How to reset HP ink cartridge expiration DRM
There is a (so far) minor publicity and legal storm surrounding the fact that HP ink cartridge have a feature which enforces an expiration date for the cartridge. Aside from bad publicity and user frustration, there has also been some legal action recently drawing additional attention to the issue.
In the meantime, there are methods for working around these features for now.
(via boingboing)
… two ways to fix the problem that presumably work are easily found online: …
1) Remove and reinsert the battery of the printer’s memory chip
..
2) Preemptive: Change the parameters of the printer driver
In the broader view, there’s an interesting problem here. HP and others make a healthy margin on ink cartridges. There are some legitimate reasons for encouraging users to use fresh cartridges, but virtually no user benefit from having this enforced for them. Perhaps a shareware-style “nag screen” reminding people that their cartridge were out of date every time they printed something would be perceived as somewhere between annoying-but-tolerable to actually appreciated.
In my personal experience with my reliable HP OfficeJet G95, I find myself wishing I knew exactly when the ink was actually going to run out (so I can safely start printing a long, colorful document), but I am also quite happy to leave the cartridges in place when the low ink warning goes on, since I find I can print and copy dozens of pages before it starts streaking, and many more usable pages for “draft” quality output if I put up with modest banding and streaking in the output. I also find a stray ink cartridge in a cabinet or storage drawer from time to time which has aged beyond its official expiration date, and am happy to use it, with no ill effect. It would be annoying if the cartridge simply refused to work, which is what appears to be happening to customers with more recent products than the ones I have.
There is substantial IP in the actual ink cartridges themselves, so they’re in no immediate danger of being cloned and commoditized. At the same time, the printer market is maturing enough that more players are able to print “good enough” vs “really good” or “excellent” output without investing as heavily as HP, resulting in a lower unit cost and cost per print.
So consumers, SMEs, and corporate purchasers have more choices than they used to, and some of them are starting to ask: What benefit does an expiration chip have to the user?
Tags: none
February 26th, 2006 at 10:23 pm
is it common for Hp #27 or #28.
I have this models at home.
in other words, should I reset my printer after each new catridge or refill?
February 26th, 2006 at 10:30 pm
You shouldn’t need to reset the cartridge if it’s new. The chip is intended to limit the shelf life of the cartridge. The most common reason to have an expired chip would be if you bought a supply of several cartridges, expecting that they would last for years.
March 23rd, 2006 at 8:06 am
I used the Epson Resetter to reset the No. 56 and 57 cartridges on my hp psc 2175xi all-in-one printer as follows:
1. hold the cartridge with the metal contacts facing you.
2. Angle the resetter son that its row of four metal is facing southwest to northeast over the the metal columns
on the right.
3. Slightly move the resetter up or down until it starts to blink red. Let it blinkfor a few seconds or until it glows steady red.
4. Now, move the resetter to cover the leftmost two
columns, again at an angle southwest to northeast.
5. Repeat No. 3 above.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 as insurance.
When the cartrideges were re-installed in the printer, the printer “re-initialized”. Sometimes it was necessary to shut the printer on/off and press ENTER.
How/why this works I don’t know. But it worked for me.
I was curious to know if the Epson Cartridge resetter could have an effect on my HP printer.
Goo luck re-setting!
Kennyboy
May 17th, 2006 at 4:58 am
Kenneth, did you use the epson chip resetter to reset your 56 and 57 HP cartridges
Cheers
Wal
May 20th, 2006 at 10:32 am
Ken,
What specific model of Epson chip resetter are we talking about ?
Thanks !
Bob
June 4th, 2006 at 4:58 pm
[…] I don’t currently have this problem, but you may also be interested in resetting the HP cartridge DRM. […]
August 20th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
I’d heard of this in passing, and now my Mom’s printer is unuseable unless we pay ransom to H-P. My sister gave her the printer, along with several “spare” cartridges, over a year ago, and now all the cartridges have expired. The black cartridge ran out a few days ago, and now the new one just sits there with the LCD display blinking mockingly. Not pleased. Not pleased at all. Will be looking at laser printers, and letting everyone I know that H-P is engaging in forced, rather than planned, obsolescence.
August 21st, 2006 at 3:04 am
Thanks for posting this!
Problem: “[COLOR] INK CARTRIDGE EXPIRED” is resolved with removing and reinserting the battery of the printer’s memory chip for HP cp1700 model.
Agris
August 31st, 2006 at 9:43 am
We have 2 HP cp1700 printers, and we are struggling with this same problem. We have the back of the printer opened, but we can’t see where the battery is located. We have pictures from the link above that describes removing and reinserting the battery, but it doesn’t look the same.
Can someone with an HP cp1700 help to describe what it looks like?
Melissa
October 26th, 2006 at 11:00 am
I have an hp2550 color laser printer and I hardly ever print color, but as we all know they expire.
1. How does one reset these cartidges, do I need to obtain a resetter device?
2. How does one remove and replace the battery on an hp2550 color laserjet
November 19th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Thanks for the helpful links. I just removed the battery from my four year old HP CP1700 printer after a high capacity cartridge that expired in february stopped being accepted. Needless to say the cartridge is still over half full. The battery was hard to access,(half hidden, off to the left when top access cover is opened.) but with a little effort it was removed. The printer seems to be working flawlessy without it. I’m wondering if I should even bother reinstalling it. Any thoughts?
November 30th, 2006 at 6:42 am
My Epson stylus photo r245 just appeared to say my colour cartridges all ran out simultaneously after I passed the printer through a black page print a few times!
These cartridges always run out simultaneously and it wont print all black print jobs with only black ink left!
-
I will seek non DRM’d printers in future, china here we all come, I need epson and HP like I need a zune or ipod.
I’ve worked in IT for over 10 years and I will take my opinion of the oligopolistic idiots to everyone I work with…
December 10th, 2006 at 10:37 am
I figured out the hp cp1700 ink issue tell me where to post it. Rather than not email 50 times.
Keith
December 12th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Thanks for putting this on a web site - I have been cursing HP for a few days now since putting in an unused HP cartidge. Somehow we must have had it for years, or the shop I bought it from maybe was selling them off cheap and I just thought I was getting a good deal (yes, I know, naive). I have just taken the battery out of my HP d135 (surgical instruments required) and it now prints. Great! Many thanks.
Alice
December 20th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
I have HP printers Hp psc 1350 and HP deskjet 3745.
I’ve already onpened the deskjet but I couldnt locate the batt.. any body who already reset their printer with such specific model? pls. help…. also with Hp psc 1350….
December 23rd, 2006 at 4:54 pm
I seached and search. I removed my battery and left it off! I Have a HP CP1700. It’s on the left hand side of the printer. I didn’t remove the cover at all!. You can see it with the top lid open and on the printer side. Take a flat head screw driver and carefully push the battery away from the grip. You can also do this with your finger is they are thin.
I did not reinstall the batter. I replugged the printer, ( I did not wait 1 hour) tops 10 min while i removed the battery and left the ink all out. Once the printer started, i pushed all the inks back in and closed the lid and it works!.
If it stops, i’ll repost but I have to black ink catridges I’m not letting go to waiste. My next step was to ebay the printer and go with Epson! but I lucked out so far.
Thaks for the tip about the battery who ever posted it before.
Bori
December 28th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
Anyone wanting a quick easy and free fix for 1350 or No 56 - 57 ink cartridge reset can mail me at ( scoobywoo8254@hotmail.com ).
January 14th, 2007 at 6:54 am
It just dawned on me that we are being ripped off.We
buy printers and/or cartridges at hefty prices,take them home and the companies controll them.No way.I am going to throw out my HP 3920.I have three cartridges full of ink and the printer tells me that they are empty and refuses to print.I am going to shop around for another one(No Epson or Lexmark!!!)or even unshelve my old black ribbon printer which worked just fine.GOOD BYE HP!you are not ever again earn another penny from me.I do not need you.
January 20th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
I have sent the free and easy fix for no 56 and 57 cartridge to over 30 people and asked them to reply back and let me know if the fix works for them, Not one person could be bothered to reply. Because of this i am now thinking, ” why should i care ” and will no longer waste my time sending the fix out.
February 1st, 2007 at 3:29 pm
I wrote the original email about the HP 10 cartridges on HP 2000 and 2500 printers. I am still using the cartridges I installed before the posting. I am no longer using HP drivers. I switched from NT to 2000 and used the Microsoft provided drivers which do not expire cartridges or burn dates into them. The only problem is that the ink level doesn’t work. I learned something in the mean time. As you empty and refill these cartridges, some air gets into the printhead. Eventually all the ink in the printhead is replaced by air and the printer says they failed and must be replaced. This can be fixed by forcing ink back into the printhead, which is a tiny cartridge, through the supply tube with the nozzles pointing up so the air can escape. The trick is sealing the connection to keep it pressurized while the ink flows into the printhead. Now I am looking for HP 95/96/97 etc. solutions. I haven’t looked for a battery but with the low price of flash memory, look for HP to switch to flash so the battery removal trick will no longer work either.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:18 am
HP limits the shelf life of its ink cartridges to protect itself (from claims, litigation). It does nothing for consumers.
March 24th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
I have a second hand HP Designjet 100. I bought a set of refillable ink tanks with auto resetter chips Black HP10 & CMY HP11 which my printer does not recognise. As they came without instructins and the vendor on ebay has not gotten back to me after a couple of attempts I am seeking help with their use. I hope there is a trick I do not know about and have not just been ripped off.
regards,
Gary
April 26th, 2007 at 3:09 pm
I have a HP Designjet 30 which I bought new in June 2004. The vendor did not inform me about expiring cartridges and I could not find anything about it in the sales broschure or on the web either. I just told the salesman that I did not want to buy any of that chipped c**p that Epson was already “famous” for at the time. I wanted to try this one out step by step and did not rush things by printing a lot of pictures at the time. Surprise, surprise when in March 2006 the printer suddenly started to flash on the front display that the yellow printhead needed attention. Mind you,the front panel showed that all cartridges were full!! In the manual there was nothing about any expiration date, only a silly note about cleaning the contacts etc. Of course, it did not help to clean the contacts, so I phoned the local HP head office. That was the first time I heard anything about the expiration dates of ink cartridges and print heads and I immediately understood that as soon as I change that print head, the rest of the heads and cartridges will flash on the front panel one after the other. So I told him that I felt totally ripped off and refuse to buy new printheads and cartridges just because I have not used the printer much. It is up to the user to judge when he needs to buy new parts by judging any degrading print result. HP has lied and been hiding critical information about this so that I should be “hooked”. No more HP,s for me!!! Has anyone hacked either the HP DJ30 printer or the printheads or the ink cartridges in order to use them for a “real” lifetime. Any info wold be highly appreciated.
Best Regards, Peter
May 30th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Good morning everyone. I have an HP Phtosmart 8250.When my cartridges run out of ink, I refill as necessary, but of course, the printer then does not tell me how much ink is in each cartridge. I have not found an ink level resetter for my printer, does anyone know how to resolve this irritating matter. One hears of removing the battery from the printer, and not re-installing it, then the ink noifier allegedly works - is this so, does the Photosmart 8250 also have a battery and is there any adverse effet by removing the battery. Would appreciate any help
July 24th, 2007 at 4:10 am
Thanks Todd for the Battery trick. I have HP 5510 All-in-One and WOW it worked like a charm. Although it was very hard to break the battery connection as it was sealed (not soldered) from top and bottom. It had 2 1.5v batteries wrapped in a cover to give a look like a condenser (small mounted cylinders on the circuit board) but if you look closely you will see the + and - sign and yes it is the battery. I just cut the top connection of the batter and connect both the points after cutting with a little thin wire so it can easily come out of the printer from the paper feed tray and join them to make. Now, whenever I’ll have the problem I’ll split the joint in those wires and join them again.
I had an expired (and refilled) 56 black cartridge and now it is working back again.
I posted all my experience from whatever I got from the top comments and hope you can also workaround through this trick.
September 1st, 2007 at 4:09 am
i have te same problem as you all. i wanted to reset the printer memory but i did not found the battery. i have some skils in electronics and electricity but i could not found it eaven i slitetd the printer in pieces. so it it a t45 office jet from hp. does somebody know how can i reset it?
September 19th, 2007 at 7:02 am
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS TIP! I took out the battery on my D135 which was exactly wher eyou said it owuld be and everything works fine now! It’s just a shame that I had already replaced a cartridge before getting here.
September 28th, 2007 at 10:18 am
any idea if there’s still a battery in HP Deskjet 3920. i try to open the cover and found nothing.
October 10th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
can somebody tell me how to reset the refilled cartridge on my Hp C4180, I found info for anything else but my model.
Thanks,
October 11th, 2007 at 4:06 pm
anyone find out how to reset the ink level for printers with the hp 96 and 97 cartridges? if so please email me bombsox@comcast.net
October 31st, 2007 at 1:38 pm
have a HP business inkjet 1100d with HP#10 & 11 inkcartridges.
Tried everything (resetting cartridges, changing deviceiocontrol error=0000 in hpbj1100.ini, changing date of computer,looking for a battery but did not find one) and still it doesn’t work.
It used to work like a charm up to a few days ago when the cartridges suddenly expired (in the toolbox list only one in wrong, but three lights are set on the printer).
Is there stille somthing I can do ? Who can help me?
please mail gubo@wanadoo.nl
November 5th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
If you have an HP 8250 and cannot find the battery….here are some step by step instructions nthat may be of help.
Go to: http://hpphotosmart8250.blogspot.com/
December 17th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
HP d125 / d135. I lifted the finger from the battery and inserted a small piece of paper. Presto, the printer works fine. I suspect it would be well to throw the battery away at some point since these batteries do in time leak. The battery is located on the left side low and very close to the front. I had to release the hinges that support the top to see the battery well enough to insert the paper. You can see the battery if you look into the printer with the lid open, from the right side near the rear looking toward the left side, low near the bottom.
January 10th, 2008 at 5:54 pm
I have an HP Officejet 6310 all-in-one and cannot find the battery. Any ideas how to access it? My cartridge has expired.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I was lucky. All I had to do is reset the date on my pc to a prior year on the #11 cartridge, reboot and then plug in the printer and the experiation warning did not come back. Happy Printing.
February 20th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I removed the battery in a HP 8250 and it still will not print. I tried it with and without the battery,no luck. Anyone know what I am doing wrong?
lurpin@peak.org
February 27th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
February 28th, 2008
Urgently required to know
I have an hp psc 1200 series (1219) all-in-one printer
Does anyone know where the battery is located and how to get at it?
How do I reset ink cartridge #56, & #57
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:47 am
Thanks Jhon Lee …. God Bless You …..
March 5th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Designjet 5500 …
Does anyone know how to find the battery or reset the expiration on ink for this plotter?
Thanks
March 18th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I have a HP photosmart 2710 with 95 ink cartridges. I refilled them with the off the shelf ink kits from office depot and they worked for a day or so and then it comes up to replace the cartridges. I have looked everywhere for a solution to reset the cartridges and even the battery on board. Opened the case and couldnt find the battery. Any suggestions out there to how i can get this to work? Thanks for Looking!!
April 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Ye Gods! I`ve just bought an HP Photosmart 5280.Works ok,does all it sez on the packet,but…ink price cost must affect the National Budget,so much English £££ are going to abroad to HP!My old Epson 810 had the Intellidge cartridge chip intended to screw me by not letting me refill the carts,but I screwed Epson by finding a utility called SSCserve,(Google for it).This utility reset the chip in software after refilling,simple.Am trying to find a similar utility for the HP,let you all know if I find one.Cheap carts can be found at www.digitalpromo.co.uk all they are all high capacity. Might try the battery trick after the guarantee runs out…
May 1st, 2008 at 11:12 am
Hmmm…Searched around the net,but no one has yet cracked refilling/resetting the 350ee/351ee/348 type carts for the Photosmart 5280,or at least have a simple solution.As it appears the printer only holds 2 cart serial nos in its memory,(and as its under warranty I`m not removing batteries),it would seem to me that if you use three carts,(expensive I know),and number them,by the time you change the 3rd cart,the first one`s serial no. has dropped from its memory.You can then refill the first, and use it when the 3rd cart is exhausted,since the serial no is no longer in memory!Unless HP do the dirty,and use flash memory to hold all your carts serials….b*****ds.I haven`t tried it yet,let me know if it works,its only my theory,but will try it as soon as my carts run dry.Seems to me it might work on most HP printers,without major surgery…The expiration date problem I will try with my Epson resetter..thanks!
May 9th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
For those of you who have researched this BEFORE installing any new or replacement cartridges, I think I’ve got a method to let you use those first cartridges for the life of the printer. (Untested….pure theory at this point.)
BEFORE INSTALLING THE INK CARTRIDGES, you want to do the following:
1. Set your PC clock ahead 10 or 20 years.
2. Reboot both PC and printer.
3. Install new cartridges.
4. Start using printer.
5. Set your PC clock back to the correct date.
My theory is that this should register the install date for those particular cartridges (in the printer memory) as 10 or 20 years in the future. If the printer is programmed to “expire” cartridges after a certain period of time (say, one year), the expiration won’t occur on your new cartridges until 11 or 21 years later.
You should be able to refill the existing cartridges indefinitely, throughout the life of at least the cartridge, if not the life of the printer itself.
Again, this is pure conjecture at this point. It relies on the people at HP not foreseeing this problem, or snidely thinking that we, as consumers, are too stupid to think of this solution. I will test out my theory when I get my new HP Officejet 5610 delivered soon. I will post back here when I know if it works. Wish me luck. It will save us all a lot of BS if it works.
June 4th, 2008 at 6:33 am
I just bought and brought back a HP Photosmart C4280 All-in-one printer and some spare cartridge from the States. I am just wondering if anyone out there can tell me how to reset the HP74 and HP75 ink cartridges after I refill them? Refilling them is easy, getting them to work again in the printer is not.
(
Thank you in advance for your hints.
June 14th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Help! Does anyone know how to reset/override the sudden rejection of HP ink for #92 and 93 cartridges?
I think it happens when it has reached near the exp. date, but the cartridge (currently the black #92) is fairly new but still much ink. This has happened numerous times. My printer is the HP PSC 1510xi - which works GREAT except for the ink thing. I have tried applying the info for the #56 or 57 cartridges (look the same) except the electrical contacts are a little different.
Thank you to anyone who can help!
June 26th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Dear sirs:
Does the 8250 has a batery to reset it??
thanks
July 1st, 2008 at 2:02 pm
I tried this from inkitsales.com and low and behold it printed a few pages Ink cartirdges hp #10 and #11
TO RESET the chip in the cartridge follow this procedure:
Step 1: Using normal tape cover the the black bulb in the center of the bottom of the cartridge( located on the mylar bag).
Step 2: Give a little bit of a sag (dimple the tape into the cartridge a little ) this should fool the printer into thinking this is a new cartridge.
Step 3: Reset the cartridge. Or install as if it were a new cartridge
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:16 am
The cartridge are also incompatible (DIFFERENT IDs) between countries. although they are the same . this is a real scam
as they are in fact the exact same thing.
I bought a printer in Canada C3100 series and brought it to Japan only to find out I could not use the Local cartridges and could not buy the North American #92 black cartridge here either .
Has anyone found a way to write to the cartridge from the printer ? or is it not at all possible ?
August 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am
To reset HP officejet 6310 cartridges:
1) from front panel press *# simultaneously follow by 3,2,9.
2)press right arrow until Special Report displays then press OK.
3) press right arrow until Print Cartridge displays then press OK —then print (it’s best to press print before above steps - then before report page is printed - press cancel - you’ll just get a blank page after your print job is finished.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:07 am
In step 49 above:
You have to do these steps prior to every time you print.
It takes a little more time to print - but it does work..
This will cancel the printing/cartridge error - allowing printing that one job.
How about Mister Sym (step 43) above - did you get a chance to check out your theory yet? please let us know..
August 20th, 2008 at 2:59 am
I cannot find the battery in my Hp 5510. Can anyone help me?
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I also need help finding the battery for my 5510, and also, how to take some of those screws out!!! We’ve tried to find some schematic drawings, but so far, cannot. We can’t seem to find a hex key to fit some of them. We were wondering if that is another of HP’s ways of controlling how we depend on buying new models instead of fixing them! Thanks for the help!!!
August 24th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Hi everyone HP Cartridge expiration problem solved
Model : HP Business Inkjet 1000 series
Problem : Cartridge Expired
Solution : Normally you can’t override cartridge expiration date problem but you can hack and overcome from the problem. As per the documents from the web saying this model can remember up to 3 cartridge of one particular colour. Normally each cartridge will expired within 2 1/2 years.
Mine also expired. To disable the link level feedback to system you have to unplug some cables inside of the printer. So you have to search web for that. I was also refilled the cartridge and reuse it upto 2 1/2 years. After that my 4 ink cartridges were expired and refuse to print even the ink levels were good.
How to overcome this problem. HP the International company’s cartridge protection technology having some loop hole in their protection. They want more business than what they are selling. They don’t like people refill and use their cartridge. They want to force the user to buy new cartridge get more profit.
Normally the each cartridges portion in the printer recognize and memorize the chip bottom of the each cartridge. For example the black cartridge part the printer recognize the chip fixed bottom inside the black cartridge. It won’t check or memorize the other color cartridge chips.
I just removed the chip of the black using a nice blade and swap the chip of the pink (double side glue is used to paste the cartridge chip. You have to very carefully do this. Otherwise chip will damage). Do the same trick to other two cartridge. After you swap note down which cartridges you swaped and keep it in safe place. Later it is useful to swap it again. Better swap (1 and 2) (3 and 4). At least you can swap and use the cartridge for 10 years.
Other model of Business inkjet you have to try it yourself. It may work. Best of luck.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
Bethann, I found the battery in my 5510 after posting. If you take a small mirror and a flashlight you will be able to see it. Unplug the power cord. Hold the mirror inside the front where the ink cartridges are and point the light and mirror so you can see behind the front left panel, looking toward the bottom. You will see red and black twisted wires. Right next to where they attach the battery is soldered to connectors on the board. I reached in and pulled on the battery with a finger and just got it to move a little bit, then pushed it back. Repeated tries eventually broke one of the soldered tabs off the battery.
This corected the problem last week. But now it says “print cartridge error” again
Does anyone have other ideas?
Guru, I do not completely understand your solution. What is the chip on the cartridge?
August 25th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Thanks Gilbert…man, I was trying to take the whole machine apart! If you broke off one of the soldered tabs, how did you get it connected again? But then again, if the same message came up again, we can’t keep taking the darn thing apart! Argh!
Thanks again!
Bethann
August 25th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Bethann,
I didn’t reattach the battery. I’m still getting the original print cartridge error message. I’m about to go get a new printer I think.
August 30th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I HAVE D1415 HP DESKJET AFTER REFILL USUALLY SECOND TIME OF CARTRIDGE COLOR HP22 I CANNOT GET RED COLOR ON PRINTS, EVENTHOUGH THERE IS MAGENTA PRESENT ON THE PRINTHEAD OF THE CARTRIDGE, PROMINANT RED STREAK. I THINK IT IS THE PRINTER NOT RECOGNIZING OR ALLOWING RED COLOR TO BE PRINTED. ANYONE HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS.
September 3rd, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I’ve spent hours looking but cannot find a rest for the D5160 HP #98 and #95 ink cartridges after a refill. There’s a lo out there but none for my printer or those cartidges. Anyone have a way to do this.
Thanks. Ken