Have I outsmarted my printer cartridge?

[roadtripper]

I had a REALLY old Lexmark printer that had refillable cartridges, but it was a huge, slow beast, so silly me--I upgraded to a spiffy new wireless one. Unfortunately, these new printers have computer chips on the cartridges, so you can't peel back the label to refill--it "knows" you've been tampering with it. Creepy.

Anyway, I was desperate to get something printed the other day and there was a blizzard, so a trip to Staples was out. I took out my old refill ink, and dripped it onto the point of exit for the cartridge-- ie--a SPONGE (like the old ones) which soaked up the ink right away. The ink levels are still showing low, but the printer worked like a charm! So have I beaten the system? Or will my printer self destruct shortly? Any advice from fellow budget-minded folks on avoiding an 18+ dollar per cartridge fee is appreciated. TIA!

 

[sherry7]

Most of the new printers have micro chips in the cartridge. It's precisely to keep people from refilling them, or using cheaper generics. They make more money off the refills than they do the printer itself.

In your case, there might be a way of "resetting" the ink levels that the computer is showing. You might find something my Googling the printer model.

I bought a new AIO printer a couple of years ago. Before I bought, I checked online to make sure that I could buy cheap generic cartridges for it. Mine is a Brother MFC-685 CW, but they've probably came out with a newer model by now.