Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

[aab1]

I'm using my first set of compatible cartridges in my HP CM3530 and the black cartridge was at 71% (I had estimated they would last about 10 months) when I last checked on 8/11 and had 3073 pages printed on this cartridge.

Today just 4 days later and at 3196 printed, the cartridge now reads 13%. What could explain this sudden fall? I noticed these cartridges have an optical path for an optical toner sensor, could it be that, as I suspected, compatible cartridges aren't filled completely and the optical sensor detected and adjusted the % remaining based on the optical reading? Or could it be some sort of bug unrelated to the use of compatible cartridges?

Has anyone seen such a thing happen on an HP CM3530 or other printer or know what could be the cause?

Thanks

[ZOOTECH]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

I'm using my first set of compatible cartridges in my HP CM3530 and the black cartridge was at 71% (I had estimated they would last about 10 months) when I last checked on 8/11 and had 3073 pages printed on this cartridge.

Today just 4 days later and at 3196 printed, the cartridge now reads 13%. What could explain this sudden fall? I noticed these cartridges have an optical path for an optical toner sensor, could it be that, as I suspected, compatible cartridges aren't filled completely and the optical sensor detected and adjusted the % remaining based on the optical reading? Or could it be some sort of bug unrelated to the use of compatible cartridges?

Has anyone seen such a thing happen on an HP CM3530 or other printer or know what could be the cause?

Thanks

Change vendors, it's hard to bitch about compatibles when you're not using OEM; use OEMs then you could bitch at them.

[aab1]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

Change vendors, it's hard to bitch about compatibles when you're not using OEM; use OEMs then you could bitch at them.

Considering the compatibles are about $180 and OEMs are $1130 and considering I still used 29% and still have 13% left, it's still far cheaper to use compatibles even if I had this problem every time. These are my first compatibles in this machine so I'll see how the color ones go which I got from another vendor.

In previous Canon MF8350 copier there were no toner gauges so I had no way to know if remanufacturers are ripping me off, but since thos better HP machine calculates toner usage to 1% accuracy I'll know if they're ripping me off, which it seems they are.

[stoatwblr]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

I'm using my first set of compatible cartridges in my HP CM3530 and the black cartridge was at 71% (I had estimated they would last about 10 months) when I last checked on 8/11 and had 3073 pages printed on this cartridge.

Today just 4 days later and at 3196 printed, the cartridge now reads 13%. What could explain this sudden fall? I noticed these cartridges have an optical path for an optical toner sensor, could it be that, as I suspected, compatible cartridges aren't filled completely and the optical sensor detected and adjusted the % remaining based on the optical reading? Or could it be some sort of bug unrelated to the use of compatible cartridges?

Has anyone seen such a thing happen on an HP CM3530 or other printer or know what could be the cause?

Thanks

We get it regularly on our CLJ4650s/4700/5550s with OEM toners. I have yet to determine the cause. (I use MRTG to generate logs and the graphs show a clear and sudden drop) but we do get the full capacity of the toner (it reduces to 0% and then stays there until it actually runs out)

It's possible the optical side is playing up. If that's the case shaking it might help.

[aab1]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

We get it regularly on our CLJ4650s/4700/5550s with OEM toners. I have yet to determine the cause. (I use MRTG to generate logs and the graphs show a clear and sudden drop) but we do get the full capacity of the toner (it reduces to 0% and then stays there until it actually runs out)

It's possible the optical side is playing up. If that's the case shaking it might help.

It's kind of good to know it's not just me and even with OEM cartridges, though the models you listed are considerably older than mine.

Does it happen regularly? This is my first new set of cartridges and so far the black is the only one to do this but I did get it from another vendor than the colors.

One of my theories was that the company might have only half filled it thinking they were making one of the half capacity cartridges, but then put the chip and packaging of a full capacity cartridge, either by accident or as a scam.

Thanks

[Hansoon]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

Weigh OEM's on a scale when they are new and compare with those after market units. Than you have more or less an indication.

That's the way we do it.

Hans

[Bantams]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

If your Printer Breaks for whatever reason whilst using non OEM cartridges Invalidates any warranty or service contract you may have usually.


Re the problem maybe its a firmware issue?

[Eric1968]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

Compatible cartridges aren't as reliable as the original ones. If it works with compatibles, you're having luck, if it won't work, don't complain about it, just order the original cartridges.

[aab1]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

just order the original cartridges.

That's absurd when compatibles are $180 and originals are $1130, that's a 627% higher price. Even if this problem occurred on every single cartridge, and even if the toner loss was greater 75% loss on each cartridge, it would STILL be cheaper to get compatibles.

Even if it broke my $2500 machine every 3 sets of cartridges, it would STILL be cheaper to get compatibles!

So until HP wants to charge a reasonable and competitive price, hell will freeze over before I buy an HP cartridge.

I can't really compare the weight either because I never will buy an HP cartridge.

I'll wait and see how many prints I end up getting out of this one.

I did notice there are other compatible cartridges that are twice the price I pay for mine, if it really does end up that it was missing more than half then I will give the more expensive compatible cartridges a try, though I have 3 color compatibles which so far (75-81% remaining) have no problem, but the black issue did start at 71% so I might be soon from seeing if the color cartridges do the same, but they are from a different vendor than the black cartridge.

Thanks

[stoatwblr]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

That's absurd when compatibles are $180 and originals are $1130, that's a 627% higher price. Even if this problem occurred on every single cartridge, and even if the toner loss was greater 75% loss on each cartridge, it would STILL be cheaper to get compatibles

We've been seeing big jumps in reported toner levels ever since we implemented MRTG monitoring 6 years ago. Sometimes it's explainable by people printing large numbers of 90% coverage pages but other times there will be a 25% jump in reported pages remaining in less than 5 minutes.

Where are you getting your OEM carts from? The absolute worst case I see from my vendors is about twice the price of compatibles.

FWIW, in the UK, the Black cart for a CM3530 is 93 pounds(retail) inc tax from my usual supplier. We pay somewhat less. Colour cartridges are almost double that. Even though, that's way short of the pricing you're talking about.

The biggest problems we see with compatibles is that HP have gone out of their way to make cartridges virtually impossible to refill whilst maintaining their integrity and to cap it off they've patented the size and shape of toner - we had too many cases of compatibles dumping inside the printers to make them worthwhile to continue using.

The other comment I'll make is that from the sound of it, for the amount of printing you're doing you've picked far too small a printer. Those cartridges are only 5000page units and that makes for a high per-page cost which is far too high for my liking.

We (a large uk university) won't be buying many more HP printers for a number of reasons and excessive running costs is one of them.

[Brian8506]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

Update frimware

[aab1]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

I don't buy OEM cartridges, only compatibles which I get on eBay. The price I quoted for OEMs is from my local office supply store.

I don't see how HP made refills impossible, with my previous Canon MF8350 (which works with HP cartridges for the CM2320) I both bought compatibles AND refilled them 2-3 times each with toner powder. In that horrible Canon machine I had one set of cartridges (from one brand I never bought from again) where all 4 would leak toner along both long edges of the paper, but in this HP CM3530, the cartridges are "upside down" making leaks impossible as it would have to leak upwards.

I find it strange that you can refer to "the amount of printing I'm doing" when I don't recall saying anything that would indicate how much I print, at my current use I calculated a set of cartridges would last me about 10 months which is extremely reasonable. By the way, 5000 pages is the half filled cartridges (that may be why your prices are lower), I get the full capacity cartridges with are 10 500 black and 7000 color.

There are 2 times I bought a non HP printer (Epson inkjet, Canon laser) and both where an absolute nightmare and waste of money. From now on I'm sticking to HP, the Canon laser printer was nothing but problems, every time I had to print I had to expect "What's going to be wrong with it THIS time?", and indeed 75% of print jobs ended up being a nightmare with print quality issues on almost every print.

Since I have this HP printer, the only problem I had was this sudden fall, which may even be a "false alarm", and at least print quality is impeccable as always which is what really matters.

[aab1]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

We get it regularly on our CLJ4650s/4700/5550s with OEM toners. I have yet to determine the cause. (I use MRTG to generate logs and the graphs show a clear and sudden drop) but we do get the full capacity of the toner (it reduces to 0% and then stays there until it actually runs out)

It's possible the optical side is playing up. If that's the case shaking it might help.

The % has been dropping like a rock since and I already have the "Less than 200 pages remaining" warning for black when it only printed 3433 pages (the HP cartridge that came with the machine got about 10 000 prints, this one is aiming for 3600).

When you say it got to 0%, did you have to enable the override mode that allows it to continue printing when it's empty or did it "know it wasn't really empty" through the optical sensor?

By the way I did update the firmware 4 months ago when I bought the machine so it's fairly recent, is it worth updating again (I think there has been a new firmware but it didn't seem to update anything I use)?

Thanks

[jonezy999]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

Pretty sure HP don't write firmware to help the machine recognize non-genuine toner.

While I agree with you that HP supplies are expensive, they are generally very reliable. Compatibles are so hit and miss it's like a blind man with a gun, mostly misses.

[fixthecopier]

Re: Compatible cartridge jumped from 71% to 13%

I make a lot of money from people who use aftermarket cartridges on HP color printers. That is because they suck, and fail prematurely.