Piracy adjacent here. We have a printer, colour laserjet, that is from another ‘region’, was a really nice printer and we bought it just before moving and decided to bring it. There is an equivalent printer here with the same cartridges but we’ve found out they’re ‘region locked’. Brand is HP/Samsung.

I was wondering if anyone knows if third party cartridges which work around the chip also work around the region protection? We can actually region reset our printer, however 2/4 toner cartridges still have quite a bit in them so we’d like to use those up completely before switching.

Anyone know much about this?

  • TCB13@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    printer, colour laserjet, that is from another ‘region’,

    What the fuck HP. I’ve been using cheap cartridges from Aliexpress without issues.

    • crossmr@kbin.socialOP
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      9 months ago

      Which makes me think that the 3rd party replacement cartridges would be fine, I’d just like to know for sure before wasting money on them. I actually don’t mind the original cartridges. We did replace our yellow with a 3rd party cartridge at one point and you could actually see a difference, but for the time being I just want to get as much as we can out of our old cartridges before making the official switch.

      • TCB13@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        We did replace our yellow with a 3rd party cartridge at one point and you could actually see a difference

        I can see the difference as well, on mine the blacks are a bit less black. But we’re talking about a 30$ peer cartridge difference to print stuff that will be discarded at some point so I don’t care.

        • crossmr@kbin.socialOP
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          9 months ago

          I have the colour laser jet as I’m printing things that will be kept around like print and play games, or standees for skirmish/rpg games. I may give it a go on one colour though and see. I just wasn’t sure if the official and region locking part of these cartridges was in the same bit or if it was something that might have to be bypassed separately. But if you’re getting cartridges from aliexpress then it’s probably fine.

  • Bonehead@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    Brand is HP/Samsung.

    There’s really only one solution. Dump it and buy a old Brother laser jet. HP printers are specifically designed to make it as difficult as possible to use unless you use it exactly the way they want you to use it. And you’re trying to use it in a way they don’t approve. Specifically, you’re trying to use a Samsung branded printer in an area where only the HP version is sold. I know it’s convoluted, I know it’s a minor distinction. But this is just how HP works. And it’s best that you accept it and move on before you waste anymore money on it.

    Edit: Proof…

    • AtmaJnana@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      My little B&W Brother laser printer (‘laser jet’ is an HP marketing term) is awesome. Its been a workhorse for over a decade with zero problems.

      • NightAuthor@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Mine just doesn’t auto-install with windows, on new machines / windows installs I have to go out of my way to manually download and apply the drivers to get it working. But hey, ~14 years of printing for $100 ain’t bad

    • Chahk@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      Proof…

      While digital security experts have doubted the veracity of that claim, in any case it doesn’t seem consistent with, say, HP allowing USB devices to connect to its laptops, an interface that surely offers more opportunity for viruses and malware to access critical hardware than a printer cartridge.

      Stop giving them ideas!

  • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    Brand is HP

    Yup. You fucked yourself. HP printers are absolute garbage in every conceivable way. Genuinely not worth your time or effort to try and work around it.

    Buy any other brand. Brother is usually the recommendation if you actually want quality that will last and be serviceable.

      • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Another +1. Brother does make garbage printers in some cases, but their laser printers have been great.

        • SoleInvictus@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Another another +1 here. Does that make it +3 now?

          We don’t print a ton so we bought a basic monochrome Brother laser printer/scanner and used the included demo toner cartridge for almost two years. When that ran out, we swapped it for one big knockoff toner cartridge over four years ago and it’s still printing like a champ.

          Pro tip: if a Brother printer says it’s out of toner, it’s only estimating this based on the number of pages printed. You can override it (at least in every model I’m familiar with) and keep on printing.

    • crossmr@kbin.socialOP
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      9 months ago

      It wasn’t an HP printer when I bought it, it was samsung, and it’s a very good printer.

      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        But I’m guessing HP bought out that particular line of printers; they then would have pushed a firmware update to make those just as bad as their own offerings. They make their money forcing you to use their cartridges; that’s why a whole printer with both cartridges is only ~$10 more than just the ink most of the time.

        Seriously, cut your losses and move on.

  • eleitl@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Read that as religion blocked printers. Ought to delete that, don’t want to give them ideas.

  • fkn@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Without knowing the exact model it’s difficult to know for certain but you can buy off brand refill kits with chips. The printer may intentionally degrade quality with the aftermarket chips (and may never reset itself even if you return to official toner)… HP is just a terrible company.

    • crossmr@kbin.socialOP
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      9 months ago

      The printer is a samsung originally, HP owns their overseas business, and they have an identical model here just branded with HP. it’s a really good printer. It’s the Samsung version of the HP Color Laser 178nw.

  • bean@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    What the heck is the point of region locking on printers. Ok so HP wants you to use proper hp ink… What. You can’t get those in any other country? People never move?

    • crossmr@kbin.socialOP
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      9 months ago

      The only reason I could see them region locking is because they must sell them cheaper in one region vs another. But it’s unlikely that they’d sell them cheap enough that people couple buy them, then ship them for any significant savings (or any savings) at all over their locally available ones.

  • Toes♀@ani.social
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    9 months ago

    Don’t update the firmware or give it access to the internet.

    Assuming it’s old enough, if you put electrical tape over the chip contacts it might work.

    Try using a generic PCL3 or 5 driver.

    These are some weird workarounds I’ve seen in the wild.

    Edit: there’s no way to be certain unless you find another person with your exact situation and firmware that’s done something. Or a thumbs up from the manufacturer.

    • crossmr@kbin.socialOP
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      9 months ago

      I already contacted HP about resetting the region, that isn’t an issue. I’ve also used third party cartridges in the past with it, I just wasn’t sure if those were still region locked or not, as I know the third party places there actually had an exchange program where they took back your old cartridge (you got a discount) and I assume they reused it by refilling it somehow.

  • MonkderZweite@feddit.ch
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    9 months ago

    Btw, is there a printer (firmware) hacking scene?

    Considering that they don’t even remove USB ports in wifi-only printers (would have to change platine) to save costs, i guess there’s not that many different layouts and chipsets?

    • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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      9 months ago

      I am curious about this myself am interested in bypassing their region and cartridge locks. It’s not that I want to use their printers, I just want to cause mischief.

  • Smeagol666@lemm.ee
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    9 months ago

    By now, if you still have an HP printer, you deserve what you get. Fuck HP in the ass with a big rubber dick.