke? It’s obvious the REAL reason is that they don’t want you to use the “black & white” setting or “draft mode” to conserve ink. If you conserve ink, then you’re not buying ink, or not enough ink to suit their sales goals. I would probably not buy another HP for this reason alone. So, when you are shopping for a new printer, check with the salesman or customer reviews to be sure the ink cartridges do NOT expire. Ooops! My customer loyalty to HP just expired!
August 24th, 2007 at 4:23 am
Thank you for at least giving me a logical explanation! Exactly the same thing happened to me - I have an HP officejet d145 & an HP officejet d135. Sick of paying exhorbitant prices for HP cartridges I started to source recycled cartridges online & low and behold both printers have stopped working & display ’supply expired - replace cartridges’ messages. I have replaced the cartridges 3 times & now the print heads but still the same message. Looks like HP have found a way to force people to stick with HP original cartridges. Unbelievable in this day and age that any organisation thinks they can treat their customers with such contempt & keep them - I too will never buy from HP again.
January 28th, 2008 at 12:13 am
THE REAL BAD THING IS THAT IT HAPPENED TO ME WITH TOTALLY ORIGINAL INK CARTRIDGES. I BOUGHT 6 COLOUR & BLACK 2 OR 3 YEARS AGO, THEY ARE FULL AND NOT DRYED OUT BUT I ALSO HAVE THE SAME MESSAGE. PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM HP UNTIL THEY HAVE NOT CLEARED THIS OUT.
February 10th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Like everything, there is a way to get around the problem if you’re willing to look around a bit. Go to
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/inkjet/26847
and the find the solution I found in January 2008. Short version of all the posts there:
Ger around the expired battery issue by taking out the button batter for about an hour. Do this either by removing the battery, as explained in
http://www.land.netonecom.net/tlp/ref/letters/hpPrinters.php
Or simply putting a non-conductive material (the posts pretty much agree on a business card folded lengthwise) between the battery and the retaining clip.
Latter parts of the thread have folks not returning the battery or removing the card and *not* affecting printer operation.
Check it out.
Dennis in Ohio
February 10th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Oops, I forgot to note that I have an HP d145 which I inherited from my uncle. The “remove battery” trick lets me use the huge stack of black cartridges he left behind. Of course, all of them were expired.
My uncle was an amateur photographer who printed his own greeting cards. So, he’s found it cheaper to buy the color-black cartridge combo packs (I believe they were two color and one black per pack) than buy just the color carts needed.
Right now I’m using a cart that expired in 2002!
Dennis, still in Ohio
March 9th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Yes, I just found out that my Laserjet toner cartridges (4 color) all expired at the same time. Evidently the black is on a different “tracking” system. Cartridge World told me that HP puts a chip in the toner cartridges that count your number of pages. When you reach the limit, it cuts off. Cartridge World also stated that they have changed plenty of cartridges that were 1/2 full of toner! What a scam by HP. This should be illegal and a lawsuit should be brought on any company that would steal from its customers in this manner. Basically HP and other companies are telling US what we are going to pay per page for prints.