HP did it again, just a gripe.(solved + warning)

[Grumpus]

There have been other posts on printer cartridge issues and it's a beaten dead horse with no rats left in my opinion but is there some reason HP doesn't get the message.
Went to print a small text page <--note page maybe a hundred characters, and got the printer ink low nonsense on the printer. But for some reason the dopey cut off crap HP implants in the cartridge was unaffected by the ability to print the diagnostic problem and general information exceeding the size of the simple page of notes which failed, after the low ink notice.
These printer cartridges are costing over a hundred bucks US these days with the extended ones going beyond $150. There needs to be some sanity with this stuff. maybe HP's income might improve.

[LIMPET235]

Hi Grumps,

Yes. I totally agree that the cost of ink cartridges is way out-of-hand.

My old faithful CANON iP4850 decided that it had had enough & died a few months ago.
No replacement parts or service available due to it's old age. (Over 7 years.)

So I went a'lookin' for a good replacement unit.

I know about the EPSON ECOTANK (all-in-ones), didn't really need that type but that's what is available ...now-a-days.
I bought an ECOTANK ET-4750. (It/they cost a tad more) but are worth it for the convenience
of not have to replace a cartridge every few months or try to un-clog the print heads.

They come with enough ink for 2 years & are very reliable.......(or so I am told.)

This one has performed well over the last 6 to 8 months & has used very little ink.

The cost of the replacement bottles (Just 4), are extremely reasonable.

So Grumps....Why not try an ECOTANK?

EPSON dot com > https://epson.com/ecotank-ink-tank-printers#
Check out the 27xx & 37xx series, as they are the cheapest ones.

Regs, L..

[Grumpus]

I'll stick with this laser jet for now don't need color at this point
I just wish HP would stop monkeying with the drivers or foomatic would take over and block the ink reporting.
I'd have looked at the site but incapsula got in the way, been blocking them for a while now due to scraping and other stuff.

[aleksbi4]

Yes, the cartridge business is a huge problem for us ordinary people. Alternatively, you can buy little-known Chinese printers, they do not have such gaps with cartridges.

[Grumpus]

Something new - now it seems HP has a need for their logo to show every time the laptop boots.
Also it appears they can make this repeat if removed by reinstalling telnet through Amazon servers even if firmware updates are not automatic.
To make the HP logo go away, dump telnet, seems to make sense if it's that easy to compromise, it also means they have a back door into the system.
As they do not own the laptop, in spite of their arrogant fantasies, this is an integrity and trust issue which needs to be addressed.
Due to cloud location, IP changes from time to time so far have only located 3.
PS: this is on Linux system.

Additional: The system is going to be redone.
Note: the intrusion essentially wiped the administrator password access giving HP control over changes in the bios.

[Grumpus]

Looks like the wish list just grew a bit more. Tried the wipe this morning and no joy.
May attempt wipe another time but HP has bollixed the laptop so there is no bios access.
I'm inclined to blame fwupd functions for disabling the administrators password and can find no way to recover.
Still not giving up but this is still unresolved.

What ever transpired the BIOS is hopelessly inaccessible. Tried an older system which originally overrode the HP/Windows permanency but whatever was done to the bios afterwards makes it primary and no bypass of the efi is possible to return to the older uefi settings.
Modifying the install which addresses the ext4 only still mandates an efi partition.
Seems the better way to spend time is to take the HP laptop and see how high it will go with a couple of sticks of dynamite underneath it or see how far it will skip across the creek as it is very flat. No I will not film it.

[Grumpus]

Here's the fix for corrupted bios password , lost password- Replace the system board, according to HP.
What doesn't make sense is if they could screw up the bios password with a firmware update, why can't the same route be used to fix it.
There's always a trail, some slimier than others, but always a trail regardless of what anyone says.
My thought on the system board replacement is HP doesn't want folks to know how or why of their access capability to your system and figured out a way to make more money.
Somehow the bios was affected by a firmware update combined with a Linux OS change on a previously Windows installed computer.
(never used the MS system, wiped before registration with a Linux system install and access was not limited, password was set)
The system install does not allow the previous admin password to be used and does not allow access to the bios.
Be careful with HP laptops of current configurations.

Something to note: Bios now always forces the use of Grub in order to open a live CD on a removable disc, again suspect.
This also never occurred with any other install.