HP raising Instant Ink subscription pricing significantly

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to Technology@lemmy.world – 820 points –
HP raising Instant Ink subscription pricing significantly - gHacks Tech News
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Until the software counter decides that the waste ink pad is full and the thing blows a software fuse.

Epson's official solution to a full pad is to throw out your printer and buy a new one - literally a printer with a self destruct timer. Not very "eco".

Cursory research about this seems you can replace it yourself for $10. Are you sure about this?

Yes, the hardware (a cheap sponge, essentially) that the counter "protects" is easily replaced for little money - but you still can't just reset the counter.

https://epson.com/support/epson-ink-pads-reset-utility-faqs

For "North American users" Epson now offers a tool to reset the self destruct counter one, single, time.

There are third parties now, that offer a reset of the software destruct counter, for a fee.

The fact that a printer sold as "Eco" has a software self destruct that the user requires an unlock key to reset - an occurrence frequent enough to make it a profitable business for third parties to sell such keys - should tell you all you need to know about these printers.

I couldn't confirm, but there supposedly are more premium models with user serviceable waste ink tanks that don't have a self destruct, but most consumer models very much have this limitation.

Thanks for the info, that's absurd. I don't know why more people are talking about this then.