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Generic cartridges on hp printer – How to make it work?

Ink cartridges are the most vital component of a printer and if you own any printer you know how expensive ink cartridges have become over the decade. There is no problem if you can afford these ink cartridges and are very happy with the service. But there are some people who just can’t spend or don’t want to spend 30$-40$ for Ink.

Quick Answer: HP does not allow other brands’ cartridges in your printer, By tricking the HP printer functions, it’s possible to make it work. Follow the step-by-step guide to use any cartridge in your HP printer.

We’ll not talk about the people who don’t want to buy but about the people who are bothered by seeing a prompt “the indicated cartridges are not intended for use in this printer” and looking for a perfect solution but not being able to find it. The message is appearing because you are using non-HP ink in an HP printer. 

In this article, I’ll talk about all the solutions available on the Internet and go through all the related problems, and will try my best to answer them all.

Why is your HP blocking 3rd party cartridges?

Quick Answer: The reason your HP is blocking 3rd party cartridges is that HP has launched a new setting called cartridge protection to lock original ink cartridges into a specific printer. HP wants to stop its consumers from using generic ink cartridges by making them incompatible with their printers and forcing them to buy genuine HP ink cartridges. That’s not a bad thing and it’s also not a very bad thing to use other non-HP ink cartridges.

If you own any HP laser and decided to purchase another brand new laser printer that uses the same cartridges, you won’t be able to use them even if they are similar. Since they are customized and locked to your old one by their newly introduced setting you won’t be able to refill, recycle, or remanufacture the cartridges for use in a different printer.

The Ultimate (Proven) method to use Non-HP Ink in an HP Printer

In this method, you have to buy two different Ink for your printer. One should be original from HP and one should be off-brand. Make sure these Inks are similar and don’t carry other materials that the original Ink carries. It is obvious that your Printer will never refuse to work with original Ink and that’s where you can win. Fill up the Ink Cartridge 80% and insert it in the printer to recognize first.

  • Print some pages to see if everything is working.
  • When you use some of the original Ink, fill it up with the Off brand Ink.
  • Print again for some more days.
  • When it is almost 50% empty, fill 25% ink with Original Ink.
  • Again when the Ink is below 60%, fill 20% and make it 80% with other ink you got.
  • Continue the process and keep using one Ink after another.

Note – To make this method work, you must buy an Ink that is almost similar to your HP ink. If you bought an Ink that somewhat shares 20 to 25% DNA with your Original Ink then you may end up breaking your Printer.

What Should you do to make non-hp Ink work on an HP printer?

  1. Disable HP Cartridge Protection
  2. Reset HP Ink Cartridge
  3. Refill HP Ink Cartridge

Disable HP Cartridge Protection

HP cartridge protection is a feature that is enabled by default in new computers and laptops. This feature allows users to protect the printer cartridge from damage by preventing it from being removed from the printer. 

This can be helpful in situations where a user may want to disable the option to use other non-HP ink.

To disable HP cartridge protection, follow these steps:

If you’re not connected to internet:

  • Go to Devices and Printers section in your Control Panel.
  • Select your HP printer.
  • Click on settings>HP Cartridge Protection
  • Click on disable and Apply.

If you’re connected to internet:

  • Open your printer’s IP address in a browser.
  • Now you’re on the printer configuration page.
  • Click settings and disable cartridge protection.

Reset HP Ink Cartridge

If your HP ink cartridge has run out of ink and you’ve tried to print, you may have seen the following message on your computer screen: “The following ink cartridge(s) appears to be empty or damaged. Would you like to continue printing?”

If you’ve encountered this error message, there is no need to worry, there is a way to reset your HP ink cartridge and continue printing. Though the method for resetting an HP ink cartridge vary on the model of the printer, I’ve provided a general guide to resetting an HP ink cartridge.

  • Remove the Cartridge From the Printer carefully
  • Find Out the Chip – Also known as circuit board and you can find it on the front or bottom of your printer cartridge.
  • Locate the tiny reset button – The paper clip is the best tool to help you in this situation. You can use this paper clip to poke that tiny button.
  • Press the reset button and hold for 10 seconds.
  • Reinsert the cartridge into the printer.
  • The printer will recognize that the cartridge has been reset and is now ready to use again.
  • Check the ink level monitor as it should indicate 100% full.

Refill HP ink cartridge

  • After the old cartridge is emptied, you must put the new ink cartridge into the printer.
  • Take off the bottom cover.
  • Remove the black plastic case and the metal piece.
  • Open the door of the ink cartridge installation part.
  • Put the ink cartridge into the ink cartridge installation part.
  • Close the door of the ink cartridge installation part.
  • After the ink cartridge is installed, you must put the black plastic case and the metal piece back on the printer.

Bonus Method – Trick HP ink cartridge

If you’ve bought a used cartridge and off-brand cartridge that doesn’t work with your HP printer then there are some ways to bypass the warnings and trick your HP printer to use the Ink you’ve got.

The problem is created by HP itself as they don’t want you to use off-brand ink cartridges. Because of this reason they created a special functionality that stops the printer to use other brands’ Ink. 

Here are a few tricks that might work:

Empty Some Ink

There are a few ways that you can trick HP ink cartridges in order to get them to work again. One popular method is to use a sharp object to puncture the ink cartridge. This will release some of the ink and you can fill it up with other ink, this will trick the printer to think that this is genuine Ink.

Force the Cartridge

Another method is to remove the ink cartridge and then put it back upside down. This will make the printer think that the cartridge is empty and it will often reset itself. Finally, If it is a used cartridge, shaking it can loosen the ink. This way you can dislodge any clogged ink and the printer may allow you to print again.


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