Can't print after refilling ink cartridge

[Eireann]

I got a cartridge refill set some time ago, because I'm tired of buying new ones. I refilled the black cartridge, and it worked fine. I just refilled it again, and now I keep getting printer errors. It's an HP 2130, if that helps. I took the cartridge out, wiped it off, made sure it was emitting ink, then reinserted it - still nothing. What am I missing?

[dendawg]

There's a DRM chip in HP cartridges. Try looking up the cartridge number.

[KuariKaydrith]

HP cartridges are notorious for failing when they've been refilled. They have a use by date on them and the printer is able to track how many pages the cartridge has printed - it if goes over that preset number it usually doesn't work after and there's no way to trick the chip or printer to keep using that refilled cartridge. It sucks, but it's how HP makes money on their printers.

[Arcus]

HP is one of the companies that do anything and everything they can to make it impossible to refill. Most cartridges still have ink in them when the printer says it's empty because it's counting the number of pages printed. The chip inside the cartridge can not be reset. The printer will keep saying to replace the cartridge. From time to time, HP sneaks out a firmware update that disables printing from a cartridge that it thinks is empty. It takes a couple months for the treats of lawsuits to get them to release another update that allows printing again. Most people don't know that the firmware got updated because the print driver updates it without you knowing.

The reason HP does this is because almost all printers sold today are sold at cost or even at a loss because it's the ink that they make all the money from. They are able to make the cartridge for less than 20 cents and then sell it for a huge mark up. They will make several hundred dollars in pure profit over the life of the printer this way. They even built in a way to use up ink faster. The 'cleaning cycle' it does on start up and after a preset number of pages use up ink. It sprays ink into a holding tank and when the tank is full, the printer shuts down and has to be replaced. Even a factory technician can not fix desktop printers once the waste tank is full.

Between the cost of ink, each cartridge only lasting 400-600 pages (if the ink doesn't dry up in the cartridge first) the limited life built into the printer, I no longer buy inkjet type printers. I only buy laser printers. Yes they cost more at the start, but the lifetime cost per page is much lower than inkjets. Each toner cartridge is good for 1200-5000 pages depending on the printer. The toner does not dry out and has a shelf life of 2 years. And the biggest thing... they are repairable. There is almost nothing in a laser printer than you can not replace when it fails.

[KuariKaydrith]

^^^^ THIS!

Once upon a LOT of years ago I used to do tech support for HP printers (LaserJets and DesignJets) - when we were trained in we were told point blank that the printer division makes their money on printer ink and toner. Even back then (15+ years ago) most of the models were not guaranteed to work with refilled or 3rd party cartridges, and the technology that was used back then has grown by leaps and bounds. On an older, out of support, printer we managed to short out the chip and the sensor in the printer itself and get it to work with a refilled cartridge, but apparently if folks try that now the printer will no longer work, regardless of inserting an official HP cartridge after, leaving you with a brick - it was an older model DesignJet that we had on hand for training purposes because we'd still get calls on it.

[EricKei]

It's the modern version of the Gillette principle -- Sell the razors/handles cheap (or literally give them away) and charge through the roof for the blades.

Video game consoles work the same way. Back at majorgamestore, we sold PS3s for, say, $500, because that's what we paid for the damn things (that's part of how manufacturers control the retail prices). Sales of new games made us about five bucks each, so they made their money on the used game trades and sales.

ProTip: Never buy candy or other snacks from a game store; they may be older than you are. Those damn things almost never sold.

[dalesys]

...ProTip: Never buy candy or other snacks from a game store; they may be older than you are. Those damn things almost never sold.

Unless you have a yen for fossilized candy and have excavated all of the local Easter and Halloween strata.
On topic...
I was able to get undegraded firmware for my Color LaserWriter from HP. And I told the printer "Don't you never ever again install crap from unworthy sources!"

[Eireann]

It's an HP 2130, if that helps.

[KuariKaydrith]

Are you getting a light code on the printer itself or an error on the computer? What is it that you are seeing? It could be that the refilled cartridge's chip has hit the end of it life expectancy so the printer is throwing an error, in which case your only option would be to try a different cartridge.

[Eireann]

Are you getting a light code on the printer itself or an error on the computer? What is it that you are seeing? It could be that the refilled cartridge's chip has hit the end of it life expectancy so the printer is throwing an error, in which case your only option would be to try a different cartridge.

A light flashes when I turn on the printer.