It's not unlikely. A while ago I had to deal with a laser printer that automatically reported the end of the drum's life after 15000 pages or so, even if there

It's not unlikely. A while ago I had to deal with a laser printer that automatically reported the end of the drum's life after 15000 pages or so, even if there were no signs of stripes on the printed pages. The solution was to stick a 220 ohm resistor on the electric contacts between the drum and the rest of the printer. The printer would sense the resistor (which is present on genuine new drums too) as a signal to reset the page counter. Once the resistor gives a puff of smoke it can be removed, and the old drum can be used until its true end of life.