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About a month ago I bought a couple aftermarket black ink cartridges for my Epson printer.

The first had been working fine until a firmware upgrade the other day resulted in the cartridge 'Not being recognized' !

Well, a little checking into it revealed this is COMMON (particularly with Epson) in that they have firmware that renders aftermarket cartridges in-op to prevent one from buying lower cost alternatives !

So I called Epson and spoke to Sukiyaki Saki and was told it cannot be reversed (by them) and they would not 'comp' me with new cartridges!

Pretty PO'd to say the least!
 
I have a standing policy on pretty much never upgrading the firmware of stuff unless it's to fix something that is broken, and to research it beforehand, for exactly this reason.
 
I have a standing policy on pretty much never upgrading the firmware of stuff unless it's to fix something that is broken, and to research it beforehand, for exactly this reason.
Trust me - if I HAD known beforehand this was an issue with aftermarket cartridges I would have not upgraded and would have set the software update settings to NEVER!
 
I'm surprised Epson did this. Many years ago, I worked for a information security company that specializes in cryptography and in particular, their specialty was is the implementation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography. HP approached us to develop a method that will allow them to digitally sign their cartridges in such a way that 3rd party products won't work and used cartridges cannot be refilled and reused.

Remember that printer ink, priced by volume, is more expensive than human blood so HP had a lot of incentive to do this.

At the last minute though, HP execs pulled the project in fear that they will face lawsuits, so the feature was never implemented. Perhaps those same folks sold the same tech to Epson.
 
I'm surprised Epson did this. Many years ago, I worked for a information security company that specializes in cryptography and in particular, their specialty was is the implementation of Elliptic Curve Cryptography. HP approached us to develop a method that will allow them to digitally sign their cartridges in such a way that 3rd party products won't work and used cartridges cannot be refilled and reused.

Remember that printer ink, priced by volume, is more expensive than human blood so HP had a lot of incentive to do this.

At the last minute though, HP execs pulled the project in fear that they will face lawsuits, so the feature was never implemented. Perhaps those same folks sold the same tech to Epson.
By now they may even be able to look for slight differences in behavior or characteristics that the existing sensors already pick up between their cartridges and aftermarket. A software solution that requires no hardware changes would be much cheaper to implement.
 
Update !

Lemero, the seller of the cartridges are replacing mine N/C with updated cartridges that will work and suggested I block any further auto updates to the printer!
 
Update !

Lemero, the seller of the cartridges are replacing mine N/C with updated cartridges that will work and suggested I block any further auto updates to the printer!

The other path would have been to downgrade to the previous version. Most companies provide the latest plus at least the last two. You may have to dig to find them.

Good on Lemero!
 
The other path would have been to downgrade to the previous version.
Trust me - I spent a couple hours attempting to do this and Epson does NOT have previous versions available.

There are sites that have 'chipless' firmware upgrades available for an 'activation fee'.

I found a YT vid that described how to do this and learned how to put my printer into the update mode to accomplish this. The author said he provided a link to a site with downgrade firmware in the description of the video but I could not see it as I am not a 'subscriber' to his site.

I did find a site that had drivers available to download but my printer model was NOT on the list.
 
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Well, not just MY interests but that of all their potential customers who own Epson printers!

Isn't it all printer manufacturers? I know the HPs I've had over the years got the same thing going on. My old HP would take remans from "499 Inks". It striped some splines and we had to get a new one. HP again. the old one had print-heads as part of the printer. You could clean them. This new one the print head in the $40.00+ cartridge, and still dries out wasting 1/2 or more of the ink.:mad: Thieving basturds!
 
Isn't it all printer manufacturers? I know the HPs I've had over the years got the same thing going on. My old HP would take remans from "499 Inks". It striped some splines and we had to get a new one. HP again. the old one had print-heads as part of the printer. You could clean them. This new one the print head in the $40.00+ cartridge, and still dries out wasting 1/2 or more of the ink.:mad: Thieving basturds!
This is why I have a laser printer now. Less issues with that. I use mine once every couple of months and I've never had to clean the head. Still on the same cartridge for a couple of years now.
 
This is why I have a laser printer now. Less issues with that. I use mine once every couple of months and I've never had to clean the head. Still on the same cartridge for a couple of years now.
A quick look tells me an affordable laser jet is black/white only? I want to be able to do color too. Don't need it usually, but need the option. Am I just screwed? I know the answer is remembering to print a color-test page every couple of weeks, but I/we forget.

What a racket printers/ink are!
 
A quick look tells me an affordable laser jet is black/white only? I want to be able to do color too. Don't need it usually, but need the option. Am I just screwed? I know the answer is remembering to print a color-test page every couple of weeks, but I/we forget.

What a racket printers/ink are!
I just go to Kinko's or Office Depot when I need color since I rarely do. Not worth the investment in my case. I can get better quality prints from them than I would from any home printer in my price range.

I have to imagine that at some point in the future you'll be able to 3D print a printer cartridge. What a day that will be. :D
 

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