I’d like to print this document *yup* It’s in black and white *yup* And since it’s in black and white, you don’t need colors to print it *That makes sense to me* Then print it *Need magenta ink*
Don't know about magenta, but most printers also print yellow microdots called the Machine Identification Code on every single paper they make, they identify the device that printed the document and can give clues as to who printed it. It's been a thing since the mid-80's and people only learned about it in 2004. You'd need special equipment to see them clearly, and even if you do, you'd need to know how to decode them to get any information out of them. Like I said, they ARE yellow, and are printed on EVERY paper, even if in black and white. They're small but they're printed several times (in case the printing process makes them unreadable) all over the paper on EVERY paper, so that adds up over time.
Very early inkjet were made more honestly, the "low ink warning" really were because the sensor fail to detect acceptable level of ink remaining... however that no longer the case with more modern inkjet. With modern inkjet the chip in the cartridge would simply count how many the ink has been sprayed, and after the counter reach certain threshold it would always gives the "low ink warning" regardless of actual level of ink that are still available in cartridge. So even you managed to re-fill the cartridge the bogus "low ink warning" would persist.
@@samm4192 Yes but when I refill my tank the gas left stays in; when I replace my ink cartridges I don't get to keep what's left. Meanwhile, I had to hover over the printer because after every page it stopped to warn me I was low on ink and ask if I want to continue, and I'd get a pop-up message to order more. So I couldn't just let it do a print job and go about other things, I had to stand there manning every print job. I think they waste our time like that to get us to change them prematurely.
Recently Canon has started selling cartilages without the chips due to chip shortages and now they are telling their customers how to bypass the printers built in ink recognition systems
@@pauldeddens5349 why not laminate too? it keeps the plastic ink on the page for longer and if you have a white board marker you can doodle on the page and clean it after and do it all again!
For years I've wondered why my Epson printer would run out of cyan or magenta when I print 99.9% black. Now I know. Thanks Austin. Oh, and I no longer have a printer and don't print anything anymore, except for my yearly auto registration, which I have printed at on office supply store for $2.
I've given up on printers too... haven't needed one for a while, really. I mean... not regularly. I have a Cannon which I loved... it lasted quite a while. I think it looks like a Stormtrooper. White on the outside, black on the inside, and has nice curved corners. It worked fine for several years then randomly broke. I don't know what the problem was. Now, I can't even get it to talk to my computer. Even when it is hardwired. I print things for 10c at the library, or longer documents at my parents'. And really haven't needed anything printed in a while. I liked that it was wireless and had the scanner. I do have a simple flatbed scanner... it isn't wireless... but it also never breaks. Lol And then I had a 2nd printer I'd gotten for the brief time I had an office... I got it used from someone else for like $25. It has mainly sat around in my possession. So, when my Stormtrooper died, I thought, well, I have a 2nd... let me pull that out. But, alas... it also has decided it doesn't want to work either. So, now I have 2 broken printers. I'd tried to get the Stormtrooper fixed... but of course, everyone told me to just get a new one. 🤷🏻♀️ The stupidest industry...
This is why I use a purely black-ink laserjet printer. Even then, I rarely print physical copies of stuff and usually just when the document's a few pages long. Othwerwise, digital all the way.
Just for the laser printers so that you don't have to worry about different inks. There's just one color and it doesn't "dry up" unlike the tip inkjet printers do.
tip: use laserprinters, they need toner instead, which is 50-90 bucks at brother or you can use epson ecotank printers which let you refill giant tanks of ink and the printers come with a whole load of ink
When the ink “runs out” my mom just gives away the printer and buys a cheap one for $30 at Walmart. I used to think she was nuts until she showed me the ink prices 🤷♀️
😂Literally just bought, $40 printer(with ink in it) because it cost like $60 to buy more damn ink for my old one. Method 2. Keep exchanging the "new" printer 3 days later when it runs out.. When the clerk asks why, simply recite one of the thousand b.s. fault codes that "sound real technical" as a reason. Ya know, use the printer companies tactics against them....Oh gee, my printers pairing ability is incompatable with my wi fi decryption..oh and by the way the quantum dual flux compasiter overheats in hyperdrive😄😉
I just can't comprehend how such a wasteful environment-molesting industry has flown under the radar for so many years. You simply breathe in the direction of a color inkjet printer and it throws a message to replace the ink cartridges. Moving to laser printers with toner solves a lot of the breakdown headaches, but the toner cartridges are still supremely expensive and wasteful when discarded. I'm not a tree-hugger by any stretch but the printer industry really doesn't give a shit about the planet at all.
Third party toner cartridges can work just fine. I just recently bought some and they were about 85% less than what the "official" cartridges cost. It isn't a foreign cheap knock-off either. The company is based out of California. I was amazed a company like this even existed.
the solution is to buy good quality remanufactured cartridges (be careful who packages Chinese clone cartridges as remanufactured) make sure you buy local remanufactured product, once checked it is easy to check
My friend, that's not true, here in Spain I'm buying XL toner cartridges for my Brother MFC-L2700DW at 9,20€, the original Brother MFC-L2700DW toner cartridge costs over 48€ and it's not XL (official one can print over 2600 pages, XL one can print 5200 pages). Original Brother DR2300 drum lets you to print over 12.000 pages and costs over 85€, the one I bought, lets you to print 12.000 pages too, but it costs 11,20€. Ok, but... What about quality? If you find a good dealer, you have nothing to fear, my toner cartridge is a premium one, from a third party company which is always looking for good toner supplier (I mean good quality at an affordable price). So the trick is not buying the first cartridge but doing a good research work with Google, comparing quality and prices, it's not easy, but if you do it, you'll finally discover a good dealer, with quality products, at a very affordable prices.
You can now buy an Eco Tank printer from Epson that is built with refillable reservoirs for ink. The printer costs $200 and the ink is very cheap. This is the way it should have been sold from day one.
Emanuel Tavano received mine today, 2 of each bottle in the box and it works flawlessly. Hope the components can last at least ten years. But I agree, this is how it should be and I think this kind of printers will be the future. Plastic is not so popular now and peop,e are getting more aware of the this kind of rip-off with cartridges.
yeah epson was not one of them... i trust epson... you can refill it by your self and very cheap and easy... and its soooooooo loooooong before the ink drain....
Unless you're printing photos it's almost always better to just get a cheaper color laser printer. Epson is making good printers these days...avoid HP like the plague. I have worked on printers for many years and every time I have to touch a newer HP I cringe.
They never saw that coming: a clerk from the call center eventually becoming a famous youtuber to expose their business strategy and start a revolution.
Fun fact: many consumer printers have a print limit. After something like 100,000 pages it will say “I’m broken!” And stop working. I know because my dad printed postcards out for his business and hit this limit multiple times. He had a little piece of code that reset it and magically the printer was no longer broken...
@@Helladamnleet It doesn't take any longer than 30 seconds of googling, numbnut :P Anyway, the comment is a bit misleading because some printers do indeed stop working after a predetermined number of pages have been printed but it doesn't say "I'm broken" it just advises the user to take it to maintenance which is understandable because the limit only kicks in after hundreds and thousands of pages. It can be easily reset using some special software.
@@Helladamnleet The ultimate proof is the printer itself. open it and count integrated circuits on all PCBs. even jet head has one. Think why are it so many. I say - one of it count amount of printed sheets. after fixed number the printer start make something to demonstrate "buy next printer. i will die soon"
I've been working in an electronics repair shop for the last 8 years. Over this amount of time, inkjet printers have become the worst thing I've ever had to work on. Pretty quickly into my repair career I made the choice to stop working on them all together. Every single one of them is a complete nightmare to disassemble. And even if you are able to find the fault, chances are the only way to get a replacement part is to pull it from _another_ identical printer. Laser printers on the other hand? Absolute dreams. Some of them are more difficult to take apart than others, and there is something to be said about the whole DRM on toner cartridges thing...but the nice thing about laser printers is they are _designed_ to be repaired. At least in my experience. Getting black lines while printing? There is probably some paper stuck to the fuser, or the fuser is dirty and needs to be cleaned. Paper getting stuck? It's probably the duplexer or the fuser. Not printing at all, just sending paper through? You guessed it, it's probably the fuser! You know what's nice about most problems being the fuser? _THEY CAN EASILY BE REPLACED._ In every laser printer I've serviced, the fuser is contained in one easily removable module that can typically be purchased for anywhere from $30 to $100. Depends entirely on the model...but considering most fancy laser printers are anywhere from a few hundred to upwards of $1k, that's a price well worth paying to get it working again. The other nice thing about laser printers? They have less issues overall. If you don't use an inkjet printer for 6 months, there is a very high chance it will just suck at printing when you end up using it. The ink gets all nasty, the print head gets all dirty, and you'll probably just have to buy a new printer. I have seen this happen so often that I'm convinced it is by design. Laser printers don't do this. That toner can sit in the cartridge for a year, you can never use the thing that whole time. And then when you go to use it, it just frickin prints. _AT WORST_ you might have to take the cartridge out and shake it a bit. But that's it. I think what surprises me the most about inkjet printers is, the technology behind how they work is actually incredible. Considering how precise all of it has to be, I'm amazed that they even work to begin with. They really are fascinating pieces of technology. But they all SUCK because of greed. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Thanks, I am planning to buy a inkjet printer even though I have a brother laser printer, hoping that the inkjet printer would be less complicated and cheaper than the laser printer. Now I know I'm wrong because of your knowledgable comment. Thanks again from Myanmar
Hmm ... it may be the fuser? Own a HP Laser IIIp, which I worked to death and I refuse to let it rest in peace. Such a great printer. Have changed some parts and still not working, but I'm gonna go back to it. There was a company where they used to refill the cartridge - now they sell the toner for refills. Also have a Canon BJC-85 bubble jet - refilled the cartridges with no problems whatsoever. Now got this Canon TS3522, black ink printing blank pages - you're right, if not used, the ink dries up and clogs. Opened the cartridge with a blade, removed the sponge, soaked the head in water, rising often until water came clear and voila! It's working and the blinking light is off. Anyway, not just printers but all kinds of electronics, televisions, etc., that end up at the man-made thrash islands in the Pacific that can be seen from space. We are at the point of no return.
I had used the same HP printer 1010 Laserjet from 4th grade to my graduation using the same toner cartridge. Now if anyone asks me what printer to buy I just say any cheap laserjet from any reputable. company. But I am tempted by the new ecotank models of printer.
from where i come from you can actually just buy the ink and refill it yourself, idk but they just put weird cables in the modded printer and just buy the ink. That is the way out.
There were a lot of those ink refill shops a decade ago where they would charge a lower price to refill your existing ink cartridge. a lot of them shut down
@EyeOhNine It's not "a missing space." It's a totally different part of speech and the meanings are very different conceptually. A setup is a noun. "Set up" is a verb phrase. I wish I were surprised you needed an explanation. Hopefully you're still in school.
@@encycl07pedia-Buddy, I’m a grammar Nazi too, but this one wasn’t that big of a deal. It WAS just a missing space, seeing there was no loss of communication. Calm down and touch some grass.
i am an IT Guy anytime time i am asked "what printer should i get" my automatic response used to be "b&w laser" they'd complain "ohhhhh but i want color" then end up buying buy some shity officejet and $200 worth of ink now I respond by simply emailing them a link to this video. end of discussion. bless u, brother
Still have a Laserjet 2100M (52,50 euro for one high capacity toner cardridge capable of printing 7750 pages) here with JetDirect card plus a Color Laserjet CP1515N for any color work. The 2100M is a printer from 1999 and it still works flawlessly, and initially did work until 2005 as an office printer of the local university until they switched to Xerox. The running costs for home use are seriously low with laserprinters, especially if you only print incidentally. Where liquid ink might dry up and clog the print head of a inkjet printer, toner is dry ink powder with dried resin (which melts and sticks to the paper by laser) . So it can't clog anything up. So yeah, any IT guy with some sense knows what to get. Definitely! So does this IT guy here. 👍
@@The77Game They could still mix in cyan. Also the black cardridge in a color printer is a lot smaller... 1200 to 1500 pages as opposed to 7750 pages. Since most documents are black and white anyway, it is thus still much cheaper to go with a B&W printer but it depends on the user's needs of course.
@@LogiForce86 A couple of things. 1) They COULD mix in cyan but DO they? If we don't know then there is no reason to mention it as a reason not to get it. 2) As you mention, you were able to get a toner cartridge with a lot of pages capacity but the typical b&w printers i just checked a few of are only in the 2-3000 page capacity. My parents color laser gets a 2000 page black cartridge(it doesn't run out of cyan any faster than the other colors by the way) 3) The biggest point i would make to the OP is that if someone asks me about what printer to get and they mention they want color then there is no point in telling them to get a b&w printer. The color versions are very affordable now. If they want color, get a color laser printer. I have told people that for many years now. Especially if you sometimes don't print anything for a couple of months. Then the ink printer is done in my experience.
Reminds me of the very start of the french revolution : "We'll assemble in this building and build our own governmental body !" king : "I lock that building, you are powerless !" crowd : "Welp ! There's a tennis court down the road, let's go there instead..."
One thing you missed is that if you try to save your ink and use it sparingly it either dries out or the printer automatically and routinely uses some ink to run a jet cleaning cycle.
The whole "Pixma" series of printers are an absolute joke. They are made so that they arrive broken. Wifi models don't work on wifi and require special knowledge to activate. The software only works for 7 up to 14 days and then it asks for money just to be able to print. IF you try using another software the drivers make your life a living hell giving you wrong aspect ratios and various wrong sizes. Yeah it costs 20 pounds for the whole printer. But the headache that comes with it is not worth it. Especially after 100 pages when the printer says you need new ink cartridges. Pixma models are a joke. Do not buy.
No no.. Enter Samsung c410w ! Lazer printers are scams too and even worse. Simply moving them around kills them. I wish there were a DIY printer kit somewhere. A printer built around simplicity (open source?).
Me and my brother managed to convince my mom that a $300 ink tank printer will worth more than a $50 cartridge printer and its $50 cartridge. In a month, we used up enough ink that would've cost $500 in cartridges, with only $10 in bulk ink.
Same here. Got a 350 dollar tank printer after deciding 75 dollars for a complete set of ink on our crappy old printer was just unacceptable. The new one has no cartridges, just ink bottles. There's no way to put in a chip to require their branded ink. Very happy with it.
Ahahaha you are SOOO right, I am honestly getting rid of my HP junk piece of crap, gonna buy either a laser printer or one of those new Epsons that have cheap ink and no cartridge.
@@sergiofreitas9368 HP's cheap inkjet printers are garbage. I tend to go with Brother but literally anyone (especially Epson) is better than HP in that space. HP makes printers that report there is no ink despite there being ink, or print head failures a mere year after purchase, and every year they release a new model slightly different from the old one but still incompatible...
Absolutely right, today I came home with a Epson ET-2750, even though I only used it for like 1 hour now, I can immediately feel the difference, it doesn't feel as flimsy, better UI, more features, the WiFi connection paired instantly, it reckognized all of my devices instantly without messing with shitty driver CD's, and most importantly, it has none of these overpriced cartridges, I will let you know how it holds up in the future.
my mom actually has/had a not too bad HP printer (OfficeJet 5605). We got a new Epson printer for new features and ink that won't cost you 60 bucks. per. cartridge..
@@z-beeblebrox the fact we have to pay the price of the printer just for the printer to operate then twice the price of the printer for a new printer when it breaks down and twice the price of that printer for ink kinda makes it a pain in the ass
I was about to buy more ink for my printer, I thought this video was gonna tell me a nifty trick to fix my old low ink cartridges... surprised that it didn't but ngl seeing the printer being bashed by a sledgehammer was 1000% worth it
I did that to my first printer bought 10yrs ago. After one year of almost no use tells me no ink when the cartridge is 90% full. I took it out saw a microchip and sorta figured out what was going on. Threw that thing down and based it into pieces. Never bought another printer since. I just go to my work office to print anything.
Printer ink 100% is a scam. My printer keeps telling me its expired ink but I take the ink cartridge out without rotating it and somehow the ink spills everywhere. It got all over my hands and the floor and permanently stained them, I tried different soaps and it won't come off. I don't understand how anybody is supposed to remove the ink cartridge without ink going everywhere, I literally just removed it normally without rotating. So not only does the ink seem like perfectly fine, they are probably wankers that find it amusing not only to scam people by making them buy more ink, but also when you go to replace the ink, they probably find it amusing how it will spill everywhere when you try to pull it out without rotating it.
Here in Russia we use hacked refillable cartriges or attach reservoirs to circumvent this problem. For decades! One may say we are voiding the warranties.. But what is that warranty if they don't respect it here anyway xD
@@dante8885 I honestly don't know the details, all I can say we just use third party refillable cartriges, and the chips in them are made to reset themselves when you refill them
Shit. You Russians are so advanced. While the rest of us are slaves to coporatocracy, you just go ahead and DIY. Teach me your secret, I want to be free from planned obsolescence.
Being someone who works at staples, I can confirm that printers and ink are bullshit. we charge a ridiculous amount of money for products that often malfunction and ink cartridges (even xl) usually have barely any capacity.
You can buy 'package damaged' name brand ink cartridges online. The cardboard packaging is slightly damaged so they can't charge full price for them, which...who cares. As long as the cartridge works, that's all that matters.
Does nobody question the printer being plugged in while smashed? Is that not a danger? Is electrocution not dangerous? Is electrocution a thing? What is electrocution? What is danger
Epson has a line that pretty much solves this. they call it the "Eco tank series" no cartridge's only refillable tanks. And before anyone says it the ink is dirt cheap. You can get the individual colors in 3.7oz bottles off of amazon for around $6-$7, or the whole pack for between $12-$18. I remember one time paying $30 for just a single black HP cartridge.
i have a epson stylus nx430 and the lady gave me it but it needs ink. Im gonna use it for making ebay shipping labels. but does any of you know a good place to find it cheap? this stuff is expensive wow. can i do anything to stop it from not printing if color is out? i only need black
Yes, interestingly enough, I generally ignore those low ink reminders as well. I have to print something that has those white lines, etc., before I'll get more black ink... Good LORD... 😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😡👍👍👍👍👍
BenjaminGessel Yeah but the are talking about printers who claim to be empty when they’re not and don’t print anymore because of that. Have you not seen the video? It’s not about low ink but supposed empty cartridges
@@tsfbaf303 Yes I saw the video. I'm just stating how my Hewlett Packard wireless printer operates. It says "low ink" for a while, until it finally says, "No way, Jose". Thing is, yeah, I've often sensed that there is still some ink left in the cartridge at that point. I mean, if there was literally NO ink, nothing would show up when you try to print, right? But that cyan mixing with the black a bit, just getting new color cartridges in general when you rarely print anything if ever in color, THAT is the real scam. But yeah, I mean, if your printer actually forces you to get a new print cartridge when it's still 50% full/will not budge, that's NOT COOL. But yeah, my printer isn't quite that extreme (to the best of my knowledge).
@@BenjaminGessel i accidentally bought ink refill kit instead of cartridge online for my wireless canon and thought they cheated with false advertising, turns out it works very well. just open the cartridge and inject the ink provided with the cyringe with the pack. The only problem was i had to tape it once its seal is broken still shows low ink message but works fine. That when i realised the scam like this dude in video if only they made cartridges which can open like phone its easy and cheap. SCAM INDEED
Thanks to all the Indian and Russian UA-cam channels that helped me repair my printer, I've been using the same one for about 6 years and the only problems I have are with dry ink on the tubes when I don't use it for a long time, which is something I don't blame on the company that much. Pay the little extra for a printer with ink tanks, it is worth it and don't be afraid to Google how to repair stuff.
Many independent makers sell continuous ink supply systems (CISS) that can be installed on certain printers to get around having to spend $60 on those disgusting ink cartridges. CISS cost slightly more, but you can print MORE pages per refill, and the bottles cost 10x cheaper than cartridges! Think of the savings!
Imagine the dude who programmed all that shit in the printer software: - So, I’m supposed to program shit that’s only going to mess with the client on purpose? Are you asking me to write stuff to make the experience worse? - yes
One time i did code one of those and everyone bought that printer because it was known fo being more "effecient" with ink, of course until someone else recoded it so that it took new driver to be compatible and the new drivers made it somehow use ink 10x as fast
I've heard about a case where a company literally sold hardware with a switch inside that made it run shittier, then charged people extra to get the "upgrade" for it, then sent out a "technician" whose only job was to flick the switch so that they could "install the upgrade".
I completely believed after he said "today I am doing something about it" he was going to say he was making his own printer without the scam ink cartridges lmao
same, I was all excited about learning how to make your own printer ink or something. Instead he went all office space on his mom's printer. I hope he bought her a new one after that :D
a friend of mine has a shitty $30 printer and when it runs out of ink he just buys a new printer because it's cheaper to buy a whole new printer with ink already in it than just buying the ink.
They got around that now. The new printer you buy comes with an ink cartridge that's filled about 25% - 50% depending on the brand. So it's technically cheaper to buy ink in terms of how many pages you can print.
Eiad DS Yea my shit keeps drying up and I have to print 5 test pages and do a lot of shit just to keep it flowing and then it tells me ink is low and I have to replace the ink cartridge. After that I have to printe a bunch of more test pages because one color isn't working. All that shit just so I can copy/Print a b&w document.
some printers turn on automatically to do "nozzle cleans" periodically.... inkjet is just a flawed technology... My laser color printer original carts have lasted 5 years without issues.. only print a few pages / year
Why is the hell would he tell you what to do? He's just here to complain to you about how terrible the world is and how bad you should feel about yourself
It should be illegal to have such high profit margins. Businesses do anything to make money. It doesn't matter if people die as long as it generates revenue. One must always assume that the company is trying to deceive.
@@electronresonator8882 try to imagine your back is the one the money is being made from, you wont see a cent, your back will kill you from all the hard work and them ppl be laughing at you for having worked so hard. Imagine.
@@DG-AI777 because there isn't a better cheaper option. There is no right to force companies to lower their profit margins. People seem to be plenty happy with what is on the market as I don't see other companies lining up to jump into the market. Seems like they know something Austin doesn't. >.>
Hooked On Chronics They won’t die. Look at the UA-cam channel “Explore with us”. Specifically the “what they aren’t telling you” video. The worst that will happen is a few people will go to jail. Unless someone tries to assault a police officer or something.
@I’m boutta E well you see, apple wants to make their devices irrepearable, for example apple has paired each devices home button to the device itself. so lets say you wanted to replace the home button by a third party alternative, without the help from apple. the device would not turn on as a result of the unpaired home button, rendering the device completely useless. unless the home button was repaired by apple themselves, which if it wasnt obvious enough, would cost more money and more effort, because they would replace the entire display instead of just the home button. luckily apple did get sued for this and has allowed third party home button replacements without the device not turning on
When my black ran very low I discovered that my HP was printing ALL THREE COLORS behind or under the black every damn time I printed a black-only document. I figured out some major gymnastics to get it to print black-only in "draft" mode by exporting everything to PDF first. It's maddening that they get away with this anti-consumer crap.
@@jeanvignes printers are also great at being terrible with user interface. 4 buttons, then all weird symbols that I'm not sure are even in the instructions and almost no text on it. Also you need an app that has very little help in it to connect it to internet. yeah im kind of talking about a specific brand that makes printers but still all the ones i used were really confusing
I have an HP printer, and everytime my cartridge goes empty i refill it by locally bought ink bottle which cost like 1$ for 100ml ink. You need a syringe with a needle to refill the cartridge from the tiny hole present under a sticker on the cartridge. You can refill cartridge infinitely. It's a common thing here in India :)
@@ir7412 well it has worked well for me, i only replace cartridge when the tip of cartridge gets damaged after extreme usage (continuous brushing on the pages). Other than that, i've never replaced my cartridges.
I used to be able to do that. Then they changed the printer's firmware so that it only accepts NEW cartridges. Weird. I thought we were SUPPOSED to recycle things.
With certain printers, it doesn't work. I had an old one that I just inject with ink and it worked for years but I forgot what model it was. I also had a Lexmark printer before that. It saved my poor college ass a decade or so ago. My mom has a newer one and besides buying a new cartridge, she brought the old one to show to a printer refill station that also sells ink refills. He refilled the old one and mom paid a bit more (🙄). Refilled cartridge never worked anymore. Fuck newer printers. Glad they now have ones with refillable tanks and you can buy locally manufactured compatible inks but people have been fucking hoarding and reselling the printer.
I agree with you! I stopped buying ink and took it to Costco to refill in the past, but they got rid of it. Guessing the printer company was upset about that...
In 21 years of life I have seen my dad throw at least 7 printers down the stairs, out the door, out the window, at walls And yenno... I don't blame him
@chiggly 123 i have a canon ,it doesnt work any more. Beacause Windows 10 dont support him. Its a.printer that works fine on Windows 8 but 10 doesnt support it. And i refuse to buy a New one only for that reason
me: ok finally i have time to print this document printer: wait but first i need cyan ink :) me: don't worry i dont need to use cyan printer: *d i d i s t u t t e r*
All I needed was to use the scanner. "Feed me, feed me! Can't scan without ink!" I tossed the thing out and got a Bother laser printer. It's less worse.
Actually HP does *exactly* this, and will sometimes offer incentives for you to "Recycle" your old (not completely used) ink cartridges so you can get screwed over again-and again....and again... (you see where this is going? Me too)
Btw, this should be done with all our technological products, like when you have to get rid of a good cell phone just because there's no more updates on the software and even on the apps, or as like happened here, they start being incompatible 😩
That's what I used to do. Local store sells heaps of these shitty printers for $25. They get the job done for simple documents (even has a scanner). Once the ink was gone I COULD pay $50 for more ink or I could just sell the empty printer for $10 and then buy another $25 printer with ink. I often chose the latter.
For shitty printers that'll work to an extent but theyre already on that. The "starter cartridges" have less and less included as time goes on and some printers need new cartridges after as little as 15-20 prints
I used to work for HP as a printer salesman, you know the guy that goes to the different stores in an area to "sell" to not only the customers but the employees of said store the items we make are better than the other guys! Anywho, the biggest lie I had to tell not only employees but customers was that every printer had a full set of ink (lie) and all the cables needed to get working was in the box (lie). All pre-packaged ink in printers are only 25% the normal capacity of the shelf version. After a year of lieing I was told to share this info with employees so they can make a bigger sale by adding in extra ink and the USB cable (all HP brands of course) to the end purchase under the guise of "saving them a future trip to the store when the ink runs out". All this for a measly $6 an hour... so glad I quit!
We actually used to have ink refill shops in the US too (about 20 years ago), but for some reason they all went out of business in the mid 2000s. I highly suspect the printer companies were behind it.
@@yozefa so, how much on average would a used, full cartridge cost? Imagine flying down and picking up 1000...and re selling them!!! Hell, at this point the cartridges are drugs.
Year 2305 history class: Teacher: "can anybody tell me how the second American Civil War started?" Student: "Ink cartridges!" Teacher: "That's correct!"
I'd always thought I was being ripped off when it came to printer ink, but I was astonished to see just how insane the level of price gouging truly is. I'm now the proud owner of a second hand laser printer, which cost me less than a new inkjet plus ink. Never going back to inkjets after this. Thanks for the video.
Do you think they don’t do the same thing for the laser printers? Ha ha. I had to print something for my family organization 500 copies I had to buy two sets of toner to finish it in black only.
I looked into laser printers at one point, but decided never to buy one after reading about the large number of poisonous particles that enter (and never leave) your body when using them. Just look it up.
@@Plip29 not to get all conspiracy theory on you, but I think it's likely that the studies regarding that have been paid for by companies favoring inkjet printers
Just wait until Apple realises a printer: 99.99 $ For one ink cartridge 1499.99 $ Printer 499.99 $ Apple Care 999.99 $ Printer and Ink stand 199.99 $ Proprietary Apple branded paper And you can only use it with Apple branded products. So if you have Windows 10 you need to downgrade to an Mac Total: 3 299.95 $ *And people would buy it* 6 months later, a new printer with the printer name and an "S" in the end will be realised. This "upgrade" will cost you 250$ more but will not have any new features.
Dont forget that their ink cartridges have a proprietary shape and rfid chip and if you replace it with 3rd party unit the printer will never turn on again
@6:40 he makes a great analogy. Having your printer not work even though it STILL has ink, is like your car shutting down, saying your gas tank is empty, even though you have half a tank of gas.
Thank God, here in the Philippines, we can actually refill the ink cheaply & easily. Printers have little wells that are mounted on the outside for easy access. BTW, printers here often have a long warranty enabling you to get free or cheap repairs.
I had only one inkjet printer back in the 90's for occasional printing. The Ink cartridges would always dry out and you would have to buy new ones. I went with laser and never looked back. I made my parents get a laser printer as well. Their's is still going 20+ years later with only having to replace toner every now and then and at some point I replaced rollers. I have a laserjet that we've had years as well. It just works. I steer anyone away from inkjets as they are nothing but a money pit.
Every time I turn on my piece of shit computer it prints two pages. Gotta make sure that the ink still works by printing a two full pages of useless color garbage.
Unfortunately, if his campaign to get cheaper ink succeeds, it will blow up in his face, as printer manufacturers will simply stop selling their printers at a loss, and printers will suddenly become hella expensive, all to protect these manufacturers' profits.
Majority of manufacturers will only put a fraction of the amount of ink included in the box as compared to a new cartridge. This is just wasteful of resources.
Proprietary software for "effortless conection" is also why it's difficult as hell to keep a printer actially working. Honestly, anti-trust laws need to be expanded so companies release schematics and shit so they stop getting away with this.
Me: I just finished this essay that is due at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Let me just print it out Printer: Observe edit:Thanks for the likes. A dollar a day keeps the printer away.
And for me as a high school student with no close places to buy any ink from, and also considering my school is like 12km away and I barely get even time for homework, printers are just...... They are..... I would rather have just used a 3D printer to do it. At least it's more-reliable in it's current state.
Right? In college I was printing a new essay draft almost twice a week for multiple classes. An initial $10 limit but each page cost 4-6cents or 10-12 double sided. The printers were almost always down and took 2-3 days to fix. Felt like the school was making money off my printing, yet it was the biggest pain in ass trying to find one that worked.
Mexico does this too! my printer has 4 half a litter ink containers that somehow are attached to the printer. I literally refill the containers once a year.
Here in Pakistan we just bypass the software on the chip and used locally manufactured ink to refill the cartridges over and over gain. So what if the warranty becomes void, its only a $60 piece of equipment. I even know a few people who 3D print whole new ink cartridges.
those who asking how to do it. A simple google search will help you. I have done it with different printers in the past because my job required printing a lot of photos. Every printer has a different process from swapping IC on circuit to installing custom firmware.
The Printer is like a console not much freedom and its going to be obsolete in a few years and the ink is like the membership u have to buy to play online on the device u payed for on the internet u pay for.
HP instant ink- “affordable” printer (start at $50) some printers have a free plan, where you can print 15 full colors for free per a month. We pay $3 a month for 50 pages a month, it’s even better than laser. (Not sponsored but it’s the best deal, provided you can make it worthwhile)
Excuse me but you Do realize the club sells you things for a buck, but also sells you a lot of things you don't need or want. They are cheap so noone cares that they are not worth using, hey they are only a buck I will give it a try....while the company hiss....SUCKER...
@@esyew So basically even though you have already Paid for the printer you have to pay to use it? And like most who are used to this nonsense you think it is a GOOD idea. So not only do you pay 50 for a printer designed to wear out if used much they also are getting a monthly fee from you.
Canon sells the refillable G2000 series printer (in mexico) for about 120 USD, you use a refillable container on the printer and the ink is really cheap.
Look to EcoTank from Epson for cheap bottled ink or Brother have much cheaper and hold more ink in their cartridges then HP, Canon, Lexmark, etc. Plus Brother cartridges usually have a see through bit so you can actually see how much ink you have left. Hope that helps!
My photo only, dedicated Epson "professional " photo printer I bought in 2006 ran flawlessly until 2019. No glitches despite thousands of photos and documents until September 19, 2019... it stopped. I looked at the device display screen for a clue of the problem. Up popped a message " You have now exceeded the mechanical life of this device." Moments later... "Good-bye" it blinked off. It had powered itself off for good! I stood there slack-jawed for a good long while astounded at what I had just witnessed. Did my printer in a "HAL" moment ( 2001 a Space Oddessy) just signed off for good? It appears there is a engineer somewhere in Japan with a great sense of humor that in the event one of their printers should have the remarkable luck of lasting to the end of its internal clock, it was programed to sign off. Ink was still expensive, only worked if all 5 cassette were filled but I was still able to buy one color at a time. Bought another Epson. Not so good.
I heard about this hacker, (not sure if it's true) that hacked into his Hp printer's system and had the printer's life clock removed and afterwards it worked perfectly. Too bad printing companies have now caught onto this and same with manipulating ink cartridges.
Tobacco companies had to pay 500 billion dollars to states/consumers/non-profits and label themselves Satan for doing the exact same thing razor and printer and computer and cell phone and automobile companies and facebook and google and . . . well . . . come to think of it, all companies run a scam . . . still better than communism though . . . caveat emptor . . . teach that to your kids when they are 4 yrs old
It's not just printers. They do the same with MOST electronics. I knew a guy who did the same thing on washers and dryers. IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had to go check the prices to find out if this was also how things are in India, fortunately they are not, printer are about $150 while ink is $10, guess they realised that Indians will dismantle every part of the damn thing to figure out a cheaper way
I love this comment because although it would be incredibly cool to have a revolution against printer cartridges and now I understand how much of a scam printer cartridges are I- can't be bothered doing anything about it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In Saudi Arabia, there are shady computer repair shops run entirely by Indians that modify Ink cartridges and printers so they can be refilled at like 5% of the original cost. Bless them.
In the Philippines, it's all mainstream. The retail stores sell you the printer with ink wells mounted on the outside of the printer for easy access. You can buy refill ink quite cheaply. And printers often have a long warranty enabling you to get free or cheap repairs.
Same stuff in Russia. I think that these shady schemes don't work that good outside of first world countries, because people can't just waste money on ink and are forced to think there. It's a good thing.
I remember back in the day (less than a decade ago), the cartridge chips weren't as sophisticated, so I had a ink printer hooked up to a continuous ink supply system (CISS), which is basically fancy words for drilling holes to the original cartridges and hooking them up via tubes to ink reservoirs velcroed to the side of the printer. The ink cost like $15-20 on eBay for 5 x 100ml bottles of each colour (as opposed to 4-5ml you get with an official $60 cartridge). That sucker worked like a god damn machine, printing everything I wanted, in full color, including photos or wtv else I needed. All for the cost of next to nothing. I used to photocopy entire university books that I'd borrow for free from the uni library (since uni books are another scam, where they cost $300-500 a piece and "new" ones are released every year with no changes in them) and it cost me basically a price of a ream of paper.. So yeah, all these printer manufacturers can suck it lol
@@renataheiberg7534 Google "continuous ink supply system" (i.e. CISS) for Brother printers and you'll probably find something. Maybe even google for your specific printer model. I am sure CISSs are still around, given how criminally overpriced ink cartridges are. Then there is also an "environmentally irresponsible" option to buy a new printer every time your ink runs out and selling the old one on Craigslist to some schmuck. Cos a new printer comes with a set of new cartridges, yet it's price is often cheaper, than buying just the new cartridges alone. Or just buy a laser printer and never deal with garbage ink ones again. The only reason to buy ink-jet printers is to print in color/photos. Otherwise go with a laser.
@@TheCredibleHulk Thank you for taking your time to respond. I was glad to find out I was not stupid and not alone in my hatred for inkjet printers. Once I threw away perfectly good printer because it would say the ink is empty while I could see the ink in the cartridge. Then I could not print in black without color and totaly was convinced that I am dumb as a rock. Now I understand.
@@qwertyboguss Who said that your printer uses ALL of the ink anyway? A lot of them say there is no ink, when there is still plenty. So it might not matter. But I agree, generally speaking buying new printer every time is a very shitty method. And creates a ton of unnecessary e-waste. So CISS is the way to go for sure.
Reminds me of what my Dad did. For some reason, the ink cartridges are more expensive than the actual printers (at least, wherever he was buying from) - so, every time his printer ran out of ink, he'd just buy a new printer, which comes with new ink, and save himself a ton of money lmao
IMPORTANT TIP!!! After you bought the printer, NEVER update!!! As the aftermarket cheap ink cardriges (like those you get for 13$ a complete set from amazon) are manufactured after the printer launch they are made to work, passing that chip security! If you update printer they will recognize the "fake" cardridges!
Neighbour gave me an HP printer that refused to work because it had cheap cartridges. I found a service hack online to get round it and it worked for months afterwards. Look up the error code online- the reset is quite easy.
If this printer can connect to your network, it should definitely be updated... Check out the talk called "What the fax?!" from 35C3. Can be found on UA-cam.
Most likely, the "I WON'T PRINT" is built into the firmware of the printer, not the drivers themselves. So we need to reverse engineer the printer firmware in order to build a new firmware that ignores the chip, or just use the chips as "guideline ink reporting" and not a hard cutoff point. This is non-trivial, and in fact, very very hard. So it'll probably take a few months or even years. Per. Printer. Model. It's just unfeasible to do. An engineer with good reverse engineering skills and possibly a couple of interested friends might be able to download a firmware update from the manufacturers website (if available), reverse engineer that update to figure out how it works, why it works, and that's an entire field of research. On top of that, this technique will only work on stuff that's not cryptographically signed. If you manage to unpack and alter the firmware, you still need to repack and sign the altered firmware, and that's something only the manufacturer can do. So now, on top of reverse engineering the function of the firmware, you also either have to brute force the private key used to sign the package (computationally unfeasable) or find an exploit that bypasses the check for signed firmware, essentially jailbreaking the printer, and that's ANOTHER engineering field. And all this needs to be done for every printer model ever made, and you pretty much have to start from scratch every time. Some printers might be similar enough to be able to transplant some of the work between them, but that's probably just inside a line, like the consumer and prosumer model might share the same jailbreak exploit or similar. But there's just too many printers and too much work that needs to be done in order for this to ever become a reality, sorry.
CoderCandy OR, you can just do it with one model in each category. Desktop, midsize and large. The market will quickly adjust to suit. We need your Can-Do attitude here
Jesus, that's still a butt load of work. At this point, crowdfunding the perfect printer would be much easier than trying to fix whats in the market. In fact, I'd be surprised if someone hasn't tried that already.
+Karol Kozik Doesn't mean free ever, just often coincides with free. Printer manufacturers were actually a formative influence on Richard Stallman to become the open source advocate that he is: "In 1980, Stallman and some other hackers at the AI Lab were refused access to the source code for the software of a newly installed laser printer, the Xerox 9700. Stallman had modified the software for the Lab's previous laser printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when the person's job was printed, and would message all logged-in users waiting for print jobs if the printer was jammed. Not being able to add these features to the new printer was a major inconvenience, as the printer was on a different floor from most of the users. This experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be able to freely modify the software they use," from his WIkipedia page. Many printers actually can be operated using open source drivers, e.g. with the gutenprint drivers: www.openprinting.org/driver/gutenprint There is also the overarching print system used by mac, Unix, and Linux that was open sourced by Apple (one of the last good things I remember them doing :P), CUPS. The only part potentially missing there is if the firmware takes independent action, but it largely doesn't seem to. In my experience the open source drivers often don't succeed in reading ink levels and just print till they're empty, and even then just try to print. For some models they are able to read them.
Hi. I wrote a book that has nothing to do with this video. It's on sale now. ua-cam.com/video/sIipouhQLK8/v-deo.html
Nice
ok
I dont have money sorry :(
Ok
Sorry I am broke
here in Brasil there is a whole underground market for modding printers with refillable cartidges and selling ink in bulk
"you're going to Brazil." sure, their ink cartridge market is cool.
Honestly, that’s pretty cool.
Man, that's awesome. We also did that in Indonesia
@@Easterlingofrhun Where is that and how do it I need to know I live in that country to
@@TheManiac-nw8ru there are some in Jakarta. Some cartridge printers are also modified
I’d like to print this document
*yup*
It’s in black and white
*yup*
And since it’s in black and white, you don’t need colors to print it
*That makes sense to me*
Then print it
*Need magenta ink*
*prints a colorful page with big letters: I'm out of ink!"
Exactly!
big oof?
Don't know about magenta, but most printers also print yellow microdots called the Machine Identification Code on every single paper they make, they identify the device that printed the document and can give clues as to who printed it. It's been a thing since the mid-80's and people only learned about it in 2004. You'd need special equipment to see them clearly, and even if you do, you'd need to know how to decode them to get any information out of them.
Like I said, they ARE yellow, and are printed on EVERY paper, even if in black and white. They're small but they're printed several times (in case the printing process makes them unreadable) all over the paper on EVERY paper, so that adds up over time.
is this the joey-phoebe meme
I got a low ink warning once; I was able to print 70 more pages.
Very early inkjet were made more honestly, the "low ink warning" really were because the sensor fail to detect acceptable level of ink remaining... however that no longer the case with more modern inkjet.
With modern inkjet the chip in the cartridge would simply count how many the ink has been sprayed, and after the counter reach certain threshold it would always gives the "low ink warning" regardless of actual level of ink that are still available in cartridge.
So even you managed to re-fill the cartridge the bogus "low ink warning" would persist.
Nothing wrong with that. It’s the same as your car fuel gauge, you can still go for 50 or so miles
@@samm4192 Yes but when I refill my tank the gas left stays in; when I replace my ink cartridges I don't get to keep what's left. Meanwhile, I had to hover over the printer because after every page it stopped to warn me I was low on ink and ask if I want to continue, and I'd get a pop-up message to order more. So I couldn't just let it do a print job and go about other things, I had to stand there manning every print job. I think they waste our time like that to get us to change them prematurely.
My printer is on 0% for the last 200 pages and still going ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
just buy ink off of aliexpress
Recently Canon has started selling cartilages without the chips due to chip shortages and now they are telling their customers how to bypass the printers built in ink recognition systems
and how you do it?
@@hdj81Vlimited this only affects office laser printers
good
@@nikkopt .-. bruh
I saw how to reset the ink level chip for my printer
when 3d printing is cheaper by both the printer price and the filament price.... smh im just gonna print my documents in plastic now
yeah it will last longer too
This is not what they meant by laminating documents
@@pauldeddens5349 why not laminate too? it keeps the plastic ink on the page for longer and if you have a white board marker you can doodle on the page and clean it after and do it all again!
You could also mod your printer with a sharpie or pen and use it as a plotter lol
@@JennyWakemanSimp Don't tell HP
so this is why public schools are always stripped for cash
Gavin Hardison XD so true
My school makes us pay $2 for "print cards" because ink is so expensive
Send hateful tweets to HP it will get on their radar
Monochrome laser printers are the preferred choice for most teachers and schools. So, no. This is not why.
Gavin Hardison not really at my school we only pay 2p for every document printed even if it's in colour
Just buy a Chinese sweatshop worker for super cheap and make them write all of your documents for you instead of printing them
the only problem is that you will need to feed it overpriced squid food
I know you’re joking but, where do you buy a squid?
this has such a visceral image of some guy needing ink and slapping a squid to print his copies
Noob. Everyone knows octopus ink is much better at retaining color after 100 years a document is printed plus it comes with a 2x capacity.
Fucking cruel lol I don't mind killing to eat it but to have it as a ink pet lol nope
For years I've wondered why my Epson printer would run out of cyan or magenta when I print 99.9% black. Now I know. Thanks Austin. Oh, and I no longer have a printer and don't print anything anymore, except for my yearly auto registration, which I have printed at on office supply store for $2.
I've given up on printers too... haven't needed one for a while, really. I mean... not regularly.
I have a Cannon which I loved... it lasted quite a while. I think it looks like a Stormtrooper. White on the outside, black on the inside, and has nice curved corners.
It worked fine for several years then randomly broke. I don't know what the problem was. Now, I can't even get it to talk to my computer. Even when it is hardwired.
I print things for 10c at the library, or longer documents at my parents'. And really haven't needed anything printed in a while. I liked that it was wireless and had the scanner. I do have a simple flatbed scanner... it isn't wireless... but it also never breaks. Lol
And then I had a 2nd printer I'd gotten for the brief time I had an office... I got it used from someone else for like $25. It has mainly sat around in my possession. So, when my Stormtrooper died, I thought, well, I have a 2nd... let me pull that out. But, alas... it also has decided it doesn't want to work either. So, now I have 2 broken printers.
I'd tried to get the Stormtrooper fixed... but of course, everyone told me to just get a new one. 🤷🏻♀️ The stupidest industry...
This is why I use a purely black-ink laserjet printer. Even then, I rarely print physical copies of stuff and usually just when the document's a few pages long. Othwerwise, digital all the way.
Just for the laser printers so that you don't have to worry about different inks. There's just one color and it doesn't "dry up" unlike the tip inkjet printers do.
tip: use laserprinters, they need toner instead, which is 50-90 bucks at brother or you can use epson ecotank printers which let you refill giant tanks of ink and the printers come with a whole load of ink
When the ink “runs out” my mom just gives away the printer and buys a cheap one for $30 at Walmart. I used to think she was nuts until she showed me the ink prices 🤷♀️
Stefania Rivers That’s the same thing my parents do too
😂Literally just bought, $40 printer(with ink in it) because it cost like $60 to buy more damn ink for my old one. Method 2. Keep exchanging the "new" printer 3 days later when it runs out.. When the clerk asks why, simply recite one of the thousand b.s. fault codes that "sound real technical" as a reason. Ya know, use the printer companies tactics against them....Oh gee, my printers pairing ability is incompatable with my wi fi decryption..oh and by the way the quantum dual flux compasiter overheats in hyperdrive😄😉
Wtf thats a fucking intellectual move
@@hellseeker-inc9756 So now new printers come with half filled ink cartridges that run out faster!
Someone on Reddit said that a new printer is cheaper than a new cartridges
watching this on my HP printer
You poor soul...
LMAO
Just casually print out every frame of the video
Really? lol , you sitting on your HP printer, whilst watching the video?
Ron Dijcks uhh, r/wooooosh?
HPs business model: create a problem
sell the solution
The ZIOMAFIA TERRORIST OLIGARCHY biz model with everything & the ENSLAVED sheeples allowing them via IGNORANCE & apathy
randy johnson
?
yep and it is about a scombag a move as maging gas grindu in ordet to sell time savers/xp boosts etc
I think you mean: sell the problem at a small price
Sell the solution at barely affordable price
i like chesse dipped in feet
I just can't comprehend how such a wasteful environment-molesting industry has flown under the radar for so many years. You simply breathe in the direction of a color inkjet printer and it throws a message to replace the ink cartridges. Moving to laser printers with toner solves a lot of the breakdown headaches, but the toner cartridges are still supremely expensive and wasteful when discarded. I'm not a tree-hugger by any stretch but the printer industry really doesn't give a shit about the planet at all.
They should be banned from every country and see how they like it
Third party toner cartridges can work just fine. I just recently bought some and they were about 85% less than what the "official" cartridges cost. It isn't a foreign cheap knock-off either. The company is based out of California. I was amazed a company like this even existed.
the solution is to buy good quality remanufactured cartridges (be careful who packages Chinese clone cartridges as remanufactured) make sure you buy local remanufactured product, once checked it is easy to check
tank printers tend to also be better, mai b ly because companies havent figured out how to drm the ink
My friend, that's not true, here in Spain I'm buying XL toner cartridges for my Brother MFC-L2700DW at 9,20€, the original Brother MFC-L2700DW toner cartridge costs over 48€ and it's not XL (official one can print over 2600 pages, XL one can print 5200 pages). Original Brother DR2300 drum lets you to print over 12.000 pages and costs over 85€, the one I bought, lets you to print 12.000 pages too, but it costs 11,20€. Ok, but... What about quality? If you find a good dealer, you have nothing to fear, my toner cartridge is a premium one, from a third party company which is always looking for good toner supplier (I mean good quality at an affordable price). So the trick is not buying the first cartridge but doing a good research work with Google, comparing quality and prices, it's not easy, but if you do it, you'll finally discover a good dealer, with quality products, at a very affordable prices.
You can now buy an Eco Tank printer from Epson that is built with refillable reservoirs for ink. The printer costs $200 and the ink is very cheap. This is the way it should have been sold from day one.
Emanuel Tavano received mine today, 2 of each bottle in the box and it works flawlessly. Hope the components can last at least ten years. But I agree, this is how it should be and I think this kind of printers will be the future. Plastic is not so popular now and peop,e are getting more aware of the this kind of rip-off with cartridges.
yeah epson was not one of them... i trust epson... you can refill it by your self and very cheap and easy... and its soooooooo loooooong before the ink drain....
Unless you're printing photos it's almost always better to just get a cheaper color laser printer. Epson is making good printers these days...avoid HP like the plague. I have worked on printers for many years and every time I have to touch a newer HP I cringe.
wow, i'm going to check this out FOR SURE! Thanks!
I saw this at Best Buy. As a person who used to work on printers, I would highly suggest this printer.
They never saw that coming: a clerk from the call center eventually becoming a famous youtuber to expose their business strategy and start a revolution.
MHMM
maybe he only remember it now after doing the stuff with his mom
oh yeah boys watch the fucking revolution kick off from a youtube video. remember how that went last time
Expose things adult people raged over in the 90's? Just ask your parents fgs!
@@kyirid bingo bango bongo bish bash bosh m8
Fun fact: many consumer printers have a print limit. After something like 100,000 pages it will say “I’m broken!” And stop working.
I know because my dad printed postcards out for his business and hit this limit multiple times. He had a little piece of code that reset it and magically the printer was no longer broken...
Proof, please. More than "I swear it's true, guys!"
@@Helladamnleet I swear it's true, guys!
@@Helladamnleet you don't believe him? after how much they mark up the ink?
@@Helladamnleet It doesn't take any longer than 30 seconds of googling, numbnut :P Anyway, the comment is a bit misleading because some printers do indeed stop working after a predetermined number of pages have been printed but it doesn't say "I'm broken" it just advises the user to take it to maintenance which is understandable because the limit only kicks in after hundreds and thousands of pages. It can be easily reset using some special software.
@@Helladamnleet The ultimate proof is the printer itself. open it and count integrated circuits on all PCBs. even jet head has one. Think why are it so many. I say - one of it count amount of printed sheets. after fixed number the printer start make something to demonstrate "buy next printer. i will die soon"
I've been working in an electronics repair shop for the last 8 years. Over this amount of time, inkjet printers have become the worst thing I've ever had to work on. Pretty quickly into my repair career I made the choice to stop working on them all together. Every single one of them is a complete nightmare to disassemble. And even if you are able to find the fault, chances are the only way to get a replacement part is to pull it from _another_ identical printer.
Laser printers on the other hand? Absolute dreams. Some of them are more difficult to take apart than others, and there is something to be said about the whole DRM on toner cartridges thing...but the nice thing about laser printers is they are _designed_ to be repaired. At least in my experience. Getting black lines while printing? There is probably some paper stuck to the fuser, or the fuser is dirty and needs to be cleaned. Paper getting stuck? It's probably the duplexer or the fuser. Not printing at all, just sending paper through? You guessed it, it's probably the fuser!
You know what's nice about most problems being the fuser? _THEY CAN EASILY BE REPLACED._ In every laser printer I've serviced, the fuser is contained in one easily removable module that can typically be purchased for anywhere from $30 to $100. Depends entirely on the model...but considering most fancy laser printers are anywhere from a few hundred to upwards of $1k, that's a price well worth paying to get it working again.
The other nice thing about laser printers? They have less issues overall. If you don't use an inkjet printer for 6 months, there is a very high chance it will just suck at printing when you end up using it. The ink gets all nasty, the print head gets all dirty, and you'll probably just have to buy a new printer. I have seen this happen so often that I'm convinced it is by design. Laser printers don't do this. That toner can sit in the cartridge for a year, you can never use the thing that whole time. And then when you go to use it, it just frickin prints. _AT WORST_ you might have to take the cartridge out and shake it a bit. But that's it.
I think what surprises me the most about inkjet printers is, the technology behind how they work is actually incredible. Considering how precise all of it has to be, I'm amazed that they even work to begin with. They really are fascinating pieces of technology. But they all SUCK because of greed. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
Thanks, I am planning to buy a inkjet printer even though I have a brother laser printer, hoping that the inkjet printer would be less complicated and cheaper than the laser printer. Now I know I'm wrong because of your knowledgable comment. Thanks again from Myanmar
do laser printers not have the same issues?
Wait, what about those Epson L3110 models?
Like, they got replaceable waste ink cartridge as well as modularity it got?
Hmm ... it may be the fuser? Own a HP Laser IIIp, which I worked to death and I refuse to let it rest in peace. Such a great printer. Have changed some parts and still not working, but I'm gonna go back to it. There was a company where they used to refill the cartridge - now they sell the toner for refills. Also have a Canon BJC-85 bubble jet - refilled the cartridges with no problems whatsoever. Now got this Canon TS3522, black ink printing blank pages - you're right, if not used, the ink dries up and clogs. Opened the cartridge with a blade, removed the sponge, soaked the head in water, rising often until water came clear and voila! It's working and the blinking light is off.
Anyway, not just printers but all kinds of electronics, televisions, etc., that end up at the man-made thrash islands in the Pacific that can be seen from space. We are at the point of no return.
I had used the same HP printer 1010 Laserjet from 4th grade to my graduation using the same toner cartridge.
Now if anyone asks me what printer to buy I just say any cheap laserjet from any reputable. company.
But I am tempted by the new ecotank models of printer.
So it’s a scam. . . And you have no way out. Wonderful
eBay lul
from where i come from you can actually just buy the ink and refill it yourself, idk but they just put weird cables in the modded printer and just buy the ink. That is the way out.
legit just buy non OEM ink cartridges, I mean like $5 bucks boom, been buying like that for years no problem.
AKA a monopoly.
I mean if we put our foot down we can create a way out.
This makes me wanna go out there and start a printer company that isn't corrupt
It would have to be non-profit.
There were a lot of those ink refill shops a decade ago where they would charge a lower price to refill your existing ink cartridge. a lot of them shut down
You'd go out of business. It's just not profitable, hence why they have to result to this kind of business practice.
they all got the patents between themselves
Stop using printers use computers but no very old people say that it's bad but they're like on candy crush level 5956
We could start a black market for ink cartridges that are sold at reasonable prices that have chips that tell you when your actually out of ink
The evilest thing
@ANIYAHlove1
I’m down.
@@Just-Kamal tHaTs rAcIsT
@@lobbi5105 Or iS iT
*You're*
That moment when 3D printers are easier to setup and use than a normal printer.
set up*
@EyeOhNine It's not "a missing space." It's a totally different part of speech and the meanings are very different conceptually. A setup is a noun. "Set up" is a verb phrase. I wish I were surprised you needed an explanation.
Hopefully you're still in school.
@@encycl07pedia-Buddy, I’m a grammar Nazi too, but this one wasn’t that big of a deal. It WAS just a missing space, seeing there was no loss of communication. Calm down and touch some grass.
@@Belak-gq3wt lol. No, you're not. Read a book, kid.
@@Belak-gq3wtMan, this is the first time I see a grammar nazi roasts another grammar nazi. Your kind is weird.
Printer with ink:$50
Printer ink:$69.99
I'll just buy a printer every time I actually run out of ink
@@HugoVacacionesBailes welp I have no choice printing my bee movie script copy
@@keys8966 that script deserves to be printed in color
looks like HP likes e-waste
@Noah the Bloody Legend number 2 r/ihavereddit
I have done this, & I sell my previous printers for half of what I paid for them depending on how old the model is
i am an IT Guy
anytime time i am asked "what printer should i get" my automatic response used to be "b&w laser"
they'd complain "ohhhhh but i want color" then end up buying buy some shity officejet and $200 worth of ink
now I respond by simply emailing them a link to this video. end of discussion.
bless u, brother
b&w laser, until i did this I never realised just how amazing and cheap to use they are.
Still have a Laserjet 2100M (52,50 euro for one high capacity toner cardridge capable of printing 7750 pages) here with JetDirect card plus a Color Laserjet CP1515N for any color work.
The 2100M is a printer from 1999 and it still works flawlessly, and initially did work until 2005 as an office printer of the local university until they switched to Xerox. The running costs for home use are seriously low with laserprinters, especially if you only print incidentally.
Where liquid ink might dry up and clog the print head of a inkjet printer, toner is dry ink powder with dried resin (which melts and sticks to the paper by laser) . So it can't clog anything up.
So yeah, any IT guy with some sense knows what to get. Definitely! So does this IT guy here. 👍
What's wrong with a color laser? They aren't all that expensive anymore.
@@The77Game They could still mix in cyan. Also the black cardridge in a color printer is a lot smaller... 1200 to 1500 pages as opposed to 7750 pages.
Since most documents are black and white anyway, it is thus still much cheaper to go with a B&W printer but it depends on the user's needs of course.
@@LogiForce86 A couple of things. 1) They COULD mix in cyan but DO they? If we don't know then there is no reason to mention it as a reason not to get it. 2) As you mention, you were able to get a toner cartridge with a lot of pages capacity but the typical b&w printers i just checked a few of are only in the 2-3000 page capacity. My parents color laser gets a 2000 page black cartridge(it doesn't run out of cyan any faster than the other colors by the way) 3) The biggest point i would make to the OP is that if someone asks me about what printer to get and they mention they want color then there is no point in telling them to get a b&w printer. The color versions are very affordable now. If they want color, get a color laser printer. I have told people that for many years now. Especially if you sometimes don't print anything for a couple of months. Then the ink printer is done in my experience.
While all weebs go to area 51 on September 20th, we could all storm HP-headquarters in California
Edit: I see you like the idea..
Reminds me of the very start of the french revolution : "We'll assemble in this building and build our own governmental body !"
king : "I lock that building, you are powerless !"
crowd : "Welp ! There's a tennis court down the road, let's go there instead..."
Wait, why are weebs invading Area 51?
@@hexyko4850so.. it started off as a joke on facebook and went from 400 Thousand to ~1.5 Million in one day
@@hexyko4850 Look it up
sign me up.
One thing you missed is that if you try to save your ink and use it sparingly it either dries out or the printer automatically and routinely uses some ink to run a jet cleaning cycle.
Im angry at a liquid rn
Lyte
I like ink.
Lyte
Let’s start a riot
The liquid isn't the problem, it's the price gouging on behalf of corporations
ayyyy xD swedish
Lyte I'm surprised not a lot of people have seen this, neither has anyone opposed to this.
I’ve also NEVER seen a printer when where you press “STOP PRINT” it actually stops printing... it just prints it off
dpajc056 I KNOW RIGHT
epson rx520 did!
Sledgehammer.
Unplug it lol
dpajc056 mine does
The worst shit I've seen is with the Canon Pixma MG3510:
"Unknown error. You cannot scan documents."
"Wait wait wait. What? But why?"
"No ink".
LOL
Hahaha.... that printer is dumb.
_"I can't hear you, it's too dark in here!"_
The whole "Pixma" series of printers are an absolute joke. They are made so that they arrive broken. Wifi models don't work on wifi and require special knowledge to activate. The software only works for 7 up to 14 days and then it asks for money just to be able to print. IF you try using another software the drivers make your life a living hell giving you wrong aspect ratios and various wrong sizes. Yeah it costs 20 pounds for the whole printer. But the headache that comes with it is not worth it. Especially after 100 pages when the printer says you need new ink cartridges. Pixma models are a joke. Do not buy.
No no.. Enter Samsung c410w ! Lazer printers are scams too and even worse. Simply moving them around kills them. I wish there were a DIY printer kit somewhere. A printer built around simplicity (open source?).
Me and my brother managed to convince my mom that a $300 ink tank printer will worth more than a $50 cartridge printer and its $50 cartridge. In a month, we used up enough ink that would've cost $500 in cartridges, with only $10 in bulk ink.
I also invested in a HP tank printer, i print sooo many stuff and in one month of extensive use the level only dropped less than 1/4th from full.
Same here. Got a 350 dollar tank printer after deciding 75 dollars for a complete set of ink on our crappy old printer was just unacceptable. The new one has no cartridges, just ink bottles. There's no way to put in a chip to require their branded ink. Very happy with it.
I have an Epson ecotank and it has absolutely paid for itself in terms of savings on ink cartridges!
where do i find tank printer
I felt so much rage throughout this video... it was satisfying to see him smash the printer :)
what are you gonna do about it
@@alish4n share this video and start a revolution duh.
He shouldve poured red ink on it
Aw fuck spoilers bro goddam
EVERYTHING IS A SCAM!
"Ink Cartridges Are a Scam"
"Unnamed computer company's laptop division."
HP
Ahahaha you are SOOO right, I am honestly getting rid of my HP junk piece of crap, gonna buy either a laser printer or one of those new Epsons that have cheap ink and no cartridge.
@@sergiofreitas9368 HP's cheap inkjet printers are garbage. I tend to go with Brother but literally anyone (especially Epson) is better than HP in that space.
HP makes printers that report there is no ink despite there being ink, or print head failures a mere year after purchase, and every year they release a new model slightly different from the old one but still incompatible...
Absolutely right, today I came home with a Epson ET-2750, even though I only used it for like 1 hour now, I can immediately feel the difference, it doesn't feel as flimsy, better UI, more features, the WiFi connection paired instantly, it reckognized all of my devices instantly without messing with shitty driver CD's, and most importantly, it has none of these overpriced cartridges, I will let you know how it holds up in the future.
my mom actually has/had a not too bad HP printer (OfficeJet 5605). We got a new Epson printer for new features and ink that won't cost you 60 bucks. per. cartridge..
Fuck HP!
*Description:* "Join me in starting the revolution"
*3 years later:* Ain't nobody done shit
What's supposed to be done? Everybody already hates printers so spreading the word won't do much.
@@gregorkorosec6131 Kinda makes the video pointless though, don't you think?
@@z-beeblebrox the fact we have to pay the price of the printer just for the printer to operate then twice the price of the printer for a new printer when it breaks down and twice the price of that printer for ink kinda makes it a pain in the ass
Eh we got more important things to do...Like umm....
@@Orincaby Just buy a new printer instead of new ink. They lose money on each printer sold, then they might change!
I was about to buy more ink for my printer, I thought this video was gonna tell me a nifty trick to fix my old low ink cartridges... surprised that it didn't but ngl seeing the printer being bashed by a sledgehammer was 1000% worth it
I did that to my first printer bought 10yrs ago. After one year of almost no use tells me no ink when the cartridge is 90% full. I took it out saw a microchip and sorta figured out what was going on. Threw that thing down and based it into pieces. Never bought another printer since. I just go to my work office to print anything.
Printer ink 100% is a scam. My printer keeps telling me its expired ink but I take the ink cartridge out without rotating it and somehow the ink spills everywhere. It got all over my hands and the floor and permanently stained them, I tried different soaps and it won't come off. I don't understand how anybody is supposed to remove the ink cartridge without ink going everywhere, I literally just removed it normally without rotating. So not only does the ink seem like perfectly fine, they are probably wankers that find it amusing not only to scam people by making them buy more ink, but also when you go to replace the ink, they probably find it amusing how it will spill everywhere when you try to pull it out without rotating it.
I slammed mine. After reading this comment, I’m happy I wasn’t the only one.
He did tell you at the beginning that he prefers laser printers.
This video really makes me want to start an affordable printer company and make millions lol
Overpriced everything with just one dollar. You know, so you actually earn something.
I'm in, I'll market that
Same idea from me lol
Printers are affordable. They are cheaper than replacement ink cartridges. That's why I always just buy a new printer when I run out of ink.
I'm going to go a different path next time by buying a tank printer. Either that or a printer with a continuous ink supply system.
This is the reason why I just don't buy printers anymore, I spend a little money and print at the public library.
Can you print pdf of the phone ?
@@redinstrumental7535 ?
@@redinstrumental7535 ? Can you be a bit clear please, thanks
That’s smart but be sure not to print anything crucial
most shops and libraries tend to close due to covid. i think its time for me to buy one
Here in Russia we use hacked refillable cartriges or attach reservoirs to circumvent this problem. For decades!
One may say we are voiding the warranties.. But what is that warranty if they don't respect it here anyway xD
хули нам, славянам
*russian theme intensifies*
@@dante8885 I honestly don't know the details, all I can say we just use third party refillable cartriges, and the chips in them are made to reset themselves when you refill them
@@EriIaz Thanks. Can you recommend a good seller I can buy a refillable cartridge from?
Shit. You Russians are so advanced. While the rest of us are slaves to coporatocracy, you just go ahead and DIY. Teach me your secret, I want to be free from planned obsolescence.
As a toner cartridge seller, I agree it's a big scam.
Being someone who works at staples, I can confirm that printers and ink are bullshit. we charge a ridiculous amount of money for products that often malfunction and ink cartridges (even xl) usually have barely any capacity.
offbrand lol
You can buy 'package damaged' name brand ink cartridges online. The cardboard packaging is slightly damaged so they can't charge full price for them, which...who cares. As long as the cartridge works, that's all that matters.
wait CARDBOARD is used for some ink cartridges?!?!??
What the hell?! why use a sledgehammer like that?, you are going to damage the WOODSTAND.
Put the printer on the floor then hit it.
I'd rather re-assemble a few blocks of wood than deal with a crack in the concrete... O.O XD
@@Gwalchgwyn you could always go to the grass...
Does nobody question the printer being plugged in while smashed? Is that not a danger? Is electrocution not dangerous? Is electrocution a thing? What is electrocution? What is danger
@@Penol123 the handle is wooden so no electrocution isn't an issue
I know I was thinking the exact same thing.
HP and Canon are currently being sued because of this (according to online news articles).
You have done well, Austin.
and do you know if they had won?
@@StarWarsExpert_ Don't know. From what I've gathered, the cases are still ongoing.
Which will accomplish absolutely nothing.
@@voldy3565 Better to take a chance for change rather than just accept defeat and wallow in nihilism. Or, at least, I think so.
That was 9 months ago?! It’s still a problem?! What the hell!
It’s so funny that this is such a deep rabbit hole
Epson has a line that pretty much solves this. they call it the "Eco tank series" no cartridge's only refillable tanks. And before anyone says it the ink is dirt cheap. You can get the individual colors in 3.7oz bottles off of amazon for around $6-$7, or the whole pack for between $12-$18. I remember one time paying $30 for just a single black HP cartridge.
I've had one for years and it has served me well. Saved so much money and doesn't break down every second day
i have a epson stylus nx430 and the lady gave me it but it needs ink. Im gonna use it for making ebay shipping labels. but does any of you know a good place to find it cheap? this stuff is expensive wow. can i do anything to stop it from not printing if color is out? i only need black
@@waragainstmyself1159 Imagine necro'ing a 4 month old comment with your irrelevent tech support questions
@@tobiaswhittaker7462 lol great comment
hmmmm time to combine this printer with other printers that are Amazing with something and make the ultimate printer
"Your script is so good, it deserves to be printed with color"
By any chance, are you a printer 🖨 manufacturer...? 🤔
@@Samathinsath.parami maybe....
"Would you like a deal on a new hp ink jet printer with our all new ink mixture technology to make more crisp colors?"
@@Lawnmower142 😂😂😂😂😂
ha ha ahhahhahhahha
@@Lawnmower142 😂😂😂😂😂👀😃✔pro memer
Our printer is running on "0%" ink for quite some time already...
Yes, interestingly enough, I generally ignore those low ink reminders as well. I have to print something that has those white lines, etc., before I'll get more black ink...
Good LORD... 😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬😡👍👍👍👍👍
BenjaminGessel Yeah but the are talking about printers who claim to be empty when they’re not and don’t print anymore because of that. Have you not seen the video? It’s not about low ink but supposed empty cartridges
@@tsfbaf303 Yes I saw the video. I'm just stating how my Hewlett Packard wireless printer operates. It says "low ink" for a while, until it finally says, "No way, Jose". Thing is, yeah, I've often sensed that there is still some ink left in the cartridge at that point. I mean, if there was literally NO ink, nothing would show up when you try to print, right? But that cyan mixing with the black a bit, just getting new color cartridges in general when you rarely print anything if ever in color, THAT is the real scam. But yeah, I mean, if your printer actually forces you to get a new print cartridge when it's still 50% full/will not budge, that's NOT COOL. But yeah, my printer isn't quite that extreme (to the best of my knowledge).
@@BenjaminGessel i accidentally bought ink refill kit instead of cartridge online for my wireless canon and thought they cheated with false advertising, turns out it works very well. just open the cartridge and inject the ink provided with the cyringe with the pack. The only problem was i had to tape it once its seal is broken still shows low ink message but works fine. That when i realised the scam like this dude in video if only they made cartridges which can open like phone its easy and cheap. SCAM INDEED
@@ratheeshr845 I hear you man...
Thanks to all the Indian and Russian UA-cam channels that helped me repair my printer, I've been using the same one for about 6 years and the only problems I have are with dry ink on the tubes when I don't use it for a long time, which is something I don't blame on the company that much.
Pay the little extra for a printer with ink tanks, it is worth it and don't be afraid to Google how to repair stuff.
You are welcome 🙂
The disappointment when I realized this was posted two years ago AND THIS STILL HAPPENS!!!
You must be so young, lol. This has been true for over 20 years.
Many independent makers sell continuous ink supply systems (CISS) that can be installed on certain printers to get around having to spend $60 on those disgusting ink cartridges. CISS cost slightly more, but you can print MORE pages per refill, and the bottles cost 10x cheaper than cartridges! Think of the savings!
@@MrTheFletch pretty sure it was since the 1940s
Tttt tree t r rdddF
İkrr
Apple: those suckers buy a new phone every year
Printers: hold my ink cartridges
Dollar shave club: “Conformist scum”
It would make more sense if a company like Samsung was in there instead of Apple but okay.
@@vitotheo ios updates to fit with newer phones, samsung doesnt do that
@@vitotheo fucking sheep
@@vitotheo apple literally kills their old phones
Imagine the dude who programmed all that shit in the printer software:
- So, I’m supposed to program shit that’s only going to mess with the client on purpose? Are you asking me to write stuff to make the experience worse?
- yes
Or they just hire ex-Microsoft programmers. 😂
That's how capitalism works, look into planned obsolescence. over 80% of things break on purpose including things medically needed.
One time i did code one of those and everyone bought that printer because it was known fo being more "effecient" with ink, of course until someone else recoded it so that it took new driver to be compatible and the new drivers made it somehow use ink 10x as fast
Yeah fuck that dude
I've heard about a case where a company literally sold hardware with a switch inside that made it run shittier, then charged people extra to get the "upgrade" for it, then sent out a "technician" whose only job was to flick the switch so that they could "install the upgrade".
I completely believed after he said "today I am doing something about it" he was going to say he was making his own printer without the scam ink cartridges lmao
same, I was all excited about learning how to make your own printer ink or something. Instead he went all office space on his mom's printer. I hope he bought her a new one after that :D
a friend of mine has a shitty $30 printer and when it runs out of ink he just buys a new printer because it's cheaper to buy a whole new printer with ink already in it than just buying the ink.
LMAO
They got around that now. The new printer you buy comes with an ink cartridge that's filled about 25% - 50% depending on the brand. So it's technically cheaper to buy ink in terms of how many pages you can print.
Second hand refill shop is the best. The cartridges you get with a new printer are half empty.
Yeah sounds good until you think about the planet...
Imagine all that waste though.
My printer "ran out of ink" even without me using it for a while.
Same bro
Eiad DS Yea my shit keeps drying up and I have to print 5 test pages and do a lot of shit just to keep it flowing and then it tells me ink is low and I have to replace the ink cartridge. After that I have to printe a bunch of more test pages because one color isn't working. All that shit just so I can copy/Print a b&w document.
some printers turn on automatically to do "nozzle cleans" periodically.... inkjet is just a flawed technology... My laser color printer original carts have lasted 5 years without issues.. only print a few pages / year
I took the cartiges out of mine when I wasn't using it and it still "ran out" of ink.
@@megavidaeos the nozzle on the ink could have just dried up, maybe you need to clean the nozzle with some acetone
Edit: worked for me many times
but u never told us what to do.. are we boycotting ink cartridges or?..
Billy McDonough we could get laser printers
Use CISS or make affordable ink refill company, don't buy new ink cartridges.
I brought an Eco Tank printer. You pay more for the printer but $15 for bottles of Ink that last about 2 years.
@Svenska Ku klux Klan The printers or the CEOs?
Why is the hell would he tell you what to do? He's just here to complain to you about how terrible the world is and how bad you should feel about yourself
This guy has something in him that we really want more and more. I think he would be a perfect cast on shows like Fargo, as a lead. Brillaint!!
Sounds like a good idea for market disruption. Let's launch a brand that will produce fair printers, with fair ink cartridges.
Theres a brand with ink that lasts almost "forever" and tgeres also a liquid ink printer that is cheaper
@@bigjuicyratgaming7049 but what is the name of the brand?
@@Yah-Izoa-Hakaboth you can search up printer that lasts forever
@@bigjuicyratgaming7049 Okay! Thank you!
it’s probably ridiculously expensive
Gotta love when they’re literally making 26000% profit
It should be illegal to have such high profit margins. Businesses do anything to make money. It doesn't matter if people die as long as it generates revenue.
One must always assume that the company is trying to deceive.
imagine when you're on the side that receiving all that money, you gotta love it even more
@@electronresonator8882 try to imagine your back is the one the money is being made from, you wont see a cent, your back will kill you from all the hard work and them ppl be laughing at you for having worked so hard. Imagine.
Profit over human life. Why do ppl still support these brands.
@@DG-AI777 because there isn't a better cheaper option. There is no right to force companies to lower their profit margins. People seem to be plenty happy with what is on the market as I don't see other companies lining up to jump into the market. Seems like they know something Austin doesn't. >.>
I'm pretty sure that if we storm Area 51, we'll find it's simply an ink cartridge manufacturing plant.
Hooked On Chronics They won’t die. Look at the UA-cam channel “Explore with us”. Specifically the “what they aren’t telling you” video. The worst that will happen is a few people will go to jail. Unless someone tries to assault a police officer or something.
@Hooked On Chronics people aren't going to actually do it, if you seriously think they will you're the dumbass
@@Aurelius_unofficial If you think that at least a hundredth of the people who pledged wouldn't go. Well I think you'd know
@@alephkasai9384 okay Boomer
@@Aurelius_unofficial When is that happening again
OP: We’re gonna do something about it!!!
Also OP: *Does nothing*
🔨🔨🔨
disabling entire printer because of unpaired ink? what is this, *apple?*
ReKt SoN I don’t think you know much about tech.
@I’m boutta E well you see, apple wants to make their devices irrepearable, for example apple has paired each devices home button to the device itself. so lets say you wanted to replace the home button by a third party alternative, without the help from apple. the device would not turn on as a result of the unpaired home button, rendering the device completely useless. unless the home button was repaired by apple themselves, which if it wasnt obvious enough, would cost more money and more effort, because they would replace the entire display instead of just the home button. luckily apple did get sued for this and has allowed third party home button replacements without the device not turning on
@@ReKtSoN Welp, now they're casually selling monitor stands for $999 xD
@@imbouttae1869 I don’t think you know much about tech, you sheep.
グェンジェシカ nigga my iphone work fine even when smthn gets broke
All we print is black and white...
NO WONDER MY COLOR INK KEEPS RUNNING OUT!!!!!!!
When my black ran very low I discovered that my HP was printing ALL THREE COLORS behind or under the black every damn time I printed a black-only document. I figured out some major gymnastics to get it to print black-only in "draft" mode by exporting everything to PDF first. It's maddening that they get away with this anti-consumer crap.
@@jeanvignes printers are also great at being terrible with user interface. 4 buttons, then all weird symbols that I'm not sure are even in the instructions and almost no text on it. Also you need an app that has very little help in it to connect it to internet. yeah im kind of talking about a specific brand that makes printers but still all the ones i used were really confusing
I take out the color cartridges on my Hp to print black and white document
You should try
@@11.iputuagusarianggaiswara55 Many printers forbid you to print if it's missing a cartridge.
@@11.iputuagusarianggaiswara55 all 16 printers on my floor (5 separate brands), will not print without all ink cartriges in place.
I have an HP printer, and everytime my cartridge goes empty i refill it by locally bought ink bottle which cost like 1$ for 100ml ink. You need a syringe with a needle to refill the cartridge from the tiny hole present under a sticker on the cartridge. You can refill cartridge infinitely. It's a common thing here in India :)
@@ir7412 well it has worked well for me, i only replace cartridge when the tip of cartridge gets damaged after extreme usage (continuous brushing on the pages).
Other than that, i've never replaced my cartridges.
I used to be able to do that. Then they changed the printer's firmware so that it only accepts NEW cartridges. Weird. I thought we were SUPPOSED to recycle things.
With certain printers, it doesn't work. I had an old one that I just inject with ink and it worked for years but I forgot what model it was. I also had a Lexmark printer before that. It saved my poor college ass a decade or so ago. My mom has a newer one and besides buying a new cartridge, she brought the old one to show to a printer refill station that also sells ink refills. He refilled the old one and mom paid a bit more (🙄). Refilled cartridge never worked anymore. Fuck newer printers. Glad they now have ones with refillable tanks and you can buy locally manufactured compatible inks but people have been fucking hoarding and reselling the printer.
Do you have a video on how to do it.
@@TheRKae YES They will recycle it for and sell you back , make sure you sort your trash properly .
I agree with you! I stopped buying ink and took it to Costco to refill in the past, but they got rid of it. Guessing the printer company was upset about that...
In 21 years of life I have seen my dad throw at least 7 printers down the stairs, out the door, out the window, at walls
And yenno... I don't blame him
Same. I bought a B&W brother laser a few years ago and it's super solid. Not a single issue, replaced the toner twice.
I had a family member that buys a New printer when the cardrige was empty 🤣
@chiggly 123 i have a canon ,it doesnt work any more.
Beacause Windows 10 dont support him.
Its a.printer that works fine on Windows 8 but 10 doesnt support it.
And i refuse to buy a New one only for that reason
@@stefan-ox8qs best way to do it 😂
@@stefan-ox8qs I've spent 6 month just to install printer on LINUX
me: ok finally i have time to print this document
printer: wait but first i need cyan ink :)
me: don't worry i dont need to use cyan
printer: *d i d i s t u t t e r*
I know. This is so annoying.
All I needed was to use the scanner. "Feed me, feed me! Can't scan without ink!" I tossed the thing out and got a Bother laser printer. It's less worse.
Ahahahah funny man is here
Let us all laugh
500th like
Yes it did stutter, WITH FIVE WHITE LINES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE
It's funny they also want your 'used cartridges' back, probably to refill it from half full and sell it back to you.
That's exactly why they want them back. I worked for office depot for awhile and learned about this shit there.
Actually HP does *exactly* this, and will sometimes offer incentives for you to "Recycle" your old (not completely used) ink cartridges so you can get screwed over again-and again....and again... (you see where this is going? Me too)
Same
You know you can refill your cartridges, just ignore the warnings of low ink
@@roycoto970 Thats what i do. I pay less than a dollar per refill. It's so much cheaper.
Btw, this should be done with all our technological products, like when you have to get rid of a good cell phone just because there's no more updates on the software and even on the apps, or as like happened here, they start being incompatible 😩
Looks like EA's tactics have broken outside the gaming industry
False.
EA is printer company tactics breaking into the gaming industry
An EA printer would have You pay a full $60.00 for each sheet printed.
@@rgderen88 Could be!
@@737Garrus 😂
Printing mechanics!
You can literally buy a whole new printer, which includes the ink, for less money than standalone ink cartridges.
That's what I used to do. Local store sells heaps of these shitty printers for $25. They get the job done for simple documents (even has a scanner). Once the ink was gone I COULD pay $50 for more ink or I could just sell the empty printer for $10 and then buy another $25 printer with ink. I often chose the latter.
For shitty printers that'll work to an extent but theyre already on that. The "starter cartridges" have less and less included as time goes on and some printers need new cartridges after as little as 15-20 prints
I used to work for HP as a printer salesman, you know the guy that goes to the different stores in an area to "sell" to not only the customers but the employees of said store the items we make are better than the other guys! Anywho, the biggest lie I had to tell not only employees but customers was that every printer had a full set of ink (lie) and all the cables needed to get working was in the box (lie). All pre-packaged ink in printers are only 25% the normal capacity of the shelf version. After a year of lieing I was told to share this info with employees so they can make a bigger sale by adding in extra ink and the USB cable (all HP brands of course) to the end purchase under the guise of "saving them a future trip to the store when the ink runs out". All this for a measly $6 an hour... so glad I quit!
Send nasty tweets to HP on twitter.
They put fuck all ink in those cartridges, though.
In Mexico they are “ink shops” where you leave your used cartridges and get refilled ones for cheap.
Same, I’m from Chile and in my town they sell you the ink so you can fill it by yourself too ;)
We actually used to have ink refill shops in the US too (about 20 years ago), but for some reason they all went out of business in the mid 2000s. I highly suspect the printer companies were behind it.
@@yozefa so, how much on average would a used, full cartridge cost? Imagine flying down and picking up 1000...and re selling them!!! Hell, at this point the cartridges are drugs.
In Italy ink costs 20-15 €
@@notarobotto That seems much more reasonable. Not great, but better
I'm absolutely serious when I say that this has inspired me to destroy some cheap printer with a crowbar, mallet, and various other objects.
Highly recommend! It's a lot of fun. :)
this is the movement I'm willing to die for
Jimmy's buzzard Advent amen to that
so true!
Year 2305 history class:
Teacher: "can anybody tell me how the second American Civil War started?"
Student: "Ink cartridges!"
Teacher: "That's correct!"
WiseEmu 😂🤣 amazing
It’s time to declare an ink crusade
I'd always thought I was being ripped off when it came to printer ink, but I was astonished to see just how insane the level of price gouging truly is. I'm now the proud owner of a second hand laser printer, which cost me less than a new inkjet plus ink. Never going back to inkjets after this. Thanks for the video.
Do you think they don’t do the same thing for the laser printers? Ha ha. I had to print something for my family organization 500 copies I had to buy two sets of toner to finish it in black only.
Let me guess, the laser printer was made by one of the same big printer companies as your ink jet.
I looked into laser printers at one point, but decided never to buy one after reading about the large number of poisonous particles that enter (and never leave) your body when using them. Just look it up.
@@Plip29 not to get all conspiracy theory on you, but I think it's likely that the studies regarding that have been paid for by companies favoring inkjet printers
so. which is better?🤔
Just wait until Apple realises a printer:
99.99 $ For one ink cartridge
1499.99 $ Printer
499.99 $ Apple Care
999.99 $ Printer and Ink stand
199.99 $ Proprietary Apple branded paper
And you can only use it with Apple branded products. So if you have Windows 10 you need to downgrade to an Mac
Total: 3 299.95 $
*And people would buy it*
6 months later, a new printer with the printer name and an "S" in the end will be realised. This "upgrade" will cost you 250$ more but will not have any new features.
Dont forget that their ink cartridges have a proprietary shape and rfid chip and if you replace it with 3rd party unit the printer will never turn on again
@@jacobszymczak9323 exactly
And that it would stop working after a year
Also it would cost you 10 $ every time you print something and 55 $ for the ink tests
499.99 $ Printer guide
299.99 $ Cable
189.99 $ Apple Adapter
9.99 $ Your dignity and soul
@6:40 he makes a great analogy. Having your printer not work even though it STILL has ink, is like your car shutting down, saying your gas tank is empty, even though you have half a tank of gas.
Totally. 100% agree. *INK IS TOO EXPENSIVE!!*
Paul Groseclose o can buy no-name ink for around 10€ in the Netherlands. The original ink costs around 30-40. It's ridiculous.
Thank God, here in the Philippines, we can actually refill the ink cheaply & easily.
Printers have little wells that are mounted on the outside for easy access.
BTW, printers here often have a long warranty enabling you to get free or cheap repairs.
tip 1, order online. tip 2, don' t live in America, my local shop in Latvia sells em for 5euro, still expensive but not 60 dollars
Paul Groseclose like how water is expensive in poor countries
Paul Groseclose Vive la résistance!
It's really sad how my 3d printer costs less to run than my inkjet printer does
xXpistonXx ! How much is a 3D printer?
@@catwo8297 anywere from $100 for a cheap one to 10k for the best. a good one can be bought for 400 tho
@@ceasarsaladjesus4204 damn thats incredibly sad.
@@Floridamangaming729 its worse as 3d printers use universal filiments which cost as little as 10 dollars a kg and come in hundreds of varieties
WHOA.
"Unnamed computer company with a laptop division"
>Also makes printers
Austin worked at HP
Hooked On Chronics 5.6k
Joseph Kramer, or Dell.
@@NativelyBornAmerican or even samsung
I know his mom's printer model: Epson WorkForce WF-2750
I had only one inkjet printer back in the 90's for occasional printing. The Ink cartridges would always dry out and you would have to buy new ones. I went with laser and never looked back. I made my parents get a laser printer as well. Their's is still going 20+ years later with only having to replace toner every now and then and at some point I replaced rollers. I have a laserjet that we've had years as well. It just works. I steer anyone away from inkjets as they are nothing but a money pit.
Every time I replace my cartridge it prints out two pages in color automatically. Two weeks later I need more
Every time I turn on my piece of shit computer it prints two pages. Gotta make sure that the ink still works by printing a two full pages of useless color garbage.
"*Printer companies hate this guy!*"
*"Printer companies hate him! CLICK HERE to discover how he saves 200$ a month on printer ink!"*
answer break your printer now you dont need ink XD
Unfortunately, if his campaign to get cheaper ink succeeds, it will blow up in his face, as printer manufacturers will simply stop selling their printers at a loss, and printers will suddenly become hella expensive, all to protect these manufacturers' profits.
yeah me neither
@@denelson83 I would gladly pay more if it didn't break all the time
Whenever my dad runs out of ink he just buys a new printer
A new printer is less than ink.
800624 eXACTLY
LMAO
Me too
Majority of manufacturers will only put a fraction of the amount of ink included in the box as compared to a new cartridge. This is just wasteful of resources.
Proprietary software for "effortless conection" is also why it's difficult as hell to keep a printer actially working. Honestly, anti-trust laws need to be expanded so companies release schematics and shit so they stop getting away with this.
Me: I just finished this essay that is due at 6 a.m. tomorrow. Let me just print it out
Printer: Observe
edit:Thanks for the likes. A dollar a day keeps the printer away.
And for me as a high school student with no close places to buy any ink from, and also considering my school is like 12km away and I barely get even time for homework, printers are just...... They are.....
I would rather have just used a 3D printer to do it. At least it's more-reliable in it's current state.
Right? In college I was printing a new essay draft almost twice a week for multiple classes. An initial $10 limit but each page cost 4-6cents or 10-12 double sided. The printers were almost always down and took 2-3 days to fix. Felt like the school was making money off my printing, yet it was the biggest pain in ass trying to find one that worked.
The amount of times I have had a huge essay due and the printer fucks up is kinda ridiculous
In Nigeria, people manufacture counterfeit printer cartridges and they work way better and last longer than the originals.
Interesting...
India too! You can get your cartridge refilled
@@aditimehrotra941 exactly! Everyone does it here! 🤣🤣🤣 Love my Mumbai ❤️😇
YS Entertainment love my Nigerian people!!! Always at work.
Mexico does this too! my printer has 4 half a litter ink containers that somehow are attached to the printer. I literally refill the containers once a year.
When typewriters are more reliable than printers you know something has gone wrong
And the modern school system has failed in producing students that can spell.
@@johnnyc.5979 shut the fuck up
@@irondragon9775 And my point has been made.
@@johnnyc.5979 I misspelled something you don't have to be a dick
@@irondragon9775 I believe you mean "I misspelled something. You don't have to be a !@#$"
I found myself here after watching Fstoppers video. 2023 this video is still relevant.
HP ceo : Joe many employees do we have?
Joe: 11k , why?
HP ceo: Aight let's dislike this video
Bob?
xD
LMAO
Who’s Joe
@@BWM896_ *clears throat*
Here in Pakistan we just bypass the software on the chip and used locally manufactured ink to refill the cartridges over and over gain. So what if the warranty becomes void, its only a $60 piece of equipment. I even know a few people who 3D print whole new ink cartridges.
I'd like to know how to by-pass too.
He'll tell you how to bypass the chip but it's going to cost you a $500 Google Play card. LOL
those who asking how to do it. A simple google search will help you. I have done it with different printers in the past because my job required printing a lot of photos. Every printer has a different process from swapping IC on circuit to installing custom firmware.
@@mattd1188 it’s either give up the $500 google play card or be behind da bars!!!!
@David clark what printer model do you use?
So the printer is the game and the ink is the over priced microtransactions.
But you do not need microtransactions to run the game.
FullConcerts100 and the games pay to win
I smell a misspelled word
The Printer is like a console not much freedom and its going to be obsolete in a few years and the ink is like the membership u have to buy to play online on the device u payed for on the internet u pay for.
with out memberships the console will be worse with less features and games so dot moan
A very entertaining video! You managed to bring the forefront, what I think a lot of us suspected for a long time. I appreciate that!
Someone should start something similar to the Dollar Shave Club, but for printers.
HP instant ink- “affordable” printer (start at $50) some printers have a free plan, where you can print 15 full colors for free per a month. We pay $3 a month for 50 pages a month, it’s even better than laser. (Not sponsored but it’s the best deal, provided you can make it worthwhile)
@@esyew my dad got that and its worth it. not sponsored but I can agree.
Excuse me but you Do realize the club sells you things for a buck, but also sells you a lot of things you don't need or want. They are cheap so noone cares that they are not worth using, hey they are only a buck I will give it a try....while the company hiss....SUCKER...
@@esyew So basically even though you have already Paid for the printer you have to pay to use it? And like most who are used to this nonsense you think it is a GOOD idea. So not only do you pay 50 for a printer designed to wear out if used much they also are getting a monthly fee from you.
Canon sells the refillable G2000 series printer (in mexico) for about 120 USD, you use a refillable container on the printer and the ink is really cheap.
I was hoping this video had an actual solution.
at this point, we have to make a solution
Use Laser Printers for black/white printing at least.
Laser printers are the solution. More expensive up front, but they can print 1,000's of pages.
Look to EcoTank from Epson for cheap bottled ink or Brother have much cheaper and hold more ink in their cartridges then HP, Canon, Lexmark, etc. Plus Brother cartridges usually have a see through bit so you can actually see how much ink you have left. Hope that helps!
It dose he said that the video is only attacking jet ink printers laser printers get a pass the solution only buy/use laser printers
My photo only, dedicated Epson "professional " photo printer I bought in 2006 ran flawlessly until 2019. No glitches despite thousands of photos and documents until September 19, 2019... it stopped. I looked at the device display screen for a clue of the problem. Up popped a message " You have now exceeded the mechanical life of this device." Moments later... "Good-bye" it blinked off. It had powered itself off for good! I stood there slack-jawed for a good long while astounded at what I had just witnessed. Did my printer in a "HAL" moment ( 2001 a Space Oddessy) just signed off for good? It appears there is a engineer somewhere in Japan with a great sense of humor that in the event one of their printers should have the remarkable luck of lasting to the end of its internal clock, it was programed to sign off. Ink was still expensive, only worked if all 5 cassette were filled but I was still able to buy one color at a time. Bought another Epson. Not so good.
I heard about this hacker, (not sure if it's true) that hacked into his Hp printer's system and had the printer's life clock removed and afterwards it worked perfectly. Too bad printing companies have now caught onto this and same with manipulating ink cartridges.
Planned Hyper-Obsolescence right there.
Planned obsolescence in it's most grubbiest form. Shame on Epson. Shame on all of them.
There should be more class actions.
Tobacco companies had to pay 500 billion dollars to states/consumers/non-profits and label themselves Satan for doing the exact same thing razor and printer and computer and cell phone and automobile companies and facebook and google and . . . well . . . come to think of it, all companies run a scam . . . still better than communism though . . . caveat emptor . . . teach that to your kids when they are 4 yrs old
It's not just printers. They do the same with MOST electronics. I knew a guy who did the same thing on washers and dryers. IT SHOULD BE ILLEGAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had to go check the prices to find out if this was also how things are in India, fortunately they are not, printer are about $150 while ink is $10, guess they realised that Indians will dismantle every part of the damn thing to figure out a cheaper way
What am I supposed to do with this newfound hatred of printers
Any time anyone requests anything via printed paper say no
@@ExpiredCartonOfEggNogg "hey can you help print some flyers for a birthday party"
FOCK U
Don't buy HP
I love this comment because although it would be incredibly cool to have a revolution against printer cartridges and now I understand how much of a scam printer cartridges are I- can't be bothered doing anything about it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
BIM...Black Ink Matters.
In Saudi Arabia, there are shady computer repair shops run entirely by Indians that modify Ink cartridges and printers so they can be refilled at like 5% of the original cost. Bless them.
In the Philippines, it's all mainstream. The retail stores sell you the printer with ink wells mounted on the outside of the printer for easy access. You can buy refill ink quite cheaply. And printers often have a long warranty enabling you to get free or cheap repairs.
Same stuff in Russia. I think that these shady schemes don't work that good outside of first world countries, because people can't just waste money on ink and are forced to think there. It's a good thing.
ти во First World Country citizen here. You can get ink cartridges refilled at many local stores.
Interesting, I thought it was the same thing as with software piracy.
I remember back in the day (less than a decade ago), the cartridge chips weren't as sophisticated, so I had a ink printer hooked up to a continuous ink supply system (CISS), which is basically fancy words for drilling holes to the original cartridges and hooking them up via tubes to ink reservoirs velcroed to the side of the printer. The ink cost like $15-20 on eBay for 5 x 100ml bottles of each colour (as opposed to 4-5ml you get with an official $60 cartridge). That sucker worked like a god damn machine, printing everything I wanted, in full color, including photos or wtv else I needed. All for the cost of next to nothing. I used to photocopy entire university books that I'd borrow for free from the uni library (since uni books are another scam, where they cost $300-500 a piece and "new" ones are released every year with no changes in them) and it cost me basically a price of a ream of paper..
So yeah, all these printer manufacturers can suck it lol
OMG
How do I do this with my fckng Brother?
@@renataheiberg7534 Google "continuous ink supply system" (i.e. CISS) for Brother printers and you'll probably find something. Maybe even google for your specific printer model. I am sure CISSs are still around, given how criminally overpriced ink cartridges are.
Then there is also an "environmentally irresponsible" option to buy a new printer every time your ink runs out and selling the old one on Craigslist to some schmuck. Cos a new printer comes with a set of new cartridges, yet it's price is often cheaper, than buying just the new cartridges alone.
Or just buy a laser printer and never deal with garbage ink ones again. The only reason to buy ink-jet printers is to print in color/photos. Otherwise go with a laser.
@@TheCredibleHulk Thank you for taking your time to respond. I was glad to find out I was not stupid and not alone in my hatred for inkjet printers.
Once I threw away perfectly good printer because it would say the ink is empty while I could see the ink in the cartridge. Then I could not print in black without color and totaly was convinced that I am dumb as a rock. Now I understand.
The ink cartridges that come with the printer only come with marginally as much ink as the full fledged ones so that boat doesn't float.
@@qwertyboguss Who said that your printer uses ALL of the ink anyway? A lot of them say there is no ink, when there is still plenty. So it might not matter.
But I agree, generally speaking buying new printer every time is a very shitty method. And creates a ton of unnecessary e-waste. So CISS is the way to go for sure.
Reminds me of what my Dad did. For some reason, the ink cartridges are more expensive than the actual printers (at least, wherever he was buying from) - so, every time his printer ran out of ink, he'd just buy a new printer, which comes with new ink, and save himself a ton of money lmao
only thing is new ones only have enough ink to print a few pages.
@@stephenhudson4931 they imply that but it's not actually true
IMPORTANT TIP!!!
After you bought the printer, NEVER update!!! As the aftermarket cheap ink cardriges (like those you get for 13$ a complete set from amazon) are manufactured after the printer launch they are made to work, passing that chip security! If you update printer they will recognize the "fake" cardridges!
Chief Tec genius
Neighbour gave me an HP printer that refused to work because it had cheap cartridges. I found a service hack online to get round it and it worked for months afterwards. Look up the error code online- the reset is quite easy.
If this printer can connect to your network, it should definitely be updated... Check out the talk called "What the fax?!" from 35C3. Can be found on UA-cam.
any specific model/make you can reccomend?
Why don’t use ink tank printer ?
Aw hell yeah another episode of the best miscellaneous series on UA-cam
Gotta respect how he just makes videos about whatever the hell he wants to make them about!
What we need is a massive group of enthusiasts to create a open source printer drivers that ignore all of the chips and the printer issues and stuff.
The printers are designed to make that impossible.
Most likely, the "I WON'T PRINT" is built into the firmware of the printer, not the drivers themselves. So we need to reverse engineer the printer firmware in order to build a new firmware that ignores the chip, or just use the chips as "guideline ink reporting" and not a hard cutoff point. This is non-trivial, and in fact, very very hard. So it'll probably take a few months or even years. Per. Printer. Model.
It's just unfeasible to do. An engineer with good reverse engineering skills and possibly a couple of interested friends might be able to download a firmware update from the manufacturers website (if available), reverse engineer that update to figure out how it works, why it works, and that's an entire field of research. On top of that, this technique will only work on stuff that's not cryptographically signed. If you manage to unpack and alter the firmware, you still need to repack and sign the altered firmware, and that's something only the manufacturer can do. So now, on top of reverse engineering the function of the firmware, you also either have to brute force the private key used to sign the package (computationally unfeasable) or find an exploit that bypasses the check for signed firmware, essentially jailbreaking the printer, and that's ANOTHER engineering field.
And all this needs to be done for every printer model ever made, and you pretty much have to start from scratch every time. Some printers might be similar enough to be able to transplant some of the work between them, but that's probably just inside a line, like the consumer and prosumer model might share the same jailbreak exploit or similar. But there's just too many printers and too much work that needs to be done in order for this to ever become a reality, sorry.
CoderCandy OR, you can just do it with one model in each category. Desktop, midsize and large. The market will quickly adjust to suit. We need your Can-Do attitude here
Jesus, that's still a butt load of work. At this point, crowdfunding the perfect printer would be much easier than trying to fix whats in the market. In fact, I'd be surprised if someone hasn't tried that already.
+Karol Kozik Doesn't mean free ever, just often coincides with free. Printer manufacturers were actually a formative influence on Richard Stallman to become the open source advocate that he is: "In 1980, Stallman and some other hackers at the AI Lab were refused access to the source code for the software of a newly installed laser printer, the Xerox 9700. Stallman had modified the software for the Lab's previous laser printer (the XGP, Xerographic Printer), so it electronically messaged a user when the person's job was printed, and would message all logged-in users waiting for print jobs if the printer was jammed. Not being able to add these features to the new printer was a major inconvenience, as the printer was on a different floor from most of the users. This experience convinced Stallman of people's need to be able to freely modify the software they use," from his WIkipedia page. Many printers actually can be operated using open source drivers, e.g. with the gutenprint drivers: www.openprinting.org/driver/gutenprint There is also the overarching print system used by mac, Unix, and Linux that was open sourced by Apple (one of the last good things I remember them doing :P), CUPS. The only part potentially missing there is if the firmware takes independent action, but it largely doesn't seem to. In my experience the open source drivers often don't succeed in reading ink levels and just print till they're empty, and even then just try to print. For some models they are able to read them.