HP customers claim firmware update rendered third-party ink verboten

theregister.com

1 pointthunderbong3 comments

i recently had to buy a printer for the first time in nearly 10 years and apparently the only big-name brand which is not outright antagonistic to third-party toner providers is Brother.

Strange because I think brother did exactly what’s described in the article to me, and their toner is expensive as hell. I wouldn’t have bought it if there wasn’t a cheap generic available or if I knew they would suddenly claim all generic cartridges as empty. I think they may still have some printers that use the old kind of cartridges without chips.

> Strange because I think brother did exactly what’s described in the article to me, and their toner is expensive as hell.

Eeek! All of the reports i read about my model (3770) before buying it (Oct. or Nov. 2023) claimed that it worked fine with 3rd-party toner, and Amazon is full of merchants selling alternatives. That model is a few years old now, though - it's certainly possible that Brother's stance has changed with newer models or that a recent firmware update changed that policy on this model. i guess i'll find out when i eventually go to replace the ones which came with it :/.

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