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thewayneOr any inkjet printer, for that matter. HP just seems especially egregious in their conduct. I have railed against them before, and will continue doing so. Here's the latest.
HP pushed out a firmware update to its printers to disable using non-HP ink cartridges in them. And the update is flawed. It is bricking a number of printers AROUND THE WORLD. They are borked so bad that the touchscreen doesn't respond, and you need a working touchscreen to get into the hardware reset menu! Unless they figure out some way to reverse this, there are going to be A LOT of printers flooding their service centers, or entering landfills.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/hp-printers-computers-ink-cartridges-rivals/
https://www.engadget.com/hp-officejet-printers-are-bricking-following-a-recent-software-update-223559237.html
This news started spreading about the update early last week, but now news is getting out about printers being turned into cumbersome paperweights.
From a Slashdot summary:
Meanwhile, Engadget now reports that "a software update Hewlett-Packard released earlier this month for its OfficeJet printers is causing some of those devices to become unusable."
After downloading the faulty software, the built-in touchscreen on an affected printer will display a blue screen with the error code 83C0000B. Unfortunately, there appears to be no way for someone to fix a printer broken in this way on their own, partly because factory resetting an HP OfficeJet requires interacting with the printer's touchscreen display. For the moment, HP customers report the only solution to the problem is to send a broken printer back to the company for service.
BleepingComputer says the firmware update "has been bricking HP Office Jet printers worldwide since it was released earlier this month..."
"Our teams are working diligently to address the blue screen error affecting a limited number of HP OfficeJet Pro 9020e printers," HP told BleepingComputer... Since the issues surfaced, multiple threads have been started by people from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, and France who had their printers bricked, some with more than a dozen pages of reports.
"HP has no solution at this time. Hidden service menu is not showing, and the printer is not booting anymore. Only a blue screen," one customer said.
"I talked to HP Customer Service and they told me they don't have a solution to fix this firmware issue, at the moment," another added.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/05/21/0032211/hp-rushes-to-fix-bricked-printers-after-faulty-firmware-update
The reason why these printers are so inexpensive is because the company - not just HP - makes a fortune on you replacing the ink cartridges. That ink is more expensive than GOLD. It's HP's first or second most profitable line item. The problem is that for most printers, if ANY ink tank empties, the printer won't print until it is replaced. And in multi-function printers with scanners, frequently the SCANNER WON'T WORK if there is an empty ink tank! Where the hell is the logic in that, except to screw over the customers?
I literally threw a multifunction printer in the trash when I couldn't use the scanner. I went out afterwards and bought a nice Epson flat bed scanner for about $200 or so, and it's still in use about a decade later! For printing, I bought a $100 Samsung (sadly now bought out by HP) monochrome laser printer. If I absolutely must print color, I'll do it at work, or for photos, I'll send them to Walgreens and pick them up the next time that I'm in town.
Please PLEASE PLEASE don't buy inkjet printers, unless you absolutely must print color on a regular basis. And if you do need to do that, consider a color laser printer - your cost per page is much less expensive, though the cost of cartridges will cause heart palpitations, at least until you remember how many pages you get out of them.
HP pushed out a firmware update to its printers to disable using non-HP ink cartridges in them. And the update is flawed. It is bricking a number of printers AROUND THE WORLD. They are borked so bad that the touchscreen doesn't respond, and you need a working touchscreen to get into the hardware reset menu! Unless they figure out some way to reverse this, there are going to be A LOT of printers flooding their service centers, or entering landfills.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/hp-printers-computers-ink-cartridges-rivals/
https://www.engadget.com/hp-officejet-printers-are-bricking-following-a-recent-software-update-223559237.html
This news started spreading about the update early last week, but now news is getting out about printers being turned into cumbersome paperweights.
From a Slashdot summary:
Meanwhile, Engadget now reports that "a software update Hewlett-Packard released earlier this month for its OfficeJet printers is causing some of those devices to become unusable."
After downloading the faulty software, the built-in touchscreen on an affected printer will display a blue screen with the error code 83C0000B. Unfortunately, there appears to be no way for someone to fix a printer broken in this way on their own, partly because factory resetting an HP OfficeJet requires interacting with the printer's touchscreen display. For the moment, HP customers report the only solution to the problem is to send a broken printer back to the company for service.
BleepingComputer says the firmware update "has been bricking HP Office Jet printers worldwide since it was released earlier this month..."
"Our teams are working diligently to address the blue screen error affecting a limited number of HP OfficeJet Pro 9020e printers," HP told BleepingComputer... Since the issues surfaced, multiple threads have been started by people from the U.S., the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, Poland, New Zealand, and France who had their printers bricked, some with more than a dozen pages of reports.
"HP has no solution at this time. Hidden service menu is not showing, and the printer is not booting anymore. Only a blue screen," one customer said.
"I talked to HP Customer Service and they told me they don't have a solution to fix this firmware issue, at the moment," another added.
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/05/21/0032211/hp-rushes-to-fix-bricked-printers-after-faulty-firmware-update
The reason why these printers are so inexpensive is because the company - not just HP - makes a fortune on you replacing the ink cartridges. That ink is more expensive than GOLD. It's HP's first or second most profitable line item. The problem is that for most printers, if ANY ink tank empties, the printer won't print until it is replaced. And in multi-function printers with scanners, frequently the SCANNER WON'T WORK if there is an empty ink tank! Where the hell is the logic in that, except to screw over the customers?
I literally threw a multifunction printer in the trash when I couldn't use the scanner. I went out afterwards and bought a nice Epson flat bed scanner for about $200 or so, and it's still in use about a decade later! For printing, I bought a $100 Samsung (sadly now bought out by HP) monochrome laser printer. If I absolutely must print color, I'll do it at work, or for photos, I'll send them to Walgreens and pick them up the next time that I'm in town.
Please PLEASE PLEASE don't buy inkjet printers, unless you absolutely must print color on a regular basis. And if you do need to do that, consider a color laser printer - your cost per page is much less expensive, though the cost of cartridges will cause heart palpitations, at least until you remember how many pages you get out of them.
no subject
Date: 2023-05-23 09:30 pm (UTC)Meta just got tagged for over a BILLION from the EU! They might actually feel that! I look at these fines levied by our gov't for $200mil and just shake my head, they should levy them as a percentage of gross revenue if they want them to be actually punished.