Your Printer Is Lying To You!!

[MA-Caver]

Take That, Stupid Printer! How to fight back against the lying, infuriating, evil ink-and-toner cabal.

By Farhad Manjoo
Posted Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008, at 3:21 PM ET

The Brother HL-2040 printer
http://www.slate.com/id/2198316/
I bought a cheap laser printer a couple years ago, and for a while, it worked perfectly. The printer, a Brother HL-2040, was fast, quiet, and produced sheet after sheet of top-quality prints—until one day last year, when it suddenly stopped working. I consulted the user manual and discovered that the printer thought its toner cartridge was empty. It refused to print a thing until I replaced the cartridge. But I'm a toner miser: For as long as I've been using laser printers, it's been my policy to switch to a new cartridge at the last possible moment, when my printouts get as faint as archival copies of the Declaration of Independence. But my printer's pages hadn't been fading at all. Did it really need new toner—or was my printer lying to me?

Heh the trick is fool the printer so it won't fool you. Read the rest of the article. It'll probably save you anywhere between 45 to 80 bucks or more depending upon your type of printer.
Me thinks that the companies KNEW this all along and just kept mum about it so we'd end up buying toner more often than not.
Would this work with YOUR printer??

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I've been tricking my printer for over a year now.

 

[terryl965]

Well come and trick mine Please

 

[Big Don]

Well come and trick mine Please

LIE to your printer! That's what I did. My HP Printer told me the ink was low so I told it I installed a new ink cartridge and continued to print. When, some months later, it again told me my ink was low, I lied AGAIN. It was only after the third or fourth time I told it I had installed a new cartridge when I hadn't and the ink actually began to fade on the pages that I actually installed a new cartridge.
If you think Gas is expensive consider:
1 Gallon of gas today in my town: $3.83
3.5 ml of black inkjet ink: $17.95 (and UP)

 

[Big Don]

Me thinks that the companies KNEW this all along and just kept mum about it so we'd end up buying toner more often than not.

Well, yeah. It is called planned obsolescence, and it is widespread, my friend. There are light bulbs at Edison's house, which he made BY HAND with none of today's technological savvy, that burn 13+ hours a day and are still burning. But, if you only had to buy 20 light bulbs in your life, there wouldn't be much profit in making them now would there?

Would this work with YOUR printer??

That particular trick won't work for me, but, I've had great success with lying to my printer.

 

[Sukerkin]

I knew that this 'deception' by printers has been going on ever since they started putting chips in the cartridges to monitor toner levels but I had no idea that there was so much, well what word to use, 'conservatism' in the printers estimates of what was left.

Don's experience proves just how bad things are in that he over-rode the warning several times before lack of toner actually became a problem.

Oh and yes, it's true, toner is the most expensive commonly available substance on the planet .

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

It is simply stealing that they have been doing this. We should all join in on the class action lawsuit.

 

[crushing]

They do lie! I have a Cannon inkjet I use at a local non-profit that kept telling me it was out of ink, yet printing decently sharp output. Fortunately, it only gave me nag screens but didn't quit on me. I must have printed hundreds of checks, severak reports and other items after I was supposedly out of ink. To save money, I print just about everything in draft mode.

 

[MA-Caver]

It is simply stealing that they have been doing this. We should all join in on the class action lawsuit.

Aye, I want my share after all the heart-ache and mental anguish I have had to suffer for worry of running out of ink and not being able to print what I needed. Oh the huge manatee of it all.
Count me in!

 

[arnisador]

What a scam with printers--forcing you to buy their ink by not making interchangeable cartridges and so on.

 

[terryl965]

What a scam with printers--forcing you to buy their ink by not making interchangeable cartridges and so on.

I agree.

 

[Cryozombie]

I buy 20 dollar printers that have 40 dollar ink cartridges, so when i run outta ink I just go buy a new printer and toss the old one.

Haha.

What a scam with printers--forcing you to buy their ink by not making interchangeable cartridges and so on.

And lets not forget the EULA that says you cant refill them and they MUST be returned to the manufacturer.

 

[Shicomm]

In europe it's big biz selling ink and toner.
Over here in the Netherlands you have loads of stores that will refill your cardridge or toner.... with sometimes quite shabby results.

There are also "clone brands" for sale here.
They're not all perfect but there are some brands that have good stuff for way less then the originals.
I sell one of the clone brands and it works great

I got a used small laserprinter for about 50 euro's and have used the included toner for years now.
When i need another toner i just go for the clone brand