10 years old? You need a new printer.

I'm confused - what did the printer do wrong? It sounds like it worked fine till you tried the third-party ink cartridges on it, and that's what messed it up. The printers are only guaranteed for their own cartridges. Am I missing something?

The person taking over your computer is a little weird, I haven't experienced that and I don't think I would like it. I wonder what the "corruption" was.

I have an HP printer also. The 3rd party ink cartridges don't work on HP printers. That's what I don't like about HP - you're forced to use their ink cartridges.

I replaced a printer last Fall, for the same reason. I don't use it very often, but when I need it, I NEED IT. The print heads had dried out etc etc. I spent quite a bit of time trying to resuscitate it, including new cartridges, then gave up and bought a new printer.

Mine was a Brother, and will take after-market ink. The lady at the ink store told me to print something once a week, even if I don't need it, to keep the ink flowing. So far, so good.

I hate my hp printer, too. It's about the same age and quit working with the wireless connection probably 5 or 6 years ago, so I have to go plug in the wire to print. Now the ink cartridges keep giving me error messages (hp cartridges - refilled by costco, but they were doing this before I had them refilled). I need it so seldom that I hate to spend much $ on a replacement and costco has a hp for $65, so I am tempted. Costco will get it back if it doesn't work properly, but I'm still contemplating another brand. hate giving hp my $.

My printer is at least 10 years old and still works pretty good. I think it may be the same one (HP C4240 all in one). I never use 3rd party ink, only HP brand. My printer won't die and I refuse to buy a new one just because I can until this one dies.

Sadly, all ink jet printers will end up with clogged heads if you don't use them often. Aok27502's suggestion to print something every week works pretty well for keeping the print heads in decent shape. My latest printer is an Epson after years of buying HP. I've been pretty happy with it, but it sometimes gets confused after a power outage and takes a long time, like 3 days, unplugged to reset itself. (Yes, I do have it plugged into a UPS/surge protector.)

Third party inks are trouble in HP printers unless their re-filler knows what he is doing. HP cartridges have expiration date codes stored in them. It is also printed on the topside of the cartridge. If the date code is not disabled or reset the printer will reject the cartridge when it runs past the expiration date. Also, some people run into trouble if they do not set the clock in the printer during installation.

My wife used refills from Office Depot until she had trouble. She gave me some of those cartridges and I was not satisfied with them. One had a date code problem and another one simply did not work. I don't think it had been refilled. It was to low on weight. It was not worth the aggravation. I need to have a reliable printer especially during tax time.

I used to have an All In One HP printer . it was about 10 years old and I just loved it. It never failed to print no matter how long between useage and sometimes that could be up to three or four months. I always used HP ink. I decided I wanted one I could use with wifi and I wanted a more compact one so I ended up with an Epson and I hate it. If it isn't used often, it needs cleaning and is just in general, a pain. Needless to say, I am looking for a new one!!

I had an HP for many years, it was a real work horse. The top you open on it, one of the hinges broke and it took 2 of us whenever opening the top. We broke down and bought a new HP. And again I like it. Only use HP ink.

My Mom had an Epson and it used 5 different color ink cartridges. I hated it. When it ran out of ink it was horrible to get it back up and running!

I had an HP or 2 decades ago. I quit them and went with canon. Have had better luck with them. Tho, I've had the same problem of the ink drying out 'cause I seldom used it. Bought a new one a year or so ago for about 60.00 on HSN. came with starter ink cartridges. I try to print something every few weeks now which isn't as hard to do as it used to be. I use it to enlarge type that is too small to read. like in the instruction booklets that come with everything. making a binder to put them in with the larger print... so I don't have to always use a magnifying glass to look something up.

and I print out a 'to do' list for my nephew off and on (things for him to do for me here) and one for myself (so I know what I'm supposed to do - even tho I often forget to check it...).

I like canon much better than HP.

Both HP and Epson use the same business practices of selling printers at loss-leader prices simply to lock you into buying their insanely over-priced ink. They both have little chips in their ink cartridges that they use to determine the ink levels, date of manufacture, and which identify it as "genuine". They use this information to purportedly use this information to determine when the ink is getting low, or old, but I wouldn't be surprised if they purposely print poorly when "non-genuine" ink is used. Our Epsom printer decided it was low on magenta and blue ink and therefore refused to print at all, even though I was specifically trying to print in black and white and the was plenty of black ink. The online manual did note that if it runs out of black ink, it will happily compensate by using all three colored inks to create black, because that would be using more ink, and they're fine with that.

It is the same sort of monopolistic shenanigans Apple does to force you to buy their expensive "certified" charger cables, which then break apart after a couple of years. , instead of cheaper generic ones.

I have an Epson and it's working fine on non Epson ink (mind you, it whinged about it when I first put it in, and I had to run through a couple of test print runs, but it's behaved quite civily ever since).

In this situation, I'd just get a new printer - all in one's are pretty cheap these days. Not worth the aggravation.

Inkjet printers can be troublesome and expensive to own, I wouldn't have one for anything. Black laser printers are cheap (easy to find for +/- $100) , the cartridges last forever and don't become clogged/ nonfunctional if not used regularly. On the rare occasion I need something printed in color, the local Fed Ex store (formerly Kinkos) can do it for minor cost off a thumb drive.

I've had two all in one units over the last 25 years, had to replace the first because of a paper jam I didn't have the patience to fix. I think one was$99, the other $129. For the first, I think I might have purchases two toner cartridges, maybe $30 each, over 15 years.

While I understand that you're very upset with HP, and I would be too, I can't say enough good about my little printer. It is a laser printer and prints black and white only, but that is fine with me. The toner is expensive, but lasts and lasts and lasts. The printer was only $109.00 with free shipping and it always works.

I hated my HP printer for years. Finally went out and bought a Brother color laser printer and have been happy ever since.

So, what model HP printer is it? Some HP printers have the Dynamic Security Feature which prevents non-HP ink chips from working.

Since it's 10 years old it's time to replace it or continue the agony of dealing with it and the high cost of color ink.

Am I the only one REALLY bothered by OP letting someone from HP take over complete control of her Mac?

Buy a new laser printer. We've had the same black laser printer for the past 6 years and only recently replaced the toner.

Choose your new printer with the cost of replacement cartridges in mind. Not all cartridges are that expensive. The less expensive cartridges have a smaller capacity for ink, which dries up anyway if not used.

When I worked for HP support, we didn't have the option for remote access, we laboriously walked the customer through all of the troubleshooting. Pretty difficult when some customers struggled to find the power button. I am so happy with supporting corporate users.

I've had an HP all-in-one for a number of years, and happy with the cost of combination HP link packages around $37.00. Now, suddenly, the price has gone up to over $40.00. Of course, I tried the off brands and printer told me they were counterfeit and not usable. l did return the inks to Compuserve and they credited my Mastercard. I've loved this little printer, but hate the cost raise of the ink. Maybe I will consider a laser one some day soon.

I don't remember the number but I had an all in one HP. No problems for years. One Sunday eve I needed to print something, out of ink. Went to Staples the combo black & color was something like $50.00. I noticed a new, smaller HP all in one on sale for about $45.00. It was set for wireless. Came with some ink in it and the combo pkg of ink was $34.00. This was 2 years ago. I just bought the second package of ink.

I'm with the "buy a laser printer" bunch. I got fed up with the hassle of colour cartridges and black cartridges -- one wore out, the other still OK, have to replace everything at a huge cost ... I have a Canon Lide scanner -- very easy to use. I have an hp1102W laser printer, prints only black. When I want colour I go to the neighbourhood Cyber place. I don't want to print out photos at home anyway -- it's cheaper to pay and have someone else do it/

We had 2 or 3 HPs over the years and always seemed to have problems with them. Seemed like DH was always messing around with them, trying to get them to work properly. For some reason he had something against Epson, not sure what it was, but when we desperately needed a new printer NOW, the top rated one at Staples was an Epson, so we went ahead and bought that. 10 years later and it's been great, but it is now just starting to have problems with the electronics. We'll probably buy another Epson before too long.

I like what a lot of people have said about buying a laser printer, but it depends on what you print the most too. With a young kid who does a lot of school and other projects, it would be very hard for us to get by without color.

I switched from Epson to HP as at least the color cartridges were replaceable individually - old Epson was not.

What is weird is that it's just the black cartridge that is the problem - all the color 3rd party ones work just fine. Google told me this is a known problem - apparently, it's the control for the black that triggers the "this is not an HP cartridge" and then messes with the black one. What is strange, is that the 3rd party cartridges got excellent reviews on Amazon. I think they may have been from the 3rd party themselves - this is a big problem with smaller sellers on Amazon and eBay - they get their employees/friends/neighbors to write great reviews.

These ink cartridges are a HUGE rip-off, price wise. Yes, I know - it's how the companies make their printers very cheap. I do use the color so I don't want a Laser printer and color ones are very expensive. Plus I really need the all-in-one in order to be able to copy and FAX.

My HP is the HP 309a and has been a very good All-in-one printer. I'm a bit tempted to buy a new printhead on eBay for $35 and see if this fixes the problem with HP ink, but the ink alone is almost $100 for all the colors. I can buy a Canon for less than this.

Yes, I was VERY uncomfortable with the HP Customer Service wanting to have access to my computer. I have allowed Apple to do this when I had a problem, but HP? And then when this guy started trying to scare me into thinking I had tons of "problems" and malware on my computer, I got even more nervous - HIGHLY unlikely on a Mac. Then we got to his pitch that he could "fix" my computer and "clean it" and then send me a reconditioned HP just like the one I had for $399. Whoa!!!!!!

I did run a free and highly recommended malware program after this phone call - was afraid of what HE might have put on my computer! I was horrified to see that he had gone into Terminal Mode - this is BIG TIME and there would be no reason to do this if it were a software glitch - just reinstall the printer driers. No malware. He was just expecting me to be a typical non-computer savvy customer who could be easily scared into buying anything. Wrong customer!!!! But this experience certainly gave me a VERY bad taste in my mouth about HP and I won't buy one again.

I'm in no hurry to make a decision. I don't need my Proof of Insurance card until 1 July and I have the tax document on my computer and can convert it to a PDF file, put it on a thumb drive, and print it off SIL's printer is needed (it's not - it's just for my records).

But this experience showed me that it's not just those phone phony phone calls alleging to be from ones credit card company (funny - I don't have a Visa or MC so why are they calling?) that are out to try to fool the public. I would have expected better of a large company like HP. I have no doubt that like many large companies, they outsource their customer service dept to off-shore 3rd party companies and they are not very closely monitored. BIG mistake!

My old Canon works pretty well with third party cartridges. It also copies and scans, so it is handy. It has one problem that drives me nuts. The first 5 -6 pages I print have a big black stripe down the back of the page. Yesterday I printed a letter and had to print six copies before I got a clean one. Very annoying.

We have an HP black laser printer. Our previous printer was a Brother with individual colour cartridges. Even when some of the colours were low, it wouldn't even print in black and white. That sucked.

Laser is best for us, as we seldom print pictures. This year I found a Canadian company that ships cartridges and toners. I was skeptical, but the price was right $21 for a toner cartridge. It works flawlessly and I highly recommend them.

I lost my brother color laser multi function printer in the flood and really miss it. I picked up a low cost Canon ink jet. As soon as I can get a new color laser I will. I recover the cost because the toner last so long compared to the ink cartridges. It is expensive but it lasts such a long time. In the several years I owned the laser I only bought toner once.

After replacing multiple high cost color inkjet cartridges, we replaced our ink jets with a Brother laser printer. We realized that we rarely printed in color and never had much success printing photos. With the few photos we do print these days, any of the printing places do a better job than we did. I’ve printed tons of stuff with our laser printer and have almost used up the first cartridge. It prints reliably every time, no wasting ink while the printer is getting ready.