Auto-reset-chips (ARCs) for HP's... How hard can this be?!!

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I have to admit to some frustration regarding this topic as it seems the auto-reset chips available for many of the Officejet printers nowadays are somewhat limited in terms of what they can and will do.

I'm onto my fourth set of HP88 compatible chips now and I think I've seen every behaviour there is.

Set #1 - K550 only... Rely on the black chip for everything to work and resets very easily when the power is turned off and then on again


Set #2 - L7000/K5400 compatability added... Yeah right. I was seriously unimpressed with this set. They allegedly didn't rely on the Black chip but the black would run out and the set would only reset when one of the other colours ran out too. Your printer then froze and you could only get everything back by pulling out the power socket and waiting 10 seconds before a cold power start brought it all back. This would then magically restore the black and all other colour ink levels but forever mark the printer as having had a refilled supply in the black.


Set #3? - Allegedly these work better than version #2 and come from a completely separate supplier except I've now had a report back from a client testing new kit that one reaches empty and suddenly the whole lot are declared non-HP and the printer freezes up. It stays that way until the power is pulled. Even when power cycled and the cartridges are remove and then replaced the printer is still saying the cartridges are not genuine HP and refusing to give ink levels.

I need to confirm this one but certainly these aren't the high capacity equivalents I was promised...


Set #4 - This is my most recent set and the first thing I've found is that these really are high capacity equivalents which all but set #1 "claimed" to be. I'm in the process of testing this one out now but so far I'm finding it somewhat better. This set hasn't, so far, locked up the printer. Resetting seems to involve waiting for the printer to declare the cartridge empty and then pulling it out of the socket (so the chip disconnects), waiting 10 seconds and then replacing it. Voila the chip resets. Because the black is high capacity it's going to require a lot of waste ink before I can get it to the reset point but I'm hopeful that we won't have a repeat.


All in all, it seems things are getting better but it does look a lot like I should be trying to identify every single chip manufacturer and then getting samples from them all to test properly, before naming and shaming the BS artists. Grrrr... hell hath no fury than a CIS researcher scorned (especially after the whole Canon fiasco!) :D
 

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It can potentially get even harder as the manufacturers keep revising the firmware on the printer. So programming a hack to slip through where doors are literally closing on you can be tricky.
 

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mikling said:
It can potentially get even harder as the manufacturers keep revising the firmware on the printer. So programming a hack to slip through where doors are literally closing on you can be tricky.
I suppose this is true but what is frustrating me greatly is the lack of honesty from the CIS and chip manufacturers.

I have to ask detailed questions to get half the information I need as well as lies or more often, shrugged shoulders and "not sure" responses.

R&D on the actual printers they are supposed to support seems to be seriously lacking and it just leaves people like me in a seriously bad position.
 

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The new chips that I heard from epson are suppose to self destruct after ink low error. What do you think?
 

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Ok... just a little update on this... I've finally managed to cut through the rubbish and after considerable ink and paper waste I've managed to get some chips ID'd and on order.

Thankfully I've since had confirmation from another reseller in Canada that they're legit so all's well that ends well... On the downside the K8600 has yet more loophole closing in its firmware but I do at least have chips that will still be allowed to print.
 
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