Thursday, February 24, 2005

Cartridge Expiration Date Workarounds


In light of the lawsuit against Hewlett-Packard over the expiration date of their cartridges, two ways to fix the problem that presumably work are easily found online:

1) Remove and reinsert the battery of the printer's memory chip
First, I disconnected the power and the printer cable, just to be sure. Then, I reached inside and carefully removed the battery. I waited for about an hour, and then reinserted the battery and plugged everything back in. Viola! I was able to make a copy. Tried printing-- that worked too.
2) Preemptive: Change the parameters of the printer driver
Search for hp*.ini and edit the ones with the latest dates. If you configure the printer driver first, see below, the file date should read today.

In it there is a parameter something like pencheck. It is set to 0100. I think this is a boolean because I tried other values without effect. Set it to 0000 in the file and save the file and REBOOT.

53 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tank you (pun intended).

And thank you for not asking for a silly and fake email address.

27/2/05 12:21  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks for posting this. I just took the whole d**M battery out and it seems to be working fine without it. Of course I lose some of the saved settings, the ability to use redial on the fax (but I fax off my computer anyways) and the clock reads all zeros, but it is a small price to pay for freedom. As many other people have also said, this is the last HP printer I will ever buy.

20/7/06 19:33  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HP 2000c Professional results:
I added pencheck=0000 to the following files in Windows XP and the nag about expired cartridges and/or printheads went bye-bye:

On the last line, enter:
pencheck=0000

Files:
HPVDJ50.INI
hpmopyui.ini

\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\hpmopyui.ini
\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3\HPVDJ50.INI

Thanks for the pointers.

HP ought to be ashamed of themselves. The carts adn printheads work excellent now.

25/7/06 00:57  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oops, make that
pencheck=0000

FOUR ZEROS

25/7/06 00:59  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have an HP7130xi all-in-one and have been frustated with it for 2 years now. I found the two files hpvdj50.ini and hpmopyui.ini and then made the mistake of downloading the latest driver. Those 2 files disappeared. So I went back to a restore point and they reappeared but disappeared when I turned the printer on. It looks like HP has found a way around the easy pencheck fix. Does anyone have later information on how to defeat the money grubbing HP company? What is happening with the law suit?

13/9/06 22:31  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

best saite

30/9/06 10:24  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HP is Junk
"My printer is under a service contract and they have replaced it FOUR times. Each time, they have opted not to repair but to issue a new printer. All four new printers gave the same the error message. The original printer worked for about three months and I dont think I printed more than 20 pages of B&W and maybe a half a dozen color pages. I simply turned on the printer one day and the error message was there. This printer is cursed. The service center at Best Buy said they have returned hundreds due to this error."
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/inkjet/26232
_______________
HP is an evil corporate mafia
Two weeks ago, news broke that HP Chairwoman Patricia Dunn had ordered security consultants to illegally spy on HP's entire board of directors in an effort to unmask a leaker. The consultants reportedly went so far as to use social engineering to appropriate home phone records for HP board members. However, according to a new story on the Washington Post, phone record theft was only part of the operation. The story says HP CEO Mark Hurd himself gave the go-ahead on an "elaborate 'sting' operation" where senior a HP staffer posed as a leaker in order to trick a journalist into revealing her sources. The Washington Post also says the search for the leaker involved "planting false documents, following HP board members and journalists, watching their homes, and obtaining calling records for hundreds of phone numbers belonging to HP directors, journalists and their spouses." The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is currently investigating HP's information gathering techniques, and Patricia Dunn along with other HP execs are scheduled to testify before a subcommittee of the House Committee on September 28.
http://techreport.com/onearticle.x/10842
_______________
PS: Many HP's will destroy themself; if the ink lever lock is left open for 10 minutes the raised lever will smash against the carriage housing, ruining the gears and the encoder strip.

7/10/06 23:27  
Blogger ebizpromo said...

Hi,

Cool blog. Thanx for suggesting the solution relared to Cartridge and printers.

Thanx,
www.tradeweblinks.com

8/1/07 12:31  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Disconnecting thne battery for a while fixes the problem. On HP cp1700 the battery is hard to get out. I just slipped a thin stiff plastic strip under the outer battery terminal for an hour leaving the battery in place. Then "cartridge expired" message didn't come up and it works well

11/5/07 08:24  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HP and Epson are just cheating on customers with that chipped cartridges thing.

14/5/07 13:44  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I didn't find any hp*.ini, b ut the disconnection of the printer-battery works fine! I have a HP CP1160 printer.
Jobo

15/5/07 09:52  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hi Jobo. Where is the battery in the cp1160? Can't find it. Cheers.

8/6/07 13:15  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks very much. Taking the battery out worked.

23/8/07 13:17  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One method to bypass a cartridge expiration date on HP Business InkJet 1100d and similar printers:

1. Disconnect the power to the printer.
2. Connect the power to the printer and switch on.
3. Change the computer date back one or two year, "apply" it to use.
4. Print something to the printer, example - test page.
5. Change the computer date back to today.
6. Continue to working without switching off the printer.
7. When the printer is power off or expiration date come again - repeat from step 1.

P.S. I think HP Business InkJet 1100d has no battery at all.

20/9/07 20:46  
Blogger Unknown said...

Is there a way of disabling the color cartridge on a HP 1200-1300 series All-in-One, effectively converting it to a B&W printer; thus eliminating the need to buy color cartridges?
Thanks, HMS

19/10/07 03:24  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not really the only thing i could suggest which you may find strange but wait for the colour cart to become empty then get a refill kit and fill the colour cart up with black ink thats how i did it on mine, you need to print a few test pages ot fully clean the cart but mine works okay

25/10/07 13:31  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

also to everyone trying to bypass the chips on printers (robbing b******s as HP are and Epson) Go on ebay and type in CIS or CISS. thats continual ink supply system meaning you dont need to fill up your ink it basically has a pipe from the cartridge to a bottle and takes ink from their, better then refilling and its only the HP and epson ones you can do it on, i dont think they currently make a canon or lexmark one

25/10/07 13:34  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great Post! Sounds technical, but then not too technical.I have been sold once an ink cartridge that was expired...but guess what? It worked great!

28/10/07 13:42  
Blogger HumanAction said...

Thank YOU! I spent (2) hours with HP Tech Support yesterday and they acted as if they had never heard of expired ink cartridges before. I should have just googled the problem instead of believing they would help. I AM ALSO WITH ALL OF YOU, I WILL NEVER BUY AN HP PRINTER OR ANY HP PRODUCT AGAIN!!!!

6/11/07 17:35  
Blogger drdrax said...

Hi everyone, does anyone knows the trick for Lexmark z1320 printer, I ran out of ink in color no29 cartridge and refilled it, but theprinter keeps asking for new cartridge??? Is there a fix for this Lexmark bug?

19/11/07 20:02  
Blogger drdrax said...

Hi everyone, does anyone knows the trick for Lexmark z1320 printer, I ran out of ink in color no29 cartridge and refilled it, but theprinter keeps asking for new cartridge??? Is there a fix for this Lexmark bug?

19/11/07 20:05  
Blogger HumanAction said...

i'd check to see if there is a similar battery. the one in the hp was about the size of a dime, maybe a little thicker, strapped to some circuit board. There is bound to be one in there somehwere

20/11/07 00:58  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does anyone know how to do this for an HP Photosmart 7760?
Thanks
You can send me an email if you like
ezrider3@verizon.net

14/12/07 00:32  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you all for your comments. The battery fix works great. The big problem I will have is that when I send a fax, I will need to pull the battery every time since I need a correct date for that. Pls let me know if you have any other fixes for that. Thanks again.

29/1/08 19:17  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

!!!THANKS SO MUCH for this info!!!

I have the HP 1315 all-in-one printer and ever since Jan.1/2008 I have been near-constantly fooling with the color cartridge because I keep getting the "tri-colar cartridge inserted is not meant for this printer" or "color cartridge error" message ... and its a BRAND NEW CARTRIDGE!!!!! It stopped working on its first day after I tiny little test print!!!

I take it out and replace it a dozen times or so and then it'll let me print, then it'll print its auto-test page (requiring me to re-scan that stupid page with its lines to "align the printer catridge" and then it starts giving me the annoying error again.

Thanks so much for informing me bout this new "HP chip-setting" bullsh!t. Seems that even non-HP cartridges like those sold by Staples Business Depot have this issue. (Staples buys the empty cartridges in bulk from HP, opens them, puts in like 2 ml's more ink than HP would normally put in, and then re-seals them and sells them CHEAPER than the actual "official" HP cartridges... but cause they bought the empty shell from HP it has the stupid date-chip in it.)

Seems Epson and HP have been doing this NOT because they been loosing big bucks to those "refill kits" and refill-companies, but because their a bunch of greedy ba$tard$.

7/2/08 07:57  
Blogger William M Marsh said...

I have the identical problem with an HP Business Inkjet 1100.

Once cartridges were past date, the printer would no longer print from Windows XP. It would however work perfectly from Linux.

I did not find an ini file as mentioned in other posts, and I really did not want to open the printer as it worked fine in Linux.

The following fixed the problem:

1) Click on Start button, run
2) Type in regedit, enter
3) Navigate to HKLM/software/Hewlett-Packard/HP Printers/HPWH Toolbox/Common
4) In the right panel, right click on Ink, pick modify
5) Change 0100 to 0000
6) Save and reboot

3/4/08 19:27  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I have tried this with a HP Business inkjet 1100 (the instructions were very good btw - thanks)

Doesnt appear to have worked unfortuntely, even with the new value i'm still getting the expiry message popup

There can be no justification for expiring cartridges, this is clearly a money making exploit - it will be the last time i buy a HP printer thats for sure

16/4/08 13:05  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great suggestion dude...it works for my problem... thank you...
---------------------------
Paul Robins
Great printer toner and ink cartridge deals, discounts and coupons. Also, check out the latest printer reviews and technology news. http://blog.concordsupplies.com

5/5/08 17:40  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hp rocks !!

I baught a new cartridge (colour), because my HP D145 said the previous was too old... i inserted the new cartridge and..of course, it still says "colour cartridge too old..".
So i found your post.
The machine i have is very similar to yours (HP145). I tried the software first but to no avail. Then i located the battery : your great pictures helped a lot.
I put the printer on my desk. Opened it (like to change cartridges.), but of course, as usaully the top fell back down : the machine is not very user-friendly : it always tries to snap your fingers when you dare open it.
But now i pushed it back open a bit too far.. The scanner cover fell open, making it top-heavy. The entire machine broke in 2 , out of its hinges,snapping the cables connecting to the scanner. Great how userfriendly this machine is : i feel frustrated and clumsy (though i'm a mechanic.) Reinserted the cables , disconnected the battery for an hour or so. Powered up again and... there it was again : colour cartridge too old...
I do not want to critisize your post here ! I think it is correct and that my printer has another issue. I have another 2 D145 printers in the basement (left behind when changed under warranty (i had 4 in total on a 1 year span, all warranty. Hp helpdesk said they should never have marketed this model).
I love HP ! Gives true meaning to the word "all-in-one-printer. You get 3 of them, canabalise 2 to get one going (i hope).

21/5/08 20:08  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Good Job! :)

22/6/08 15:58  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ok - i'm so not ever going the hp route again! phone customer service was a JOKE! wanted to make me pay $35 to talk to a technical assistant for their crapy product?! i don't think so! next went the online chat route - again a joke. my "session expired" error due to an expired cartridge pissed me off! at the end of the chat i informed her that this indeed was my last hp and i was very discouraged in their product. she closed it by stating i should take a better look at the ink expiration dates! the nerve!! totally missed the point!!!!!

trying out the battery disconnection thing... let's pray it works - i've got 3 other expired cartridges - that's the end of buying bulk for me!

28/7/08 16:46  
Blogger DJK said...

To reset the Ink Levels and Expiry dates on a Photosmart 3200 series printer:

Unplug, plug in, unplug, plug in, unplug, plug in. Then, unplug. while holding the OK and CANCEL buttons, plug it in. When the screen goes blank, let go. Hit ON. All set.

5/8/08 17:05  
Blogger Guru said...

Hi everyone HP Cartridge expiration problem solved

Model : HP Business Inkjet 1000 series

Problem : Cartridge Expired

Solution : Normally you can't override cartridge expiration date problem but you can hack and overcome from the problem. As per the documents from the web saying this model can remember up to 3 cartridge of one particular colour. Normally each cartridge will expired within 2 1/2 years.

Mine also expired. To disable the link level feedback to system you have to unplug some cables inside of the printer. So you have to search web for that. I was also refilled the cartridge and reuse it upto 2 1/2 years. After that my 4 ink cartridges were expired and refuse to print even the ink levels were good.

How to overcome this problem. HP the International company's cartridge protection technology having some loop hole in their protection. They want more business than what they are selling. They don't like people refill and use their cartridge. They want to force the user to buy new cartridge get more profit.

Normally the each cartridges portion in the printer recognize and memorize the chip bottom of the each cartridge. For example the black cartridge part the printer recognize the chip fixed bottom inside the black cartridge. It won't check or memorize the other color cartridge chips.

I just removed the chip of the black using a nice blade and swap the chip of the pink (double side glue is used to paste the cartridge chip. You have to very carefully do this. Otherwise chip will damage). Do the same trick to other two cartridge. After you swap note down which cartridges you swaped and keep it in safe place. Later it is useful to swap it again. Better swap (1 and 2) (3 and 4). At least you can swap and use the cartridge for 10 years.

Other model of Business inkjet you have to try it yourself. It may work. Best of luck.

24/8/08 20:41  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

what about hp 95 & hp 96? i cant reset it. my hp 5940 make me nervous ;) (hp 343 339)

2/9/08 11:10  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

how do we find the cables in the hp business inkjet 1100. I can't find anything on the web

19/10/08 18:13  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

anyone got any help for doing either of these for a HP photosmart 2710 all in one:

1. finding the battery

2. how to find/edit the files to set the pencheck=0000 (tried using the regedit version posted by William, but couldn't find anything past the HKML point)

email mablock @ mail . com
or use the link if you got myspace

THANKS!!!

28/10/08 09:03  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Read more information on this topic from the horse's mouth... note that it only applies to certain printers:

http://www.hp.com/pageyield/articles/us/en/InkExpiration.html

11/11/08 20:54  
Blogger Unknown said...

GOT IT!
no more printer diassembling, no more chips swapping, no more money for chips or resseters.
Just a little tiny piny software for FREE (for all of us who bught these damn printers), which just patches the drivers, that I made.
If you need it, just email me at gikam@yahoo.com, put 'fixHP' in the subject.
good luck

18/11/08 10:42  
Blogger Bram said...

All,

For your information:

I just tried the program of gikam and it works perfectly!
First, I was a little paranoia (virus, malware, ...) but it changed a driver dll, changing the date it sends. Works like a charm!

All credits go to gikam!

20/1/09 20:40  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

can anyone tell me what to do when a F370 HP all-in-one printer dolls out blank pages when print command is given (copy & scan are OK)! i have gone thru all the troubleshooting steps only to land up to the nearest hp service stn.

26/2/09 12:16  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yup.. For the cp1700 the ol' plastic under the battery contact works great.

Simple way to do it? Take a long piece of stiff plastic ~ 130 x 12 mm and slide it in to the printer from the back, through the small gap right between the two printer interface cable connectors. As you push it in, reach in through the top of the printer and slightly deflect the plastic. It will slide right under the nasty little battery connector. I used a piece of that indestructible clear plastic that you mash your fingers on when trying to open packaging. Go buy a long dildo... works great! The plastic that is! :-)

Take THAT HP!

16/3/09 15:34  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I spent a lot of time messing with my 1100D and came up with the following solution...
(assumes printer is on a parallel port)
Create a folder with 2 files

'PRINTER.BAT'
DATE /T > date.dat
TYPE ancient.dat | date
PRINT ancient.dat >lpt1:
TYPE date.dat | date

and

'ANCIENT.DAT'
2001-01-01

(A single line which predates the lockout on your cartridges)

Create a shortcut on your desktop to 'PRINTER.BAT' and run this each time you power on your printer.

Try it!

25/3/09 00:26  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oops, tried the above and it failed. Possibly because I was originating my test docs from DOS.

25/3/09 00:54  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

for the HP 3210 Photosmart, the battery is located on the left side of the printer, next to the cartridges. To find the battery, open the very left side plastic cover of the printer, and there you will find a board inside you will see the battery.

4/5/09 16:02  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Review Hp Product Details & Product Promotions Before Help Your Decision.
http://astore.amazon.co.uk/buy.cheap-hp.epson.lexmark.brother.cannon.kodak-printers-21

25/5/09 04:56  
Anonymous HP 5500 toner said...

Great tutorial! Very informative in how well worded and descriptive you were! You know they say that if one knows how to describe what they want really well, then life is just as good as how you describe it :)
Its great for people who feel like time is running against them and then land on your blog and feel like a whole burden was just lifted off of their shoulder.. I admire and respect people who take
time to make it easier for others.. Thanks a bunch! :)

13/6/09 02:59  
Anonymous Generic Viagra said...

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25/8/09 18:38  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks DJK, worked perfect on 3200!
DJK said...
To reset the Ink Levels and Expiry dates on a Photosmart 3200 series printer:

Unplug, plug in, unplug, plug in, unplug, plug in. Then, unplug. while holding the OK and CANCEL buttons, plug it in. When the screen goes blank, let go. Hit ON. All set.

Let me add a few notes to this - you don't have to wait between the plug/unplug - just do that 3 times. Then when you do the final unplug, get ready, hold down the OK and CANCEL buttons and plug in - then it comes on with a start up screen for 4 or 5 seconds then goes blank - and that's when you let go and hit the ON button (if you didn't do that it would probably keep booting up and start) but now it also starts up and has a little quick message about something being reset (too fast for me to remember) and then it starts into a really long system maintenance, shows the ink levels and finally goes to normal - and prints! Very fun hack for a not so experienced hacker! A feeling of empowerment in overcoming the corporate b**turds!

15/9/09 01:46  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

HP business inkjet 1200 solution for expired cartridges. There is a 9 pin connector located behind the bottom cover under the ink cartridges. The cover can be removed by prying it off. It is held in by 4 fingers that lock it in place. After the cover is off, there is a plastic barrier that I cut the middle section out of to get access to the connector. I unplugged the connector and removed the white wire. I plugged the connector back in and now my expired cartridges worked just fine.

1/10/09 00:44  
Anonymous dose said...

I did a quick analysis of the problem and it seems that it can be solved by preventing the driver to send the current Timestamp to the printer when a print job is being processed. I wrote a little patch for the HP drivers.
Download it here.

7/10/09 15:11  
Blogger Unknown said...

I have several HP PSC3310.
Recentally two of them have told me that:
"hp the ink in the following cartridges are nearing its expiration date"

What the HELL ! I do not even use HP cartridges. I have refillable cartridges that are not supposed to expire.

I use Vista Ultimate x64.
The printer works fine, for now. But has me worried. I am heavily dependant upon this series of printers.

The pencheck=0000 trick FAILED.
Tried DJK's - OOB NVM RESET - Unplug, plug in, unplug, plug in, unplug, plug in. Trick. FAILED

Been Googling for two days. Found nothing.
Need help.

Elmbrooke@gmail.com

12/11/09 23:31  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Can anyone please tell me where is the battery located in hp photosmart 3210? thanx

11/7/10 00:43  
Anonymous Antonis said...

Hi, I have HP photosmart 3210 all-in-one. A cartridge has expired and as I read in the comments if you remove the battery the problem will be solved. Does anyone know where the battery is located in the printer?

thank you in advance
Antonis

11/7/10 16:30  

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