HP pre-programmed failure date for non-HP ink cartridges

Tens of thousands of people started reporting on September 13, 2016 that their HP printers were giving them the error “The following ink cartridges appear to be missing or damaged.”

HP pre-programmed a failure date into their printers
HP programmed a failure date into their printers

HP has now admitted they made an “error” with a firmware update that forced all non-HP ink cartridges to fail at the same time.  If your HP printer is effected you can flash your firmware back to a 2014 firmware (i.e. before the “error” was introduced) or purchase official HP ink cartridges for your next replacement.

You can read more about this breach of consumer’s trust in HP in this article.