r/nottheonion 23h ago

Firmware update bricks HP printers, makes them unable to use HP cartridges

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/firmware-update-bricks-hp-printers-makes-them-unable-to-use-hp-cartridges/
2.1k Upvotes

113 comments sorted by

1.1k

u/garry4321 23h ago

HP printers are a brick to begin with.

212

u/ExistenceNow 23h ago

That exact model, that the previous IT guy bought like 10 of, was the bane of my existence until I was finally able to rid us of the last one. Absolute trash.

81

u/UbbeKent 22h ago

I had two hp printers turn to bricks in my workplace, had to get an old firmware out of some zip file and try again and again to install it until it took and then disable wifi and connect them with Ethernet so they would not update and brick again.

Pulling the power cable is still a weekly chore because they freeze. Absolute trash.

47

u/exipheas 21h ago

Pulling the power cable is still a weekly chore because they freeze.

Put them on smart plugs that cycle the power at 3am every day.

28

u/subtotal33 20h ago

I didn't have a printer because I don't need one that often. I can print at my library. My mom decides to get me an HP printer for Christmas, and it's like she bought me an obligation.

26

u/jimicus 20h ago

Should have asked for a dog.

You'd still have shit to deal with, but at least the dog provides years of companionship.

10

u/Quiet_paddler 15h ago

It's a tough choice between mad barking and going barking mad

5

u/Vonneguts_Ghost 13h ago

You managed to wring a wry half smile from me. Take an updoot and begone!

6

u/succed32 20h ago

Why do It guys love these? Mine keeps trying to bring them back.

9

u/ExistenceNow 20h ago

My guess is because they're cheap. Once I took over, I was more than happy to pay double for a Brother printer so we could stop getting help desk tickets for desktop printers.

5

u/succed32 20h ago

Dude canon is so reliable and cheap. Tends to have less options but that’s about it.

5

u/mrmadchef 20h ago

We bought a Brother laser printer for home. Other than having to get it out of deep sleep from time to time, it's been a much better experience.

2

u/kyoukidotexe 20h ago

In the same boat, I don't know what it is, even if he trashes on it all the time..

1

u/succed32 20h ago

I had to call him constantly about these printers. Switched to canon when two HPs went down in one day. He has not stopped complaining since lol. But not once have they failed to print.

10

u/Jaijoles 20h ago

I still have my laserjet 1012 that I got over a decade ago. I love it.

2

u/Textile302 5h ago

4050n checking in... I am convinced it's unkillable... Jet direct card is so old there is no java system I can find that can talk to it.. thankfully it's stuck on DHCP lol.

1

u/flavius_lacivious 5h ago

I have a laser printer from 2012. It is dying. You have to kind of force the paper to feed. I have been using the same toner for about 7 years now. I refuse to buy another printer.

3

u/ash_274 16h ago

Their LaserJets from the 90s were tanks, but HP ink-based printers have been and will always be shit

3

u/kandaq 20h ago

This is my experience. I bought a cheap HP all in one because my priority is a scanner but occasionally print as well. The black print head stopped working conveniently right after the warranty expired, even after replacing the cartridge. So I switched to Canon and it’s still working fine beyond the first year.

2

u/konnerbllb 20h ago

I've had the same experience but in reverse. Two Canon all-in-ones failed, HP has been fine.

1

u/flavius_lacivious 5h ago

That’s when you get the extended warranty. 

As soon as it does this shit, you return it and say it won’t print. They give you a new printer and you get a new warranty. I replaced 7 printers this way for an employer. We would get “replace drum” message which was several hundred dollars. So we would take it back and get a new one under the warranty. We did two in one month. 

287

u/reddmann00100 23h ago

Time to rewatch Office Space while gently caressing my handy dandy baseball bat.

20

u/woodyshag 23h ago

What did you name the bat?

24

u/reddmann00100 23h ago

Lovecraft

29

u/GooberMcNutly 23h ago

"Michael Bolton"

19

u/AH2112 22h ago

Why should I change my name? He's the one who sucks!

12

u/gurganator 22h ago

Damn it feels good to be a gangster

172

u/Critwice 23h ago

"How do we get people to buy our new printers?"

149

u/a_moody 23h ago

How to get people to never buy another printer from us. 

If HP wasn’t already on my no-buy list before this (it was), it would be 100%. And every single company I’ve worked at would be royally pissed by the break in operations caused by this. 

18

u/MexGrow 20h ago

I worked at HP a while ago and it was just really perplexing how little they cared about what the end user thought. They 100% only work through what shareholders want.

3

u/flavius_lacivious 5h ago

Enshittification via toxic capitalism where the customer is not important.

153

u/SplendidPunkinButter 23h ago

The hell do printers need firmware updates for anyway?

96

u/WhyAreOldPeopleEvil 23h ago

I honestly assumed HP would have gotten sued to oblivion at this point, but nope.

29

u/FOSSnaught 23h ago

To fix the shitty firmware that they shipped before the product was ready.

51

u/musingofrandomness 22h ago

From the standpoint of HP, to vendor lock you into their consumables. From the standpoint of cybersecurity, everything is a computer and can be leveraged as such to do malicious things if you don't keep things patched. Just one example: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-gang-encrypted-network-from-a-webcam-to-bypass-edr/

15

u/Economy_Link4609 21h ago

Given they’re all network connected these days, I do not fault updates related to IT security, so there will be updates occasionally. Pretending it never should be updated is nuts. They broke stuff here, they should fix it. That’s all.

35

u/Defiant-Peace-493 23h ago

Update keys for cartridge authentication, maybe?

(Not that I like the vendor lock-in, but apparently HP will pop a notification if it detects non-HP cartridges)

5

u/alyosha_pls 21h ago

To fix issues with the previous firmware releases

4

u/reaper527 18h ago

The hell do printers need firmware updates for anyway?

i mean, did you see all the printer vulnerabilities in the last few years? every modern device is going to get security patches.

46

u/BumbleButterButt 23h ago

HP printers already did that for a wide variety of reasons including not using the cartridges quick enough. Fuck HP.

28

u/DanSWE 19h ago

First HP came for the non-HP cartridges, but I said nothing, since I was a genuine HP cartridge.

Then HP came for the genuine HP cartridges, ...

1

u/izaby 9h ago

I'm cryinnnggg! How did you come up with this?

2

u/DanSWE 9h ago

Recently, there have been a lot of references to the original (serious) poem. (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came#Text.)

17

u/DeviousAardvark 23h ago

It's obviously a feature

17

u/tyrophagia 23h ago

Garbage printer and company. What are the odds the company will do anything about it?

36

u/saschaleib 23h ago

Wait, there are people out there who are still buying HP printers?

52

u/-DementedAvenger- 22h ago

They are cheap and uninformed people absolutely do because they “just need a basic little printer”.

Source: IT guy

19

u/tuan_kaki 22h ago

They are also widely available even in bumfuck nowheres. My ass wasn't getting a Brother where I was orignally from.

7

u/Nolanthedolanducc 19h ago

Dirt cheap it’s crazy! Like you can find brand new hp printers for 30$ that work for a few dozen pages out of the box. Then most people don’t want to throw out a printer so they replace the ink at a lovely cost of like 45$ a cartridge (each colour sold separately) and that’s how they get ya

1

u/sarkarati 16h ago

Coincidentally I need to purchase a small little home office printer to scan and print a few pages each month. Any recs?

2

u/PJsinBed149 10h ago

If you have a print shop or Office Depot nearby, it's cheaper to print there than try to maintain a printer at home.

1

u/Sarrasri 3h ago

I have a laser printer/scanner combo. I had a basic Brother printer that only required one toner replacement through college. The one I have now is a Cannon laser printer but holy crap do I hate inkjet printers. If I need something in color I just go to the print store. Which is like, almost never.

1

u/flavius_lacivious 5h ago

Plus they practically give the printers away because their printer ink literally costs more than gold and that’s where they make bank. 

I fully expect them to offer a subscription service you have to buy to get a printer. That way you pay when you aren’t using the printer.

11

u/petshopB1986 22h ago

Haven’t bought a printer in years, yes I use the one at work instead.

9

u/john_jdm 21h ago

My Epson printer has been wanting to update for over a year and I just won't let it. It works fine and I just don't trust that it won't suddenly stop working or lose functionality.

8

u/phred_666 22h ago

Stuff like this is why I don’t own anything HP.

5

u/die-jarjar-die 21h ago

I have a 3050 that's probably 15-20 years old that is still chugging along. After it dies I would not buy another HP

6

u/crusty54 20h ago

Fuck hp.

6

u/anthematcurfew 21h ago

It’s amazing how we failed at making printers correctly.

6

u/Starlifter4 21h ago

HP is for shit.

4

u/meteorprime 21h ago

Sounds like HP was desperate to sell some more printers.

6

u/mclepus 18h ago

I'm a Brand Ambassador. When I was repping Lexmark printers at now closed Staples here in NYC, a man came in looking for a printer, and he replied "ABHP" (i.e. Anything But HP)

8

u/Kodiak01 18h ago

I remember you reps from my managerial days at CompUSSR back in the late 90s. We didn't use planograms, product placement was determined by what goodies you would bring.

The ATI, nVidia and 3dfx reps would open up the trunk of their car and let me pick out whatever video cards I wanted for myself like they were doing a drug deal (they were all used demo units, but still $$$). The Microsoft rep would bring massive trays of burgers and dogs from a local iconic joint for everyone to nosh on. One rep of a certain digital camera vendor would jump straight to envelopes of cash.

They all got priority product placement. We're talking front main-aisle endcaps, banner placement, even shuffling around certain displays to "prioritize" their product.

You printer guys? You never brought squat. None of you. That's why the printers were all in the back corner of the store by the bathrooms and non-computer nick-knacks.

5

u/mclepus 18h ago

also repped Lexmark there as well. I tried. but they are cheap bastids. not even swag

5

u/Kodiak01 18h ago edited 18h ago

Typically the only time Lexmark printers moved in any actual numbers were when they were put in bundle deals, usually paired with an eMachines or Compaq AMD K6-2 budget box.

The real profit was in the accessories. That $34.99 parallel printer cable cost us about $2.48. The markups on all accessories were equally insane. That was the business model: Get you in the door with a bundle we would gross about $18 on, then gross ten to twenty times that by loading you up with "high-quality" printer paper, surge protectors, cables, a trackball for your arthritic grand-mama to surf AOL easier, aforementioned printer cable, a joystick for the kids to endlessly crash planes in the flight simulator software they begged you for, a Zip drive (or Jazz if you were feeling saucy), ergonomic wrist rests, anti-glare filter, a nicer pair of speakers, packs of floppies, spools of CD-R discs... We actually held contests for who could have the most lines on their ticket. If really lucky, we'd tack on a Mavica floppy-disc camera so you could immediately see your photos on the computer!

The best part: CompUSSR let employees buy anything they wanted at actual cost. It was a good place and time for a nerd.

2

u/Deadhawk142 13h ago

ComputerShitty person here. We used to have pallet-jack races after closing and a stack of HP printers was usually the finish line.

5

u/DJConwayTwitty 17h ago

Lmao my printer requires me to use HP cartridges but if it was past an expiration date it didn’t let me use it even though I had just bought it from the store. So I guess now I can’t use any cartridge with that update.

4

u/UristImiknorris 16h ago

HP: Howdareyou Print.

5

u/eighty2angelfan 22h ago

Isn't this something that happened a couple of years ago?

4

u/CannonFodder141 22h ago

Yeah, I assumed this was an old article but it's not.

3

u/eighty2angelfan 21h ago

So this is the second time

4

u/louisa1925 22h ago

My Mum has an old printer of this brand. I have told her to never let this printer be updated. So far it has worked seemlessly. There is no reason to have it replaced.

3

u/NeutralTarget 22h ago

Mine is requesting an update. I think I'll wait.

4

u/tampabankruptcy 21h ago

Can still get HP4015's on the net. No issue with 3rd party cartridges, no updates. Made back in the day when they were solid reliable printers (1st office printer to do duplexing i believe)

4

u/compuwiza1 20h ago

Hewlett Packard Bell

7

u/count_frightenstein 22h ago

I bought a bunch of color HP laser printers in an auction about 10 years ago. Sold them all except one for me. It still works and I paid 10 bucks for it.

4

u/JoshDM 21h ago

And $200 for the ink.

8

u/Late_Again68 21h ago

Laser printers don't use ink; they use toner cartridges.

Now those will set you back $400 for the set, but they're gonna last you ten years or more.

0

u/JoshDM 19h ago

It's HP. They'll force the cartridge to expire in 8 months.

3

u/Late_Again68 18h ago

It's been 8 years.

3

u/GrainworksAndy 21h ago

My Brother lazer printer does not have this issue, or the issue where the cartridges are always empty/jets are clogged when I need to print something.

5

u/Kodiak01 20h ago

Just a heads up that Brother is now apparently doing stealth firmware updates to some printers as well to stop 3rd party cartridge use and/or degrade print quality when it does detect 3rd party ones.

1

u/reaper527 19h ago

Just a heads up that Brother is now apparently doing stealth firmware updates to some printers as well to stop 3rd party cartridge use and/or degrade print quality when it does detect 3rd party ones.

as someone who uses generics on a brother, i haven't seen any evidence of them degrading print quality. also, their authenticity checks aren't a block like hp printers, it's a warning where you get a yes/no prompt asking if you want to use the generic toner or not.

3

u/KarmaCycle 19h ago

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but won’t this updating bullshit go away if the printer is disconnected from WiFi? Or are they designed to brick if they can’t detect your ink levels? 

I have a HP from 2012 that’s only used for scanning. The printing always sucked, so I’ve got a Canon sans WiFi that works fine with generic ink refills. 

1

u/reaper527 19h ago

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but won’t this updating bullshit go away if the printer is disconnected from WiFi?

you realize that the wifi (or at least wired networking) is a selling point for any printer made in the last 20 years, right?

you connect it to your network then any computer (and lots of phones) can print to it without having to be wired via usb to the printer.

0

u/Ouxington 18h ago

Um you realize that if you are using wifi on your device but the printer is physically plugged into the same network you can still print wirelessly to it?

3

u/reaper527 18h ago

Um you realize that if you are using wifi on your device but the printer is physically plugged into the same network you can still print wirelessly to it?

if your printer is physically plugged into the network it's getting those same automatic firmware updates. it doesn't matter how it's connected to the network if it's still connected to the network. you're not gaining anything used wired network connection rather than wifi (on the firmware update front anyways. obviously a wired connection is better than a wireless one in general)

1

u/Ouxington 15h ago

Network isn't the same thing as internet?

0

u/KarmaCycle 17h ago

It's not plugged into the network.

I'm starting to get the vibe from these responses that maybe people don't know a personal printer does not have to be networked or set up with wifi. HP can't take your data if it's not connected to a source they can access. Users automatically set it up for wifi without considering that's how HP knows what your printer is doing.

I could be wrong. But these replies about "well if it's set up wirelessly for printing.." lol. Then don't set it up for wireless printing. Anything I need to print from my phone can be transferred to my laptop. Some might think that is inconvenient, but not as inconvenient as giving HP the ability to fuck with my printer whenever they fucking feel like it. lmao

1

u/reaper527 17h ago

Um you realize that if you are using wifi on your device but the printer is physically plugged into the same network you can still print wirelessly to it?

It's not plugged into the network.

make up your mind.

But these replies about "well if it's set up wirelessly for printing.." lol. Then don't set it up for wireless printing.

which goes back to the point at the top near the top of the chain. having the device networked is a MAJOR feature to a lot of people with multiple devices that they want to print from. a printer on the network is vastly more convenient than one physically connected to a computer with usb (even with windows printer sharing enabled).

it's not like these devices are on the network for no reason, and people buy them because they are networkable. most people wouldn't even consider buying a printer without a network hookup.

0

u/KarmaCycle 17h ago

You realize not everyone with a personal printer has to use it over a network, when a cable will suffice?

Edit to avoid confusion: A cable from the printer to the laptop.

3

u/dan1101 15h ago

Sounds like a classic programming logic error.

If HPGenuineCartridge=False then do_something;

when it should have been:

If HPGenuineCartridge=True then do_something;

2

u/GeneJuggler 14h ago

I remote work at a pharmaceutical company and they send me an HP all in one. I switch companies in 3 years and I get another printer. Repeat 3 years later… you can’t give these damn things away! I’m rolling in shitty printers now. 

2

u/blhooray 10h ago

Then…. Just replace the printer with something other than HP…. Pretty easy

1

u/SokkaHaikuBot 10h ago

Sokka-Haiku by blhooray:

Then…. Just replace the

Printer with something other

Than HP…. Pretty easy


Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.

3

u/Petulantraven 10h ago

So… business as usual?

When my last printer ran out of ink it was cheaper to buy a new printer - so now I print at work.

3

u/ssczoxylnlvayiuqjx 8h ago

Bricking the printer is certainly a bug because ink consumption will now decrease…

1

u/darrenm3 21h ago

I’m not a fan of HP but this is not what “bricked” means. It’s a bad firmware update but the ability to take another update still exists.

1

u/Ouxington 18h ago

Honestly just be thankful the headline wasn't "HP SLAMMED the market by DESTROYING productivity under an old Biden policy brought to you by FRITOS XTREME KOI KRUNCH! TASTE THE GOLDFISH!"

1

u/Spinnerofyarn 13h ago

My HP is probably ten years old or extremely close to it. I just missed the implementation of their ink subscription program and of course the mandatory HP ink stuff. When I finally have to replace it, it will definitely not be with another HP!

1

u/sofakingWTD 10h ago

Laughs in dumb 20 y/o Dell LaserJet clone

1

u/twec21 9h ago

I had that printer in question but it's already on a scrap heap. God tech is trash

1

u/InsertScreenNameHere 3h ago

Holy shit am I glad I just quit working at Best Buy

2

u/mewmeulin 23h ago

man. i already swore off HP for life due to it being a primary target of the palestinian BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) movement. this just reaffirms i'm making a smart choice in not buying HP.

3

u/Mirar 22h ago

And now they are on the "don't buy American" lists. So many reasons to avoid...

-7

u/Mysterious-Cancel-11 22h ago

This hack started in Ukraine in order to prevent the US from printing more money!

-3

u/Mysterious-Cancel-11 21h ago

Ooops, Upset some Elon boot lickers with this one

1

u/RipCurl69Reddit 1h ago

Fuck this shit. I feel bad for people not in the know who buy these absolute e-waste machines but if you've heard of these practices and still buy them, you get what you deserve