HP pre-programmed failure date of unofficial/ non-HP ink cartridges in its printers

Thousands of HP printers around the world started to show error messages on the same day, the 13th of September 2016.

It’s very unlikely that a firmware update caused the issues and the only other logical explanation is that HP programmed a date in its firmware on which non-HP cartridges would no longer be accepted.

A temporarily workaround is flashing firmware from 2014 but, according to 123inkt, this can’t be easily performed by regular consumers. The retailer calls for HP to at least make the old firmware available to its customers.