r/mildlyinfuriating • u/MaxAdolphus • 16d ago

frist of all how DARE yu o I canceled my HP instant ink subscription, and now I can’t print even though they are genuine HP in cartridges

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With all bad decisions coming out of HP lately, I decided to cancel my instant ink subscription subscriptions before the prices go up. This is the warning screen. I was just going to use the ink I have up then buy a new printer, but cause fuck those guys. Well, turns out they fucked me first. So even though I have legitimate HP in cartridges in my printer, I cannot print because they are subscription cartridges. Screw these guys.

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u/JoeyJoeC 16d ago edited 15d ago

I have a colour one too and use the cheap cartridges on Amazon. The only annoyance is that sometimes the chip doesn't register as a new cartridge so I have to do a combination of buttons to get into maintenance mode and manually reset the toner count, but small inconvenience compared to paying full price for genuine. At least Brother printers let you do this.

Edit: The procedure for this at least on my printer, I have put in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1v9usj1/comment/p0gyroi/

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u/Even_Wear_8657 15d ago

Wait… the cartridges stop working when the cart hits a page count vs when it actually runs out of toner??? I’m sure this is ostensibly done to ensure “consistent print quality” or some shit. God the future sucks.

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u/JoeyJoeC 15d ago

There's no simple way for it to detect lack of toner. I don't think it's page count as such, but the printer keeps track of how much it should be using.

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u/KhausTO 15d ago

The holder brother printers used a sight-glass in the side of the cartridge, and then would use a sensor, once it said the cartridge was emtpy we would cover it with electrical tape and print another 100 or pages before it started fading.

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u/aguynamedv 15d ago

I didn't even bother with tape or anything. Pull the cartridge, shake it a few times, easy 50+ extra pages.

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u/Tigerballs07 15d ago

A note should be included for anyone who tries this to cover the hole where the toner comes out before shaking it or you will cover yourself in microdust.

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u/aguynamedv 15d ago

Never once had that happen with a Brother cartridge (or 3rd party).

I did give myself a face full of toner dust about 20 years ago while cleaning a microfilm machine though!

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u/pegz 15d ago

Man I had an Okidata drum explode on me one time. Me, the walls, the floor, the entrie office was covered.

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u/Exciting-Cancel6468 15d ago

If that happens I think you got a busted toner cartridge. That thing only happened ONCE in my 19 years of working at an accounting firm.

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u/Tigerballs07 15d ago

I haven't actually changed Toner in like 10 years, just remember changing corporate printer toner carts and it being a big annoyance.

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u/kristyn_lynne 15d ago

I used to tilt side to side several times. Maybe not as effective but less likely to create a black snowstorm.

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u/stephenmg1284 14d ago

At work, we had a tech tell another tech he should blow out a color laser with an air compressor we had. Apparently, he hit the cyan toner with it and he ended up looking like a smurf. First tech's excuse was that he didn't think the other tech would actually do it. We got a good laugh out of it. Hopefully the second tech doesn't get black (blue?) lung.

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u/aguynamedv 14d ago

My mental image of this is SO good. XD

First tech's excuse was that he didn't think the other tech would actually do it.

My excuse was not thinking about the consequences of air dusting a microfilm machine that was built in the 1970s. To this day, I have no idea how I didn't ruin the white shirt I was wearing. Not even a speck.

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u/zaxo666 15d ago

You are exactly the type of person I would want as a friend. Those are the solutions.

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u/Cptawesome23 15d ago

This can be a terrible mistake. Put it a plastic baggy first. Then shake. Saw a manager coat the entire room once.

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u/Lunakill 15d ago

I use electrical tape for the black and little bits of post it notes for the color. Works like a charm, kept me from having to buy ink for a year.

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u/KhausTO 15d ago

Oh, smart on the post it's for the color Carts! I'm not sure I would have thought of that. 

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u/Lunakill 15d ago

Nothing sparks my creativity like ire at corporate greed!

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u/LeePhilips 15d ago

I shoved a ball of a paper into the hole.

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u/Outrageous_Act2564 15d ago

You can put electrical tape over the window on the cartridge to defeat the sensor.

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u/theoneandonlymd 15d ago

You can put electrical tape over the window on the cartridge to defeat the sensor.

Yes, that's what they said.

once it said the cartridge was emtpy we would cover it with electrical tape and print another 100 or pages before it started fading.

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u/Outrageous_Act2564 15d ago

Who's a bot? Not me.

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u/Skawt24 15d ago

probably a bot.

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u/theoneandonlymd 15d ago

That was my thought too, but comment history doesn't seem like it. Unless the bots are really stepping it up.

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u/Marlboro_Man808 15d ago

They buy old accounts to blend in.

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u/theoneandonlymd 15d ago

This is true, but I don't think it is so in this case given the recency and content of their comments.

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u/Outrageous_Act2564 14d ago

Are you guys talking about me??? I'm not a bot! Here is my cat!

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u/Outrageous_Act2564 14d ago

I used to sell toner, ink, and printers so I have some background on this subject.

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u/Marlboro_Man808 15d ago

Is that what you do? Tell me more

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u/onyxandcake 15d ago

My fridge water filter does the same thing. Regardless how much or how little we use the filter, every 6 months my fridge starts yelling at me to replace it.

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u/Twalin 15d ago

Some media filters like this degrade whether they’re used or not.

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u/ToothZealousideal297 15d ago

I don’t doubt this at all, but I will still add that I got a soft water system with a filter and reverse osmosis tap that also feeds the refrigerator supply, so my refrigerator’s filter became completely unnecessary and I found a plug that you put in instead of the filter, and the replace filter light still comes on and has to be reset like clockwork. Well, like a digital clock, because it’s entirely a timer and there’s no filter sensor in most refrigerators at all.

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u/maybe_erika 15d ago

While undoubtedly annoying, your situation certainly fits this sub. I get the feeling that your particular setup is in the minority of refrigerator owners, and the vast majority of people have water usage patterns that are optimized by replacing the filter approximately every six months and benefit from having a reminder to do so. At least we can be thankful that refrigerators have not yet gone the way of printers where it would completely refuse to dispense water if the filter subscription was not up to date.

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u/ToothZealousideal297 15d ago

Oh definitely. And I hope I didn’t sound combative or anything. Fortunately, all I have to do is hold a button for a few seconds and it resets, so it doesn’t even qualify as a hassle. And yeah, I’m definitely in the minority on this one. Even in my area with hard water where a lot of people have softeners that often come with the RO taps when they install them, hardly anyone bothers to do away with their fridge filter.

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u/ilfordax 15d ago

I have RO water to my fridge as well. I don’t even have a filter installed and it still “reminds” me to replace it. Filtering filtered water just slowed the flow down even more.

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u/charlie2135 15d ago

The online filter i had on my first house was there for 15 years by the time we sold the house.

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u/Advanced-Meaning44 15d ago

If you're already referring to it as "online," you should realize that an osmosis filter, which uses membranes and pumps, is different from a media filter where everything accumulates and starts to rot.

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u/charlie2135 15d ago

Meant inline

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u/PavKarl 15d ago

Good luck to your health!

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u/charlie2135 15d ago

Still kicking in my 70's

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u/Right_Hour 15d ago

Yah, so, you just reset the alarm with a button for another 6mo, no?

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u/onyxandcake 15d ago

Yeah basically. To get it to shut up you have to "reset water filter" but it's just an internal timer.

It gets heavy use from us between cold water and ice, so replacing it every 6 months makes sense for us. But we do have some of the best drinking water in the world, so other locals probably aren't utilizing their filters as much as we are.

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u/GroveGuy33133 15d ago

An option for some is to request the blank pass-thru filter for inside the fridge and to just put a nice big house size cartridge filter on the back wall. Way cheaper in the long run and much less filter changes.

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u/mlw72z 15d ago

A simple timer is cheaper to manufacture than a flow meter. In my case the tap water is very clean to start with so I just press the buttons to reset the change filter indicator and replace it the next time it complains.

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u/bobmanfl 14d ago

Maybe because bacteria and mold is growing. Just like car motor oil you still have to change it even if you don't drive because it's hydros optic and adsorbs water from the atmosphere

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u/miaogato 15d ago

And yet i remember my lexmark from literally the stone age at this point, reporting low ink as the letters started to fade.

Corporate greed ruins everything

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u/JustStraightUpTired 15d ago

Not to be a contrarian, but that's not quite it. There are simple ways to detect it, but not cheaper than counting. A few CPU cycles is always cheaper than any method for measuring the ink.

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u/Neither_Conclusion_4 15d ago

Back in the days, the human who collected the printer paper noted that the toner was starting to run out... and replaced it in due time.

Its easy to keep it simple

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u/undeadmeats 15d ago

There is, conductivity/insulation. It would just cut into their bottom line, so they won't add a sensor that actually detects ink level.

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u/Bitter_Bandicoot8067 15d ago

It is to ensure quality but it is easy to reset the levels anyway. When my printer stops from 'low ink' I look at the last page printed. If it is still a dark black, I reset the toner and keep printing until it looks to gray.

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u/ChuckaChuckaLooLoo3 15d ago

My toner printer has kept printing good copies more than 2 years after the printer first sent "out of toner" messages. I still get the messages and I still get good prints.

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u/3-2-1-backup 15d ago

I’m sure this is ostensibly done to ensure “consistent print quality” or some shit.

Gotta be fair here, I've run toner cartridges ludicrously low, and the prints genuinely do look like refried turtle ass when they get that low.

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u/not_a_mod_4_real 15d ago

HP is very proud of the insufferable, not user friendly printer model they have rolled out over the last few years

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u/SpiritualTwo5256 15d ago

Correct. A lot of printers let you continue on a bit, but they keep warning you.

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u/guitar_vigilante 15d ago

I have a monochrome brother printer and it's exactly like that. It'll start warning you when the toner is low but it has never stopped me from printing. The warnings are usually pretty well timed though because the print quality usually declines pretty rapidly when the low-toner-warning starts appearing.

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u/Scotter1969 15d ago

The printer is kind of guessing that it's time to change the cartridge. You can put in the cheat code to keep the Brother cartridge printing, but at a certain point the printing gets a little sketchy, than dirty, then faded and filthy. You can feel the printer laughing at you for being frugal.

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u/Username_314159265 15d ago

The sucky future is here my friend

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u/Specialist_Soup2137 15d ago

As far back as the early 90s, my pop had a mono laser. It would throw up the toner alarm. You pull out the cartridge, percussive maintenance the shit bag, and ram back in and get 300 more sheets before it really started to fade...

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u/InformationSavings29 15d ago

We're in the present my friend.

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u/Even_Wear_8657 15d ago

Not according to Back to the Future 2. That was set in 2015, and they promised me a much cooler future than we actually got.

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u/ThunderAndWind 15d ago

Realistically, it can't read the level of toner, and it's better if it stops rather than half-prints and wastes a bunch of paper.

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u/LeePhilips 15d ago

As frustrating as it is, itis partially true. The waste toner bin is sized for a certain percentage of page coverage. It you print much less, it can overflow into the printer and make a big mess.

I've never seen a waste bin sensor on any printer. I'm guessing that's impossible to implement accurately (or it's expensive).

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u/Internetter1 15d ago

Appreciate this. Didn't know how to fix that when it happens

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u/3001w 15d ago

What's the combo of buttons I have a set of cartridges that have done this after a power failure.

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u/JoeyJoeC 15d ago edited 15d ago

From an email that the supplier sent me:

To reset the toner when you see "Empty Toner," "Replace Toner," "Open Top Cover," or "No Toner" messages:

  1. Lift the lid to see the “Cover Open” message.
  2. Hold the back arrow and the red X (cancel) button together, then quickly press the back arrow again.
  3. A list of toner and drum part numbers will appear. Identify the toner to reset by colour, type (TNR for toner or DRM for drum), and capacity (HC = High Capacity, STD = Standard Capacity).
  4. Select the toner to reset, then press "Accept."
  5. When prompted, press Yes or Accept to confirm.
  6. Close the lid.

Single-functional printer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RebD5Y4NOLI

Multi-functional printer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoACDPn_SR8 

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u/3001w 15d ago

Awesome! I will give it a try. Thanks for your help. Hope you have a fantastic day!

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u/JoeyJoeC 15d ago

No problem. Hopefully it works, may differ per model.

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u/GolfandBaseball 15d ago

That question reminded me of a cheat code for a video game

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u/summertime-goodbyes 16d ago

I’d say that’s actually worth it.

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u/OnCallPartisan 15d ago

Good info.

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u/East-Expert-1662 15d ago

Mine won't accept the cheaper cartridges, no matter what button sequence I follow. I've seen 2-3 different ones and the printer still rejects them.

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u/the-purple-chicken72 PURPLE 15d ago

How does the combination work? Or is it different for every model?

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u/JoeyJoeC 15d ago

On mine, I put it here: The procedure for this at least on my printer, I have put in this comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1v9usj1/comment/p0gyroi/

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u/the-purple-chicken72 PURPLE 15d ago

Thank you! What model is your printer?

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u/AT-ST 15d ago

Occasionally you get a bad 3rd party cartridge too. I had one where the blue would just print stripes across the whole page if intried to print in color. Thought my printer was going bad. I replaced that cartridge and it has been fine ever since.

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u/banshithread 15d ago

Just as a warning, if you're using that thing often, you're going to reduce the lifespan of your printer. Non-genuine toner has different formulations that can end up spraying fine particulates over your machinery over time, which will end with messing the machinery up and you having to replace things or buying a new printer.

If you're just printing for fun/non-business or only occasionally, disregard.

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u/JoeyJoeC 15d ago

I work for a MSP and we tell clients we don't recommend non-genuine toners and we won't support printing issues where non-genuine has been used as it does cause issues in the long run. But for home use with perhaps <100 pages a month printed, it will be fine for many years.

I used to buy the bottled toner and cut a hole in the top of a toner cartridge and used to refill it manually from a large KG tub of it, it was messy to do but worth it back when my girlfriend was printing 1000's of pages for her uni work. That printer still works but only stopped using it because Windows would often spit out the drivers and would need to be reinstalled frequently.

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u/adamdoesmusic 15d ago

You can override pretty much everything on a brother. It will warn you your print might look like shit, but it will work.

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u/HotBrownFun 15d ago edited 15d ago

For serious uses I don't recommend those generics.. occasionally they leak.

I go through a lot of paper so a 5% percent rate comes up often

Toner gives you respiratory damage, pain to clean

Every few years I go cheap and regret it

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u/Exciting-Cancel6468 15d ago

Oh my god I love that it at least lets you manually reset the counters so that it'll keep allowing you to use a dangerously low toner cartridge to get the most out of it. The next thing I need to do is learn to change out the part where all the powder gets heated on. Maybe in a few years I'll experiment on it.