HP inkjet cartridges have built-in expiry dates
A corporate user who has an HP BusinessJet 2200C, an expensive model with separate ink catridges and printer heads for black and CYM, said his printer stopped working earlier this week with the message: "Cyan Ink Cartridge has expired".
And that has led to the discovery that the only fix for this cunning consumables plan is to either set systems to dates in the past or, you guessed it, go change the cartridge or buy a new one.
HP has told him that the date printed on the ink cartridge is not the expiry date, and that is determined either by a cartridge being in the printer for 30 months, or the cartridge is 4.5 years old, whichever comes first.
The date on the cartridge, which you'd every reason to think was the expiry date if you didn't know, is 2.5 years after it was manufactured.
There are oblique references to this on the HP site. On this page, for example, one message runs "Cart near expiry". HP attempts to explain this away by saying "nearly expired" cartridges don't give "optimum" printer quality. They do, however, give optimum profits on the consumables.
As the corporate sys admin points out, organisations like his buy cartridges in quantity for discounts, with unused ones being stored.
He told the INQUIRER: "I just cannot believe this. The cartridge is still 50 per cent full, and HP wants me to throw it away. That's a new way of making money. But only short term. We bought the cartridge because we needed the printer to work". But, he added, after he reported this to his boss, the firm has decided to buy Lexmark printers in the future. We think some of those may have a similar mechanism too, however. ยต
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While I do not expect that this concern will be corrected, I feel that I must join the many to issue this complaint. This is regarding the built in product obsolescence into your ink cartridges. I personally have had to discard 2 sets of perfectly good ink cartridges (over 50% full) because they expired. I did not realize what was happening until the second set gave me the same error message "ink cartridge installed is not the correct one for this printer", or something along those lines. The product does not even tell you, I'm expired. I searched why do ink cartridges expire and found multiple rants about your company and a few others as well. I cannot believe that you think such a business practice will allow your company to remain successful into the future. I have reinstalled my old printer, which uses ink cartridges until they are low in ink or have no ink remaining. This product is an older Lexmark. It does not accept camera cards but I can load my pictures through the USB cable and the camera itself. I am very disappointed in my HP product and do not expect I will ever purchase HP again. 

I am a business major (currently in school) and I work fulltime. I cannot afford to continue to buy ink cartridges when it is not necessary to do so. I know from my business classes that what you are doing is wrong and will hurt your business in the long run. It ruins your reputation and product image. HP is a money hungry, poor quality, worthless corporation. This is the image you now portray.
I recently discovered the same issue with my home printer. Not only is this expensive, it squanders resources.

Since purchasing computer related equipment for our school system falls under my jurisdiction, they will not be rewarded for this type of behavior on my watch.
GOT IT!
no more printer diassembling, no more chips swapping, no more money for chips or resseters.
Just a little tiny piny software for FREE (for all of us who bught these damn printers), which just patches the drivers, that I made.
If you need it, just email me at gikam@yahoo.com, put 'fixHP' in the subject.
good luck
i agree... HP has really gone down hill the last few years. I have so many problems with both my printer and my laptop from them. Its just a kick in the teeth to their customers that they will do this.
I totally agree with the comments above. Also the prices of the ink cartridges are just outrageous. We bought a Officejet Pro L7555 series for $200, and it asks to replace the cartridges. I went to costco to buy some, and it would cost $140 to replace black and color (black was two pack, color wasn't). That means if I run out of ink one more time, I paid more for ink than the printer itself.
My friends were having a conversation once. One said "HP should invest in weaponry" and the other said "Nah. The ammunition would cost more than the weaponry."
I told my family to never buy HP again. I'm furious with their poor exploiting business techniques. Even though their printers may be one of the highest qualities, if they're going to play like this, they can play with themselves.
Actually, there is a very simple solution... Taking out the battery inside the printer will reset the date on the printer and allow you to happily use your expired ink to your heart's content. I have an HP printer and I tried this yesterday after searching for a solution online.
I don't think it is as much, physically, the HP Ink "Cartridge" as it is the drivers telling the machine that the cartridge should be rejected at a certain time. I've used cheaper cartridges which were designed for my HP printer but not made by HP which were rejected all the same. I think it's ridiculous of HP to force people to have to deal with this, and I think it is too wasteful. If the printer cuts your cartridge off at 25% you have to buy four cartridges to make up the capacity of one, meaning four times as much garbage. Right now I'm actually trying to pull the battery in the printer. I love HP printers (they've worked consistently well for me for ages) but this has to stop if they ever expect me to buy another printer in the future from them.
I need to replace all cartridges and printheads and the cost will buy me a new printer. Do the other companies have the same issue?
What a disgusting and immoral way of doing business! I've heard from a printer expert that Lexmark is doing the same thing on its new printers. Lexmark aren't even allowing people to use new generic cartridges!! Does anybody know of a printer brand that is ethical?
I found a quick and easy way to override the date function. I have had the same stupid HP tricks to make you buy more ink! Just boot the printer(or if the message comes up) when the printer wants you to press the OK button, and the exclamation point is blinking, ignore it all. That is, don't touch the ok button and print to your hearts content. This bug in their system serves them right for forcing us to use our own bought and paid for property by hijacking you!!!
This whole issue with "Expiry" dates on cartridges is insulting and disrespectful to its customers - a crass and inexcusable effort for HP to dig their hand further into our pockets. They have always made their fortune on their supplies, which are already outrageously priced. When innovative consumers learned how to refill cartridges to avoid HP's exorbitant pricing, HP countered by building a expiry date into each - instead of making a fair reduction to their prices.
The sad thing is that HP does make some of the best printers out there, but their arrogant corporate policy deserves to be kicked in the face. I will never buy another HP printer.
Yup, Canon, HP, Lexmark, Dell(which is Lexmark)and Epson all have chips or electronics to stop you from refilling, or at least make it extremely difficult to do so. Brother inkjets are the only ones so far, that have not fallowed suit, so we are pushing the Brother inkjets, I even own one myself, life suddenly got alot easier.