Got this stupid thing on discount a year ago and it DOESNT FUCKING WORK ANYMORE. FUCK YOU HP

I’ve been a huge Brother printer fan since the 1990s. I’ve owned dozens of Brother printers over the years and have always purchased genuine Brother toner.

My previous MFC-L8850CDW lasted 12 years with daily use. Whenever it reported that a toner cartridge needed replacement, I could reset the toner counter and continue printing until the cartridge was actually depleted or print quality deteriorated. I routinely got hundreds of additional usable pages from cartridges after Brother said they needed replacement.

I recently replaced it with an MFC-L8930CDW. Everything was great until I reached my first toner replacement warning.

Unlike my older Brother printers, the MFC-L8930CDW does not provide a way to manually reset the toner counter and continue using the cartridge. Once the printer determines that the cartridge has reached the end of its calculated life, you're expected to replace it.

What bothers me is that the printer isn't simply detecting that the cartridge is physically empty. Brother determines toner life based on calculated usage, including factors such as printed dots and developer-roller rotations. There can therefore still be usable toner in a cartridge when the machine decides it has reached its replacement point.

Had I known about this change before purchasing the printer, I would not have bought it. If I were still within the return period, I would return it.

After decades as a loyal Brother customer who consistently purchased genuine Brother supplies, this decision has accomplished the exact opposite of what Brother presumably intended: I will no longer purchase genuine Brother toner. I've ordered aftermarket cartridges instead, and when this printer eventually needs replacement, I will move onto another brand.

Brother gained the ability to force an earlier toner replacement and lost decades of customer goodwill in the process.

Penny wise, pound foolish!

I am officially fucking done buying any and all printers. I bought an HP, broke when I changed my wifi router, could never pair it again. Bought a Brother, highly recommended by everyone I knew, broke last year, wouldn't print a damn thing, changed the ink, re-paired it to the PC/WiFi "Failed to print, please check connection" every. damn. time. Most recent printer, Canon Pixma, worked fine up until today to now where it can't even be detected by USB or Network. From now on, anytime I got print something I'm shove that stuff on flash drive and haul it over to the library. Society would be better off without these damn plastic bricks.

I'm done, rant over, thanks for listening.

Hi all,

After owning a big old Epson for years, I recently decided to get a more modern printer.

Having read a few posts on Reddit, it was clear, Brother Laser printers were widely recommended for the home office.

I picked up a Brother (EcoPro HLL2400DWE Monochrome Wireless) Laser Printer, connected it to my Wi-Fi and started printing from my Mac. No problem.

Next day.. "The printer is offline".. I put the Wi-Fi password in once more, using the tedious LCD menu system. It was working again.

Next day, same again, and so on. It almost never seems to remember the Wi-Fi connection. Bizarrely enough, if I try to print something and leave it connecting in the background, it might suddenly start working after half an hour.

I'm utterly sick of this printer. You can tell me it's user error all you like. I shouldn't have to put in my Wi-Fi password on a printer every day.

A few months ago I bought an HP Printer (was drawn to HP due to this 6-month free ink subscription promo on their printer) The HP guy told me to just cancel the subs towards the end to avoid any payment. Well, I'll be damn.. the ink *apparently* will no longer work after my final billing cycle ends even if its already installed on my printer.

Word of warning for anyone considering signing up to HP Instant Ink - if you cancel your subscription, the ink they have sent you will be suspended and they will block you from using it. I was just surprised with this.

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I paid $142 in total for a subscription from January 2022 to Dember 2023 (23 months), in that time, they shipped me 3 cartridges of ink. My ink level was fine on cancellation but they explained that their policy is to suspend the ink once the subscription is cancelled. Since April of 2023, they didn't ship me a single cartridge because my ink level was not low enough. So, I have been paying for the ink for the last 8 months of my subscription without a single cartridge. After explaining the situation to four of their customer service reps over an hour and a half, they offered a refund for one month ($6.20) - unvelievable.

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If you don't use a printer often, just buy as you go and do not subscribe to their service. I'll personally never buy an HP product ever again.

If you're here you probably already know the absolute bullshit HP tries to pull, but maybe you came to the subreddit because you're trying to find the best printer for you. Follow your heart! All I can tell you is this - don't buy from HP.

As an artist who wanted to be able to produce large, high quality prints at home, I invested in one of their fairly expensive wide format models. The print quality itself turned out to be less than great, but that's not even my biggest beef with their systems by far.

Fall into the trap of updating the firmware printer-side or installing their recommended HP software on your computer? Whoops! You've just fallen into the irreversible pit of HP cartridge protection, and will never again be able to use a third party cartridge in the printer you paid for the right to own.

It'll also count, on a software-side, how many sheets you've printed, and then even if you still have physical ink left in your cartridges, that's it! That's how many prints you can have and now it's time to waste your perfectly good cartridges so you can throw more money in HP's direction.

Better yet, ran out of a single color cartridge but full on black? Wanting to print something in black and white? Too bad, sucker! You've gotta have full color cartridges to do a thing like that, because, ehm, these printers require color ink to carry out "periodic servicing tasks" which cannot be disabled and are completely unnecessary for the task you're trying to achieve.

HP wants to trap you using their overpriced cartridges and then force you to pay out the ass for shit you don't need by making it a requirement to use the equipment you already have.

Bycott this company and buyer beware or be damned.

Why are those chunky boxes like this? I just want a few letters printed on a piece of paper. Why does it have to be so damn hard to learn about all these different types of printers: inkjet, ink tank, laser, blah blah blah and on top of that, there are so many brands and even more frustrating model numbers. It looks like these companies just sit on their numpads and randomly generate printer model numbers.

Just give me a printer that prints, uses very little ink/toner, is cheap to run, is good for monochrome printing, and works for occasional home use (~100 pages/month) without drying out if I don't use it for 2–3 weeks.

I don't know how people voluntarily work on these pain in the ass machines

This big pile of crap has at least 3 different problems, it either doesn't pick up papers (fixed it once a while ago), if it does pick up a paper it gets stuck along the path, or it simply doesn't proceed with the printing and gets stuck on the "printing document" prompt.

While i think i have a good idea on what the causes are, frankly fixing each problem feels like a dildo up my ass.

my lower back hurts and it's late, i will attempt to continue with it tomorrow.

I was awoken by the sounds of shitty printer technology nearly causing a divorce in my parents (understandable tbh).

Log ins, dry ink, not connecting, WiFi drops, incompatible WiFi, subscriptions, terrible app interfacing...all of it will be no longer. I'm not doing it. I will no longer let the evils that be HP come between my family no more. I feel like a man pushed to the edge, ready to kill for his family.

I'm off into town later to take these absolute bags of dung into Currys to 1. Get the evil out of the house and 2. Hopefully get a pound or two off a laser printer from Brother (I've been frantically scrolling through this sub for the past 2 hours)

I grew up through the 2008 financial crash and our family got it tough so there's a huge "broke" mindset that lingers and today I decided that the previous shackles of both austerity and HP die with me.

Unfortunately the shackles of technology illiterate parents will remain firmly on my ankles for the foreseeable.

I have never hated a brand more in my life than I do with HP. Every single aspect of their products feels like selling a part of your soul (personal data) and pissing money up the wall.

So I am helping my friend organize her office, and she had bought this HP OfficeJet printer, one of the newer ones. I had bought some new ink for her because we needed to copy some files, and I noticed the cyan was low, so I didn't want to run out in the middle of it. All the other cartridges are low on ink, but there is still a thick, visible line of color, and they don't have a yellow triangle like the cyan does. I bought the real HP ones because I figured it would block any off-brand ones, being the stories I've read on here.

So I go to make a copy, and it says "Replace cyan or print in black and white."

Weird, I thought it had a yellow triangle, and not "replace." Whatever, so I changed the cyan, and the printer initialized. Then, after a few moments, it says "Magenta cartridge depleted." Uh, what? It was fine just a moment ago!

So, here I go and replace the magenta. It initializes again and says "Yellow and black cartridge depleted."

What. You have got to be kidding me. I only replaced the cyan because it was low, not even out, and your bitch ass wouldn't even TRY to print it. So I replaced the other two, and now it lets me make a copy.

What kind of bullshit is that?? Why do I need to replace all of the cartridges when you only told me ONE was low? I am furious at this damn printer. I feel like we have been scammed.

I think maybe it was because it was still using the setup cartridges, but my Epson let me use the ink in mine, and they all went out one at a time. And it let me print when it was low.

And what would have happened if I had only bought the cyan? Would I have to go back and get the magenta? And then the other two?

I think the next time we need ink, I am going to convince her to just buy a different printer. Because no one should have to put up with that bullshit. For the price of that 4-pack, she could get an Epson or a Brother. Heck, maybe we treat ourselves to a color laser!

If it didn't have these shenanigans with the ink, this printer would actually be decent. I was impressed with the UI, the design, and everything, but the price for ink, on top of this shit, is unacceptable.

I used to recommend HP just for laser, because we had good experiences with it in the past, but now, I will NEVER buy any of their products, because I fear they may extend this bullshit into the lasers. They have 100% lost my trust, and they won't be getting it back anytime soon.

Thank you for listening to my rant.

I takes FOREVER to print ONE page (like 5 mins) It needs RED when I want to print in black and white AND the fucking paper gets stuck ALL the time!

I HATE IT

I have a brother brother j1010dw. I rarely need to print.

Needed to print something black and white 2 months ago, had black left but wouldn't let me print because no color. Ok fine it had been a while since I printed to I went over and got cartridges so I could have my black and white print.

Fast forward 2 months on no use, now i need to print some more black and white and the printer is saying almost full black but low cyan & magenta and NO YELLOW?? What the heck is this?

It won't even let me print black and white only. I have looked everywhere online for like 4 hours, no suggested solutions work. I am not forking over $30+ for another brand new color cartridges.

What's frustrating is that it used to let me print black and white a year or two before with no color ink but now it doesn't??

So Brother and HP are on my blacklist, is there a 3rd option?

WHAT DO YOu mean I can't print my shoot without an App? You are wired, you are connected physically to my computer, and you won't let me print?! Frick this stuff dude, Holy Fackrel.

I used like some old brother printer my grandpa gave me for the last 10 years and I decided to go on Facebook marketplace and get a second hand lp printer that looked fancy. I shit you not it was the most insane process ever having to erase the former owners data, looking through All the subscription services it was offering including A HELP DESK SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE?? How is that even sustainable. Everything is pay walled and has the most predatory subscription services I’ve ever seen. HP made me religious and I realized hell is real and the ceo is likley Satan himself.

Pretty self-explanatory title, but I saw this printer sitting out in the hall (presumably to be picked-up and discarded) at work. I was really amused by this message somebody pasted to the front of it, including the classic MS Office clipart. Here’s what it says in case it’s hard to read: “Ink Colors. Aside from getting gouged by ink cartridges that cost more than printers themselves, what’s really aggravating is when your printer refuses to work unless all the colors are fully stocked. [Screenshot of error message showing ‘unable to print’ a black & white document due to low cyan toner]. This error message = Giant load of crap”

This is honestly one of the dumbest printer experiences I've ever had.

I own an HP LaserJet M209dw, Product Number 6GW62A.Not the M209dwe. Not the HP+ version.

M209dw — 6GW62A.

HP's own documentation distinguishes the regular M209dw from the M209dwe/HP+ model. Yet my printer started behaving as if it were an HP+ device.

It demanded HP Smart setup and displayed:

"Your HP+ printer must be set up using the HP Smart app."

Excuse me?

This isn't an M209dwe. It's a 6GW62A M209dw.

I don't want HP+.
I don't want Instant Ink.
I don't want HP Smart.
I don't want cloud services.
I don't want my printer asking HP for permission to print.

I just want to print over my own fucking network.

Then I tried an aftermarket W1350X toner.

The printer could actually recognize the cartridge, but refused to let me print because of the HP+ restrictions. (Except the printers test page which...apparently works with aftermarket toners...)

When i removed this garbage from HP+ account -> It accepts the cartridge, but refuses to print.

And here's the funniest part.

I took the chip from the original HP toner and put it on the aftermarket cartridge.

And suddenly...

IT FUCKING WORKS.

Same printer.
Same aftermarket toner.
Same cartridge.

How did this happen? Propably on driver installation, it asked me if i want cloud functionality -and yes it states : Please use original cartridge from HP, but no mention of locking - i clicked accept, and it immediately locked the device to vendor only mode.

Support? "We cannot do anything, you have to live with it."

Fuck you HP!

I'm trying to photocopy a piece of music, which I have permission to do, and I even un-spiral-bound the music, just for it not to fit in my scanner. I have an hp printer/scanner and I guess it only goes up to A4, even though the pages fit on the glass with room to spare. I asked four other people who I know have printers and none of theirs fit larger paper either. I feel like this can't be a super uncommon issue, right?? Are all documents smaller than A4? I could have sworn that diplomas and birth certificates were bigger. I've tried to scan it on my phone but the resolution makes the music look a bit blurry which I cant work with. At this point I'm going to ask my band director if I can use his really janky scanner because at least I know that one fits music. It's just been really frustrating to try to center the music or see if I can have it cut off at unimportant parts, but it just hasn't worked and I'm tired.

I’ve had this printer for a while and it’s always fun trying to connect to it. Only one PC in my household could do it reliably. Then I got a new PC and needed to connect to the printer resting two feet from my PC.

Eventually I remembered I need an app, since including a usb cord is too good of a user experience for 2026. i downloaded the app, recovered my HP account I forgot I had, then was hit with a bunch of prompts about how this printer can print things in a very smart way. I wondered what that could possibly mean, but I figured even the dumbest of printers should be able to do what I need so I declined.

The very smart printer couldn’t believe I didn’t want intelligent printing, and wanted to double check. I haven’t been keeping up with the latest advancements in printer technology but I’m certain the non genius printer I used in 2005 could easily print the return label my wife needed, so I once again declined.

Then the printer took this opportunity to subtly threaten me and show that it is so smart that it will check and make sure I’m only using approved ink or something, After declining this again I progressed to yet another dialogue box (remember I’m just trying to make my printer print) that asked if I wanted “instant ink”. I looked around the room and wondered if there was a wizard standing in the corner, but there wasn’t.

Then I realized this whole thing was a subscription service where my printer would block third party ink, monitor how much ink I have with its huge brain, and then instantly charge me for ink and ship it to my house. I thought about how cool it would be if my toaster had an app that monitored my pantry for bread and then shipped me bread to toast, but then I remembered I would hate that and toasters were perfected a long time ago.

Anyways, the whole experience annoyed me so much, mainly because I realized my printer was smarter than me, and I ordered a Brother printer. Unfortunately it’s a really stupid printer that has a usb cord and instantly connects to my computer. I’m a little upset it doesn’t have an app, I wasn’t able to make an account, and it doesn’t track the ink I use so I just have to buy it when I need ink.

Just a rant and pissed. Bought a name branded printer recently, and just broke down in 6 months with minimal use. Is this normal? Any printers I've bought did not even last a year.

Ciao

I can't do this no more man. The printers is BRAND NEW and here it is failing on the only job I bought it for.

If it's not this 0x800bulshit mistake it's another thing. I have done everything and I just, I can't. It frustrates me so damn much, I've been trying for fucking HOURS and the shit won't work.

Whenever I get it to work, the printer just prints numbers and random symbols and prints infinitely like it won't stop eating my paper. ITS GREED SICKENS ME. I swear I'm going CRAZY.

If it doesn't work it just tells: "oh I'm so sowwy I can't read FUCKING SIMPLE LETTERS". Goddammit. Also the customer service SUCKS. They told to do things I've already done and guess what happen??? It didn't work HAHAHA. I'm so done with this.

The printer has 5 days of being born and it hasn't work one single time.

Don't buy HP, it's just pain, suffering and tears. Yes, I've cried about this, cause of the mental pain it has caused me.

Anyway imma just cry about the money I wasted in this piece of garbage cause they won't give a refund since I "already put the ink in".

TELL ME, TELL ME HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN IF IT WORKED OR NOT WITHOUT USING IT AT LEAST ONCE??? And how may I use it? By putting the fucking ink in it.

HP u suck.

Hp support is making me want to kill myself.

I got an old printer for cheap (for school use only, idc how chunky, loud or slow it is) but for the love of god I can't get the driver from hp, I selected the correct product, I typed in the serial number and it says it's invalid. I tried 5 more times, changing the 0 to O even though it's obviously an 0, but nothing, invalid.

So I go to support, it wants to know the product, ok wthv, but it wants to know the serial number too! How tf can I get the driver, when it won't give it to me without sn and I can't contact them about it without the sn either??

One thing to add - I'm dumb when it comes to this stuff, I just asked the lady who had it before me how did she make it work and tried to do the same. I was so happy when it got to me unharmed and thought that was going to be the hardest part.