HP Being Sued - What's the point?!?!?!

[ajbrun]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4293427.stm

Basically, they're saying that HP program their ink cartridges to stop working early, my guess is to save money.If that's the case, then why don't they just put less ink in?


Also, just as a side note, does the printer count how many pages you've printed and then guess when it's empty, or does it properly measure the ink? My printer says my inks low, just wondering what method it uses .

[shiato storm]

it comes down to us actually spending more cause the computer tells us we need more ink but theres actually a bit more left...
tehre's normally a sensor inside the cartrigde that measures the ink level...i think ?

[directhex]

it comes down to us actually spending more cause the computer tells us we need more ink but theres actually a bit more left...
tehre's normally a sensor inside the cartrigde that measures the ink level...i think ?

nope. it's driver level. the driver has a page count, when that page count is reached, it declares the cartridge empty. mroe recent printers it'll write 'empty' onto a chip on the cartridge so you can't use the remaining ink nor refill it.

[yamangman]

Keep printing until your prints come out crappy, then you're low on ink, daft bloody people.

[ajbrun]

So if they want us to spend more, wouldn't they just put less ink in the cartridge and save ink to make more catridges that people will need to buy when their ink runs out quicker?

[yamangman]

nope. it's driver level. the driver has a page count, when that page count is reached, it declares the cartridge empty. mroe recent printers it'll write 'empty' onto a chip on the cartridge so you can't use the remaining ink nor refill it.

Well, I've never had a printer like that, so maybe there is a conspiricy.

[Agent]

Canons transparent cartridges make me happy.

[Jonny M]

Although I think that woman is talking crap

[MD]

you gotta admit tho, if this turns out to be true I wouldn't wanna be a HP employee when that gets announced

m@

[da_ging]

why ppl still buy hp or lexmark printers i dont know, but still i suppose we cant expect every 1 to have the common sense to realise what a bag of expensive poop they are

[Jonny M]

Nothing wrong with HP printers. It's Epson you need to be wary of.

[ajbrun]

I didn't mean this to be a hardware/overclocking type thread. Only wondering how printers know that the inks gone, and more importantly (perhaps) to discuss how a claim like this could hold up.

BTW, I have a Canon .

[da_ging]

any 1 who likes hp is mad

anyway , from what i gather not all hp carts have the expiration date stored on them

some newer hp carts now have region encoding so that us carts only work in us printers etc

and iirc the ink usage is recorded and stored by the cartridge itself

epsons are just as bad but at least they are not region encoded or have programmed expiry dates or reject non original carts, nor are they as noisy , slow and ugly

canons (apart from the cheap ones) use an optical system that seems to works brilliantly

[megah0]

some Epson printers (580, C40-42) used the driver level page count and wrote empty on the cartridges. The main reasons i went canon at the time.

[yamangman]

I have a sleak, sexy dead quiet HP, infact I have 4 of them. Last branded printer before that was an Epson, terrible terrible terrible.

And the ink catridges in all of mine run out when I want them to, and are relatively cheap in comparison to others.

[shiato storm]

nope. it's driver level. the driver has a page count, when that page count is reached, it declares the cartridge empty. mroe recent printers it'll write 'empty' onto a chip on the cartridge so you can't use the remaining ink nor refill it.

i stand corrected