Comment on Brother denies using firmware updates to brick printers with third-party ink

catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  …they just make you do manual registration if you use third party toner

  Man, if only we had a word for disabling critical features in this way.

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  • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    If there is one, it’s not “bricking”, because it still functions as a printer.

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    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Upvoted for understanding the concept of words having already established definitions

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      • Mac@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Standardized word meanings being recognized and adhered to really brings me joy.
        I don’t like that meanings change over time.

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      • brrt@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Where were you when I was being called a pedant? 😅

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    • bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      So on one hand, yes. On the other hand, there are tasks that are onerous to non technicians.

      If you asked me to do it manually, sure. I’ve interacted with a bunch of software, understand measurement systems, done some programming etc.

      My wife on the other hand… There’s no overlap between ecology or life sciences in this task. Outside her ability.

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      • suburban_hillbilly@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Yeah some folks in here are clearly out of touch with the capabilities of the average consumer.

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      • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        There’s no equipment calibration in ecology or life science?

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• Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Which is weird because one of Rossman’s sources claimed that they were on the phone with Brother, asked how to do manual registration, and were told it couldn’t be done unless a genuine Brother toner cartridge was installed.

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  • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    That person was just plain wrong. The same source showed the manual registration sheets under their reddit post.

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  • bane_killgrind@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Maybe support agent was being lazy, or ignorant.

    The portal the agents use should be able to bring up internal info via keywords like “colour registration”

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  • LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Customer service reps have almost the same information that a customer would have. The only difference is they have a few more tools available to them.

    Asking policy questions or anything at this level would likely get no useful info.

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    • ayyy@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Only if the customer service is unempowered garbage.

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      • FelixCress@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        Welcome to the real world.

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  • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    Rossman’s “source” was a 3 year old unconfirmed Reddit post.

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• LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  I have a black and white brother laser printer that had 3rd party toner that worked fine for years, it was even a two pack of toner. Then I installed a firmware update and immediately it threw an error stating trouble with the toner and refused to print. Tried the unopened 2nd toner, same error. Looked and searched all over online and could not find the previous firmware to try a roll back.

  I then purchased a new two pack of 3rd party toner from a different brand and it worked just fine. My guess is with each new firmware they also have a set of chips to block (each toner has a chip on it) that they bundle into to update.

  I’ll never install another firmware update for that printer now.

  I would consider what they did as bricking my toner.

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• BroBot9000@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Link? Where does it say that and how does one do that?

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  • catloaf@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The links are in the article.

    I don’t know the specific process, but usually it’s printing a registration page and then entering the offsets on the printer’s control panel.

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