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A Personal and Social Justice Issue Solved

This is a story with a horrible start and a delightful end. My HP 8710 Inkjet Printer, which I purchased new very cheaply because it was an overstock item, suddenly and inexplicably failed, in a way that convinced me that some part of the hardware had failed. Replacing it was out of the question; used ones sell for more than $300, plus shipping. New ones are as much as $600.

What I discovered is that HP had issued what is called a "firmware update" - an update to the printer's internal micro-computer software. This update disables the printer if any of the ink cartridges were refilled or re-manufactured, that is, not new original retail HP cartridges. The company had previously agreed publicly to allow such cartridges, with a warning that using them would invalidate their warranty and that you agreed to this warning.

This "firmware update" - which was published sometime in 2019 - could be downloaded and installed anytime automatically, without any warning. This is the default setting programmed in the printer. However it happened - for all I know, I might have said "yes" to a notification that the printer was due for this update - the printer just stopped printing. The cute little spinning circle on the printer's LCD screen that indicates that the printer is doing something, just stayed there, doing nothing, forever. I tried every published diagnostic procedure and tool possible, and all of them indicated I needed to call HP Support, that is, the printer had a hardware failure.

I was in despair. I could not afford to buy a new printer. There had been a brief power failure early that morning, so I thought that the printer had taken some sort of power hit.

But there were a couple of hints that there might something else involved. One of the diagnostic tools indicated a cartridge problem. Some of the color cartridges were very low in ink, so I attempted to install some fresh cartridges - re-manufactured ones produced by the premier recycler of HP cartridges - CompAndSave - that I had purchased late last year. When I did, the printer did not recognize them. This was odd, as these had been recognized before, with the non-HP cartridge warning I mentioned earlier. I did a bit more research, and there were several articles that mentioned the existence of the "firmware update" not recognizing re-manufactured cartridges, along with warnings to avoid this update. Some articles said that the update was even causing some original, retail HP cartridges to fail.

At that point, I became suspicious. I checked the firmware status of the printer, and sure enough the printer status informed me that it was "up to date." I put back the original cartridges. I checked the scan capability of the printer, and it still worked. I ran the ink maintenance test of the printer, and it printed the report, as if there was nothing wrong. So the printer was basically working. But ordinary document printing and copying just stalled with the little spinning circle.

So it appeared to me that this "firmware upgrade" was likely the cause of the problem. Perhaps I could find a copy of the previous firmware, and somehow force the printer to downgrade to it. Several of the articles in the HP Community forum said - in no uncertain terms - that there was no way to do this, the downgrade firmware was not available, and even if I found it somewhere that attempting to install it would fail.

But in one of my nights of insomnia, I found an article at the website of my HP cartridge re-manufacturer - CompAndSave - that had exactly what was needed: a "downgrade" copy of the firmware previous to HP's "update" and instructions on how to install it into the printer.

With some trepidation, I downloaded the one for my HP 8710. After unzipping and telling the Microsoft checker that it was OK and not a virus, I double-clicked it, again after the usual security check, and it began downloading into the printer. It took almost 10 minutes. And then - VOILA! - the printer was making the usual noises that in the past indicated it was ready to print. I pressed the copy icon on the printer, and it copied! I created a Notepad window that said "Hello" and sent it to the printer, and it printed it! And when I put in a fresh re-manufactured cartridge, it was accepted with the usual HP warranty warning. Everything was working as before. Perfectly.

We have not really reached the end of the story. This is a social justice issue because many thousands of people worldwide use non-HP cartridges because they cannot afford the outrageous prices charged by HP for ink and toner cartridges.

A class action lawsuit was filed against HP in 2021, and many people joined in the class action. A judge allowed the lawsuit to go forward, and quite suddenly HP began distributing firmware that had the original behavior, allowing the printer to work again.

Thus, if you are familiar with downloading firmware updates from the HP website, the proceed to do that for your printer.

I finally gave up with attempting to describe what to do if you have problems using a non-HP ink or toner cartridge in short articles here on this website, and finally decided to publish a cheap booklet on Kindle that is applicable whether you are a printer expeet or novice. I have hyperlinked the title so you can just cliek on it to order it from Amazon.

The HP Third Party Cartridge Retrofit Kit: 
How to safely use non-HP cartridges in your HP Printer

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HP Printer Stopped Working? - HP Firmware Downgrades