How to Disable Electronic Chips on Inkjet and Toner Cartridges

Toner Tips by James Cai

Almost all office-grade printers in the market from 2003 onward carry an electronic chip. These chips track the number of papers you’ve printed out and store other information related to your printing.

Refilling most ink tanks or toner cartridges do not reset their gauge levels in their software. You’d find this anomaly in Canon models CLI-521, PGI-520, CLI-8, PGI-650, or HP OfficeJet Pro and HP ENVY, and many other printers.

HP using manual

The chip has no link between its ink reading and the actual ink levels in the printer. So the chip erroneously reads “empty” even if you have ink in your printer. Your printer won’t work if you need to print black text but your yellow ink is “empty.”

So how do you make your printer work?

Bypassing Printer Chip Errors

To bypass your toner or ink chip you can do any of four things.

Use an auto-reset ink tanks if your printer models have them
Fit your printer with a new chip or ink tank
Use your printer model’s chip resetter to restore the “empty” chip to full
Disable your ink or toner monitor

If you disable your printer’s memory chip from collecting your printer usage information, you can continue using your printer even if the toner or ink is finished.

So you want to inspect your printer’s ink level at interval by removing it to avoid your ink running out!

How to Disable Toner Cartridge Electronic Chips

Image Credit: Flickr

Different printers have unique ways to turning their electronic chips off. I’ll address two printers here and give you a general guide for your other toner cartridge printers.

Here’s a guide to turning off the the electronic chips on HP ENVY and OfficeJet Pro.

HP OfficeJet Pro

Follow the steps outlined below,

Access “Setup” from the printer’s LCD display
Choose “Preferences”
Click on “Store Anonymous Usage Information”
And then switch it off

In case you didn’t find the “Store Anonymous Usage Information” option, then the electronic chip is already turned off. To reactivate the chip reset your printer to factory setting.

HP ENVY

Turn off the chip of your ENVY using these steps,

Go to “Preferences” by scrolling using the buttons on the right in the home screen of your printer.
Select “Data Storage” by scrolling with the down arrow button and then press “OK”
Now select “Off” using the down arrow button and then press OK to switch the function off

If the selection is off from your printer then your printer’s electronic chip is turned off. To turn on the information usage function again reset the printer to factory setting.

If Your Printer Is Internet Enabled

Fetch your printer IP address. Go to your network setup options to find your printer’s IP address on your printer settings. Now follow these simple steps to turn off your electronic chip.

Open a browser: Enter your printer’s IP address on the web address box.
Your printer’s Embedded Web Server opens up. Click on “Settings” and select “HP Cartridge Protection” on the lafthandside
Click on “Disable HP Cartridge Protection”
Select “Apply” or “Save”

That’s it! Your electronic chip is turned off.

Disabling Electronic Chips in Inkjet Cartridges

Inkjet printers have color tanks. It’s impossible to disengage an ink monitor for tanks that the printer hasn’t signified as empty.

Your printer’s display will show you a messages to indicate that your printer’s ink tank is “empty.” If you have a multi-function printer like the MP or MG printers, you’ll find this message on its LCD screen.

Disabling Electronic Chip for Canon Inkjet Printers

Image credit: Creative Commons

Canon inkjet printers have a wide variety of models. Regardless of your Canon inkjet model, this guide will help you disable your ink level monitor.

Below are the steps you should take. Depending on your printer type, you might experience slight variations in the messages.

I’ve used screenshots from a printer with disabled ink tank for all four – C,M, BK, PK – ink tanks. So, even if you use a Canon iP4200 (which I’d used for this example), you’d experience a bit of variation if your tanks are still enabled.

When you see the message contained in that screenshot above, click “OK.” Another message will come up.

Click “Yes” to move to the next message. What follows is a warning message from Canon. See the next screenshot.

Click on “Yes” to move to the next, and final, step.

You’d just press down the RESUME button for a about five to seven seconds until the error clears.

If you don’t have a Resume button on your printer, press down and hold the Stop or Cancel button instead. Hold down the button until the printer stops flashing its “Alarm” LED or the error message stops.

At this point your printer should get back to normal operations. But if it doesn’t, your monitor taskbar, at the bottom of your screen, should have a new printer message calling your attention. You’d see a message like the one in the screenshot below:

It reads,

“The ink cartridge has been installed or replaced. If the printout contains misaligned lined or is not satisfactory after the installation or replacement, refer to the user’s guide and carry out the print head alignment.”

Click “OK,” and you’re done!

Remember that you’d repeat this steps for each of your ink tank as your printer registers them as “empty.” You can’t disable ink monitors for inks not registered as finished.

You may use Canon ink-chip resetters instead if your printer model has a chip resetter in the market for sale. If you choose to use an ink resetter, make sure to get your printer’s exact match.

Disabling Ink Monitors for Other Printers

Image Credit: Creative Commons

If you just refilled your ink cartridge or just want to keep using the old cartridge (if it still has ink in it). Insert your cartridge and make sure it clicks into place.

Your printer’s ink monitor will show en error message. The message would warn you about the risk of using an ink cartridge that had been empty before. Ignore that message.

Select “Yes” to indicate that you want to use that refilled cartridge. Like in most cases, your printer software might ask the question a second time.

Now use your printer as normal. The electronic chip has been disabled so that you can use your ink cartridge without restrictions.

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