There is more to this than most people know.
HP brand cartridges have the print head built into the cartridge. This cartridge also has a printed circuit and tiny chip asembly. When HP mfg's these cartridges, they 'freshness' date them by timestamping the date of mfg into the embedded chip. If you bought a bunch of cartridges because they were on sale, for instance, you may have been ripped off as well.

Most of the newer multi-function printers, faxes and others have a USB link to your PC or MAC. This USB cable is used to transmit data bi-directioinally to your printer and even back to the computer. Some of the data that gets passed is the system date and time of your computer. The...

There is more to this than most people know.
HP brand cartridges have the print head built into the cartridge. This cartridge also has a printed circuit and tiny chip asembly. When HP mfg's these cartridges, they 'freshness' date them by timestamping the date of mfg into the embedded chip. If you bought a bunch of cartridges because they were on sale, for instance, you may have been ripped off as well.

Most of the newer multi-function printers, faxes and others have a USB link to your PC or MAC. This USB cable is used to transmit data bi-directioinally to your printer and even back to the computer. Some of the data that gets passed is the system date and time of your computer. The printer checks the date and time of the data from cartridge and compares it to the computer to see if it is still 'fresh'. If it is out of date range, the cartridge will report an error to the printer that it is 'out of ink'. Talk about forced purchases. NO thanks!