Kiyoshi Ota / Bloomberg
For years, printers have been cluttered with digital rights management systems that prevent users from purchasing third-party ink and toner cartridges. Printers have claims that their chip cartridges can “improve the quality and performance” of their equipment, to supply the “best customer experience” and “protect [the printers] counterfeit and third-party ink cartridges.
It doesn’t say that requiring proprietary cartridges also guarantees a recurring revenue stream. It’s an old business model – Gillette sold its razor handles cheaply to sell more razors, for example – and it’s a model that printers have embraced with enthusiasm. Lexmark, HP, Canon, Brother and others all demand that users buy premium ink and toner.
To enforce the use of proprietary cartridges, manufacturers typically embed chips inside consumables for printers to “authenticate”. But when chips are scarce, like today, manufacturers can find themselves in a bind. Canon is now explaining to German customers how to bypass warnings from its printers regarding third-party cartridges.
“Due to the continued global shortage of semiconductor components, Canon is currently facing difficulties in sourcing certain electronic components used in our consumables for our multifunction printers (MFPs),” said Canon. support site said in German. “In order to ensure a continuous and reliable supply of consumables, we have decided to provide consumables without semiconductor component until normal supply resumes. “
The chip in question tells the printer when toner levels are dropping. A useful feature, yes, but one that printers often use to lock out third-party cartridges. to print.
But Canon has struggled to get chips amid the shortage, so the company is telling owners of its imageRUNNER large office printers how to beat its own protections against cartridges that don’t have chips.
The software for these printers comes with a relatively easy way to bypass the chip checks. Depending on the model, when an error message is displayed after inserting toner, users can press “I agree”, “Close” or “OK”. When users press that button, the world doesn’t stop. Instead, Canon says users may find that their toner cartridge does not give them a low toner warning before it runs out.
“Although there is no negative effect on print quality when consumables are used without electronic components, some additional functions, such as detecting the toner level, may be impaired,” says the website. Canon support.
