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There's a very simple fix for this problem: don't buy inkjet printers. Only buy laser printers. In addition to avoiding this kind of problem, you'll avoid man

There's a very simple fix for this problem: don't buy inkjet printers. Only buy laser printers. In addition to avoiding this kind of problem, you'll avoid many other problems, such as ink drying out and cartridges needing to be replaced because you didn't print anything for 2 months.

asdfqwertzxcv 4y ago
Reccs for good laser printers that accept generic drums and toner? Brother used to be great but newer versions block most 3rd party toners and drums.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  I was going to suggest Brother... My last Brother was about 5 years old, and had no trouble with 3rd-party toner carts.
- timonoko 4y ago
  Samsung CLP-310 was the last one you can buy color toner in one liter bottles from Ebay for 10€. Filling those cartridges yourself is messy business. The powder is almost like liquid and stains everything.
  - timonoko 4y ago
    BTW. Worth mentioning is that CLP-310 has to be quite new still using its maiden cartridges. Those were chipless and allow only 1000 prints. But you can reset this counter by shorting certain pins and then fill those cartridges 4ever.
    - timonoko 4y ago
      CLP-310 motherboard is 45€ on Aliexpress. It might be that by replacing this you can produce a new "maiden" machine. Easy job. I once took CLP-310 apart and then realized that only thing broken was the thermostat on the drum heater, so I replaced that and put everything back together.
- m_adrian 4y ago
  Brother has a series called Tonerbenefit, but I think it is only available in Eastern Europe. The initial cost is higher for the printer, but the original toner is dirt cheap. https://www.brother.sk/printers/laser-printers/hl-b2080dw https://www.brother.sk/printers/laser-printers/hl-b2080dw Sorry I can’t find a page in English. Before that I used a Canon inkjet with CISS system, but I have always problem with it. It is good for people who prints a lot every day, I mean really lot and do not care if the printer needs some maintenance.
londons_explore 4y ago
I have a Samsung laser printer that also pulls this shit. I had to spend a few days in IDA pro and Ghidra to patch the firmware to remove the ink level checks from all the right places. Would you believe - even the firmware for the roller checks the ink level before reporting it's own health status!
- mburee 4y ago
  How hard was it to get firmware/flash it in the first place? I assume the driver updates are easy to get but the actual flashing tools always scare me enough to never try stuff like that myself.
  - londons_explore 4y ago
    I found the firmware in a big FTP index on hp.com (Samsung's printer division was bought by HP). The actual flashing is normally done by a special print job which has commands to flash each of the ~7 different firmwares onto the right internal components. Yes, that means anyone with access to print on the printer can update the firmware to do absolutely anything... But, if you're doing firmware hacking and screw it up, the software won't boot sufficiently to be able to be reflashed with that method, so you'll also want to pull the hardware apart so you can get a dump of the flash chip to restore when you mess up. The hardest bit is not patching the code, but figuring out how the crc's, checksums, and memory layouts work. Get that wrong, and it either won't flash or won't boot.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]

asdfqwertzxcv 4y ago

Reccs for good laser printers that accept generic drums and toner? Brother used to be great but newer versions block most 3rd party toners and drums.

midoridensha 4y ago
I was going to suggest Brother... My last Brother was about 5 years old, and had no trouble with 3rd-party toner carts.
timonoko 4y ago
Samsung CLP-310 was the last one you can buy color toner in one liter bottles from Ebay for 10€. Filling those cartridges yourself is messy business. The powder is almost like liquid and stains everything.
- timonoko 4y ago
  BTW. Worth mentioning is that CLP-310 has to be quite new still using its maiden cartridges. Those were chipless and allow only 1000 prints. But you can reset this counter by shorting certain pins and then fill those cartridges 4ever.
  - timonoko 4y ago
    CLP-310 motherboard is 45€ on Aliexpress. It might be that by replacing this you can produce a new "maiden" machine. Easy job. I once took CLP-310 apart and then realized that only thing broken was the thermostat on the drum heater, so I replaced that and put everything back together.
m_adrian 4y ago
Brother has a series called Tonerbenefit, but I think it is only available in Eastern Europe. The initial cost is higher for the printer, but the original toner is dirt cheap. https://www.brother.sk/printers/laser-printers/hl-b2080dw https://www.brother.sk/printers/laser-printers/hl-b2080dw Sorry I can’t find a page in English. Before that I used a Canon inkjet with CISS system, but I have always problem with it. It is good for people who prints a lot every day, I mean really lot and do not care if the printer needs some maintenance.

londons_explore 4y ago

I have a Samsung laser printer that also pulls this shit. I had to spend a few days in IDA pro and Ghidra to patch the firmware to remove the ink level checks from all the right places. Would you believe - even the firmware for the roller checks the ink level before reporting it's own health status!

mburee 4y ago
How hard was it to get firmware/flash it in the first place? I assume the driver updates are easy to get but the actual flashing tools always scare me enough to never try stuff like that myself.
- londons_explore 4y ago
  I found the firmware in a big FTP index on hp.com (Samsung's printer division was bought by HP). The actual flashing is normally done by a special print job which has commands to flash each of the ~7 different firmwares onto the right internal components. Yes, that means anyone with access to print on the printer can update the firmware to do absolutely anything... But, if you're doing firmware hacking and screw it up, the software won't boot sufficiently to be able to be reflashed with that method, so you'll also want to pull the hardware apart so you can get a dump of the flash chip to restore when you mess up. The hardest bit is not patching the code, but figuring out how the crc's, checksums, and memory layouts work. Get that wrong, and it either won't flash or won't boot.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]