thewayne | Entries tagged with hp

In the ultimate own-goal, a recent HP "security update" has bricked models LaserJet MFP M232-M237, preventing them from printing even with HP toner cartridges. Some people have gone out buying Brother lasers and just junking the HP gear.

Good on them! Not that it will get HP to change their terrible behavior, but at least you can hurt them in the wallet.

Now, Brother had a bit of trouble last week. News came out that they did a similar DRM move and that people had trouble using non-Brother toner in Brother laser printers, but it was a very small number of printers and never confirmed. I'm not sure what to make of that. We'll see if it's ever confirmed and I shall report on it if it happens. Brother is denying it, whereas HP revels in it.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/firmware-update-bricks-hp-printers-makes-them-unable-to-use-hp-cartridges/

*blinks*

Apparently negative press works.

Imagine my surprise.

This still does not change my hearty recommendation to not buy any HP products ever, said recommendation having been in place for many years.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/misguided-hp-customer-support-approach-included-forced-15-minute-call-wait-times/

UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Ireland are all seeing their wait times for support greatly increased in a drive to make people use online support. Which is probably chatbots and horrible and inaccurate forums.

And they're planning on expanding the list of countries so affected.

Yet another reason to never buy an HP product. I recently set up a Brother color laser/scanner/fax machine for a friend, though she's not using the fax side. Wonderfully simple to connect to her WiFi and do a Bios update. Heavy beast, listed as a two-man lift. About $400, $500 for the duplex-printing version. I think those prices are reasonable for a color printer. I believe the model was an MLP-3720.

The enshitiffication will continue until, well, it will just continue.

https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/hp_deliberately_adds_15_minutes/

https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/02/20/1827203/hp-deliberately-adds-15-minutes-waiting-time-for-telephone-support-calls

An HP exec at a business conference said the quiet part out loud that they've been pursuing a multi-year strategy to lock-in customers to their printers.

Uhm, DUH.

Why do you think a lot of people have been campaigning to get people away from HP products and on to less restrictive printers, or on to lasers, which have a much lower cost over their lifetimes?

In this case this was their CFO Marie Myers saying "We absolutely see when you move a customer from that pure transactional model ... whether it's Instant Ink, plus adding on that paper, we sort of see a 20 percent uplift on the value of that customer because you're locking that person, committing to a longer-term relationship."

Absolutely nothing new here, just some amusement at her saying the quiet part out loud. In front of reporters.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/04/hp_printer_lockin/

https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/12/04/1928253/hp-exec-says-quiet-part-out-loud-when-it-comes-to-locking-in-print-customers

The other news item is that HP is being sued - again - for bricking printers for using third-party ink. Zero surprise factor here. This is not far from saying that I must buy a Subaru battery and Subaru disc brake pads for my Subaru car.

Again, Brother printers and lasers are your best friend. Avoid HP like the plague that it is.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/hp-sued-again-for-blocking-third-party-ink-from-printers-accused-of-monopoly/

I'm glad it's coming from MS rather than HP!

From the article: "Earlier this month, Microsoft disclosed an odd printer bug that was affecting some users of Windows 10, Windows 11, and various Windows Server products. Affected PCs were seeing an HP printer installed, usually an HP LaserJet M101-M106, even when they weren’t actually using any kind of HP printer. This bug could overwrite the settings for whatever printer the user actually did have installed and also prompted the installation of an HP Smart printer app from the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft still hasn't shared the root cause of the problem, though it did make it clear that the problem wasn't HP's fault. Now, the company has released a fix for anyone whose PC was affected by the bug, though as of this writing, it requires users to download and run a dedicated troubleshooting tool available from Microsoft's support site.

HP printer app is installing on PCs whether they have HP printers or not
The December 2023 Microsoft Printer Metadata Troubleshooter Tool is available for all affected Windows versions, and it will remove all references to the phantom HP LaserJet model (as long as you don't have one installed, anyway). The tool will also remove the HP Smart app as long as you don't have an HP printer attached and the app was installed after November 25, presumably the date that the bug began affecting systems. These steps should fix the issue for anyone without an HP printer without breaking anything for people who do use HP printers."

There are many a day that I'm glad that I'm no longer in main-core IT. This is one of them.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/12/microsoft-releases-downloadable-tool-to-fix-phantom-hp-printer-installations/

An organization called EPEAT, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool registry, is wanting their label removed from lots of HP models that feature Dynamic Security that won't allow users to use non-HP ink in them. The EPEAT standard is for equipment that "... are built with the environment in mind and, more specifically, do not block third-party ink cartridges", something that Dynamic Security, blocking third-party cartridges that promote reduced plastic consumption and landfill use, prevents. EPEAT says Dynamic Security makes a mockery of this endorsement and thus the labels should no longer be applied to printers that have it installed.

Additionally, HP is gaming the system. From the complaint: "OfficeJet 9015e claims 'EPEAT Silver'; however, the corresponding EPEAT Registry describes the registered device as 'HP OfficeJet Pro 9010/9012/9015/9018 All-in-One Printer.' This pattern is repeated across numerous HP devices, many of which are HP+ models that include the letter “e” at the end of their model number. While none of these 'e' models specifically appear in the EPEAT registry, as shown in the table below HP claims EPEAT registration for about half of them.
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The trade group added that the Envy Inspire 7255e and OfficeJet 8034e claim EPEAT registration, but there are no such models registered, even if you get rid of the "e" suffix.

"This blatant greenwashing must be corrected."

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/05/hp-printers-should-have-epeat-ecolabels-revoked-trade-group-demands/

Or 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.

They pushed an update that completely blocks third-party ink! If anything but a new or used HP cartridge is inserted, an error is displayed on the LCD and the printer refuses to work.

They people continue to buy HP inkjet printers, I do not know. Now I won't touch their lasers, personally. In fact, I don't know a single piece of equipment that I would consider buying. They have proven themselves to be massively consumer un-friendly and I am happy to shop with my feet and dollars elsewhere.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/03/customers-fume-as-hp-blocks-third-party-ink-from-more-of-its-printers/