Watch out: dangerous firmware upgrade HP printers rendering 3rd party cartridges useless

[stratman]

And when Canon introduced the PGI-5/CLI-8 chips they claimed it was to protect the printer user against making the terrible mistake of installing an ink cartridge in a wrong place.

Aren't we lucky the printer manufacturers are looking out for us.

 

[The Hat]

when Canon introduced the PGI-5/CLI-8 chips they claimed it was to protect the printer user against making the terrible mistake of installing an ink cartridge in a wrong place. And I thought it was to make refill difficult.

I reckon the Cli-8 chipped cartridges are the cat’s whiskers, I use them in my i865 and i9950 and they work absolutely great, the chips never fail or need resetting and never look out of place, I do believe the OEM carts are even cheaper than the BCl-6 carts, old technology works best, but I can still mess up and put a cart in the wrong place..

 

[websnail]

If a HP cartridge is remanufactured it is no longer considered OEM even if it was made by HP and still contains an original chip. I think this is what they mean. they probably want to block ARC chips.

The ARC chips without ink levels were blocked last year... We were "lucky" enough to be using them with our BagCIS for the HP970/971 so that was a "wonderful" moment.

What's interesting is that we're finding that so long as your cartridge has ink pressure, it will continue to print. So modifying an original cart to use a CIS supply is more than feasible without needing to replace the chip. The problems come when you try to use that same cart in a different machine...

 

[Taksmon]

This thread reminded me to block all my WiFi printers at the router from accessing the internet, just in case

 

[websnail]

Sorry for the lack of input for months but small children, focus on work, sleep, etc...

Just touching base as this is relevant and just happened to us...

Our Officejet Pro-X451DW just updated its own firmware itself, completely independently of the computers it is hooked up to. The firmware update borked it for compatibles, as per the thread.

I'd assumed chip malfunction as the printer has been going for a while but after replacing everything discovered that no, it was the firmware... Updating manually to the latest version ie: 1640AR resolved the problem and turned off the "Faulty cartridge" warning.

What I find reprehensible in all of this is the fact that this is a deliberate way of confusing non-technical users into thinking that at minimum their cartridges are broken or worse, that their printer needs to be replaced.

Anyway... found out the hard way...

Interesting enough Static Control chips are accepted but Apex type are still experiencing problems and refusing to be recognised although I've not tested the Apex types again since the firmware fix was applied so need to check that...

 

[websnail]

Oh and just as an aside... the waste pads on these printers appears to be in the removable unit that is the manual paper feed...

It seems that you can wash these out and replace them to fix issues with clogged printhead, etc... Again something I need to do on a machine that was otherwise happy...

 

[stratman]

Has anyone tried blocking their printer from automatic firmware updates yet? I suggested using your firewall to blacklist/block the printer from silently phoning home for updates but do not recall anyone trying this. My printer does not phone home to auto update firmware so not a big deal for me.

It might be that blocking the one (or more) installed phone home EXE file(s) may also break usage of the printer, ie the printer will not work unless it can phone home first. However, this may not be relevant, especially if your printer can print without the computer/network turned on, eg from a USB stick or make a copy from an All-In-One.

One way to learn more is to Google how to UNBLOCK your printer by a firewall. This opposite approach yielded some results such as http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01856593. For those using a wireless printer then the following adds ideas to managing firewalls and wireless: https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1241620-prevent-hp-printer-from-accessing-internet_auto-updating/

I did a cursory search on my hard drive for installed Canon files, specifically EXE files. I looked at Programs Files, Programs Files (x86), and Users folders on my C: drive for Canon and took note of all the files with the .EXE extension. Then I searched my firewall's internet allowed access list for these files. Any file that requires internet access should be listed in your firewall, otherwise the application could not get to the internet. Unless your firewall does not have outgoing protection in the first place.

Firewalls traditionally protect against incoming data. Firewalls then added on protection from unwanted outgoing (phone home) protections, such as malware that sends stolen data from your computer back to the hacker. A list of trusted applications/files is needed to prevent unauthorized outgoing data. Your firewall should list these trusted files that can access the internet. It is this list of trusted files that would contain the phone home printer function. Block that file(s) and no more silent auto updating of the printer's firmware.

At least that is the theory.