Yesterday I installed a refilled 951XL HP cartridge in my printer and it doesn't accept it anymore. It says it is a HP Cartridrige but depleted error.
In the past using two different sets of refilled HP 951 cartridges was good enough for the printer to accept and keep printing. But I then noticed that on 03/2021 a new HP Firmware was installed. Now what had been working for over 5 years doesn't work anymore.
I found a blog (German) where the Author who covers HP says he has been getting reports of the same issue I am having with my Officejet Pro 8620 and other HP Printer models since the new update from other Customers.
Unfortuanetly I can't reverse or downgrade the HP Firmware even though I tried. I read that any printer manufactured after December 2016 downgrading was prevented or made impossible.
I even went so far as to install Window's Ubuntu App which runs Linux in Windows using WSL feature to try and use a linux program to downgrade my HP Printer firmware. But it didn't work. My HP Printer refused the command to downgrade.
HP did this once before with a HP Firmware update and there was such a public furor by HP Users and businesses that HP was forced to send out a second Firmware to make 3rd party and refilled cartridges work again.
Hopefully the same thing will happen again. But for now the only solution I have is purchasing new HP cartridges or see if by installing a ARC (Auto Reset Counter) chip on the HP Cartridges I have now will work or not.
For now I have disabled "Auto Updates" on my printer to prevent this is the future.
I feel that this is not entirely a security issue but a Profit issue for HP preventing 3rd party or refilled Ink cartridges from working. This new firmware update forces HP Customers into purchasing overpriced HP cartridges instead of using less expensive 3rd party or refilled cartridges.
In my opinion, HP can give away their HP Printers and still make a nice profit selling HP cartridges. Thus the HP Firmware update.
FYI: If anyone is interested in trying to downgrade from the latest HP Firmware you can download a previous HP Firmware from HP FTP site: ftp://ftp.hp.com/
This is the link where I found my previous HP Firmware for my HP Officejet PRo 8620:ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/networking/software/pfirmware/
In case their HP printers allows Firmware downgrades or if anyone wants to try and downgrade the latest HP Firmware on their printer, if possible.
