Technology @lemmy.world misk @sopuli.xyz 4d ago

Brother denies using firmware updates to brick printers with third-party ink

arstechnica.com Brother denies using firmware updates to brick printers with third-party ink

Brother: Updates aren’t behind degradation of quality or removal of features.

57 comments

Brother was the last decent printer company, wasn't it?
“Third party ink” existing as a phrase is the problem.
- Meh, I think it's pretty straight forward. It's just a description of the scenario.
  
  Mario games are first party content, because they're made by the same company that makes the console. This says nothing positive or negative about the game, just who developed it.
  
  I've used printers that don't have cartridges, instead they just have ink wells you can fill with any ink. You do have more freedom with ink choices, but they're a different kind of hassle. It's not simply a better solution.
  
  (Speaking of solutions, sometimes the ink you buy is more of a suspension than a solution, and it'll clump up and dry in the feed hoses, a real pain in the ass.)
  
  but they’re a different kind of hassle
  
  Can you elaborate on this? I thought they would be straight up better to work with and I was thinking of buying one in the future. Is it just about the drying up issue you mentioned or are there other drawbacks?
  
  I get what you're saying but agree with the other guy. Just saying brother's ink or toner is first party instantly makes it sound like other brands are inferior. Just because you're intelligent enough to know that's not true doesn't mean everyone is. If recent history has taught me anything, it's that the average person is far less intelligent than you'd assume.
This sounds accurate based on the user reports. They're not bricking anything, they just make you do manual registration if you use third party toner.
- ....they just make you do manual registration if you use third party toner
  
  Man, if only we had a word for disabling critical features in this way.
  
  If there is one, it's not "bricking", because it still functions as a printer.
- I have a black and white brother laser printer that had 3rd party toner that worked fine for years, it was even a two pack of toner. Then I installed a firmware update and immediately it threw an error stating trouble with the toner and refused to print. Tried the unopened 2nd toner, same error. Looked and searched all over online and could not find the previous firmware to try a roll back.
  
  I then purchased a new two pack of 3rd party toner from a different brand and it worked just fine. My guess is with each new firmware they also have a set of chips to block (each toner has a chip on it) that they bundle into to update.
  
  I'll never install another firmware update for that printer now.
  
  I would consider what they did as bricking my toner.
- Which is weird because one of Rossman's sources claimed that they were on the phone with Brother, asked how to do manual registration, and were told it couldn't be done unless a genuine Brother toner cartridge was installed.
  
  Rossman's "source" was a 3 year old unconfirmed Reddit post.
  
  That person was just plain wrong. The same source showed the manual registration sheets under their reddit post.
  
  Customer service reps have almost the same information that a customer would have. The only difference is they have a few more tools available to them.
  
  Asking policy questions or anything at this level would likely get no useful info.
  
  Maybe support agent was being lazy, or ignorant.
  
  The portal the agents use should be able to bring up internal info via keywords like "colour registration"
- Link? Where does it say that and how does one do that?
  
  The links are in the article.
  
  I don't know the specific process, but usually it's printing a registration page and then entering the offsets on the printer's control panel.
Well, that's a pleasant piece of news among a number of not-so-pleasant news items.
"posted by accident, trying to delete now"
In other news: tesla bans third party gas pumps
- Close: you do get banned from their supercharger network if you try to repair your own car
  
  Fascinating. I wonder how many people are going it alone or 3rd party with Tesla repairs now.
- gas pumps of any kind are banned for Tesla

57 comments