When a Printer Update Kills Your Cartridge: A UK Buyer's Guide to Chips and Firmware
Photo by Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash on Unsplash
It nearly always unfolds the same way. A compatible cartridge has been working happily for weeks. Then the printer asks to install an update, someone in the house taps 'yes' because it's 7am and the school run is in ten minutes, and by the evening the machine is flashing a warning and refusing to print.
This is the single most common reason people email us about compatibles. It's also the most preventable — provided you know what to check before you hand over your card details, rather than after.
What the chip on a cartridge is actually for
Modern ink and toner cartridges carry a small chip, usually a few millimetres square, that talks to the printer. On a good day it confirms how much ink is left, records the page count, and tells the machine which region it's in. On a bad day it's the gatekeeper that decides whether your cartridge is welcome at all.
The printer's firmware — the software burned into the machine itself — is what reads that chip. When a manufacturer pushes a firmware update, it can change the rules the chip has to satisfy. A new authentication handshake, a tighter validity check, a fresh page-count expectation. Compatible cartridges built to the old rules suddenly look like strangers.
None of this is accidental. Printer makers are entitled to protect their consumables business, and they do it. What matters for you is timing: a compatible that was fine last month may not be fine after an update, and the seller's stock may predate the change.
The warnings, translated
Manufacturers are rarely explicit about why a cartridge has been rejected. Here's what the usual messages tend to mean in practice.
| Message you'll see | What's really happening |
|---|---|
| 'Non-original cartridge detected' / 'Genuine ink required' | The chip failed authentication after a firmware change. Usually a hard block, sometimes bypassable. |
| 'Ink cartridge cannot be recognised' | The printer can't read the chip at all — dirty contacts, a dead chip, or a chip revision the firmware doesn't accept. |
| 'Ink cartridge not detected' | Often a seating problem; occasionally the chip has been fitted incorrectly by the remanufacturer. |
| 'The indicated cartridge has already been used' | The chip remembers a page count higher than zero. Common on remanufactured stock and on cartridges moved between machines. |
| 'Cannot detect ink level' or an ink-level warning | The printer will often keep printing, but has lost communication with the chip. With some models, the low-ink nag can't be cleared. |
If you see the first two messages immediately after a firmware update, the update is almost certainly the cause. If they appear out of the blue on a cartridge that's been running for weeks, check the contacts first — a lint-free cloth and a dry wipe fixes a surprising share of these.
Check your firmware before you order anything
The version string is usually buried one menu deep. Find it now, note it down, and keep it somewhere you'll actually look again.
HP: open the printer's embedded web page by typing its IP address into a browser, or use the HP Smart app under Printer Settings. The firmware revision is listed in printer information, and a status report printed from the control panel will include it too.
Brother: press Menu, then Print Reports, and print the User Settings sheet — the firmware version is printed near the top. The Brother firmware update tool also shows your current version before it installs anything.
Epson: open Epson Status Monitor or the printer's web config page; firmware version sits under device information.
Canon: the Canon IJ Network Device Setup Utility, or the printer's own web page under device information, will show it.
Once you have the number, use it. A serious compatible supplier publishes a compatibility table that names specific firmware revisions and says when each one was last tested. If the table is undated, assume it's stale. If there's no table at all, you're being asked to gamble.
What to ask a supplier before you buy
Five questions, and you can ask all of them by email. A good seller answers within a day and doesn't get defensive.
- Which chip revision is fitted, and which firmware versions have you tested it against?
- When did you last re-test against the current firmware for my model?
- If a firmware update breaks this cartridge after I've bought it, will you replace or refund it? Get the answer in writing.
- Are you a UK-registered company? A Companies House number, a UK returns address and a landline or geographic phone number are the three things that separate a real trader from a dropshipper.
- What's your returns window, and do you cover return postage for faulty stock? Thirty days or more, with return postage covered, is the standard to hold out for.
Red flags worth walking away from
Any listing claiming a cartridge is 'guaranteed compatible with all models' is telling you they haven't tested it properly. Model-specific compatibility is a sign of care; blanket claims are a sign of copy-paste.
Watch, too, for sellers who never mention chips or firmware at all, who have no UK contact details, who quote suspiciously low prices with vague delivery times, or whose reviews all appear on their own website within the same fortnight. And be wary of anyone who tells you that using compatibles voids your warranty outright — that's a scare tactic, though it's also true that a manufacturer can refuse a repair if they can show the cartridge caused the fault.
Should you just switch off auto-updates?
The tempting answer is yes, and plenty of forum posts will tell you to. The honest answer is: be careful. Firmware updates often carry security fixes and bug repairs, and a printer sitting on an unpatched network isn't ideal in a house full of devices.
A reasonable middle path is to turn off automatic installation but leave notifications on. You then get to choose the moment — ideally a week after ordering new cartridges, not the night before they arrive — and you can check your supplier's compatibility notes first. If an update does arrive and your cartridge stops working, note the firmware version you were on and the exact message, contact the supplier with both, and quote their own replacement promise back at them.
If you paid by credit card for something over £100, Section 75 gives you a route to the card provider. Under that threshold, ask your bank about chargeback. And under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, goods sold as compatible have to be fit for purpose — a cartridge that stops working days after a standard update is a conversation worth having with the retailer, not the manufacturer.
The two-line summary
Write down your firmware version before you order anything, and only buy from suppliers who publish a dated compatibility table and name their chip revision. It takes five minutes and saves an awful lot of arguing with a printer at seven in the morning.
