Time to get chippy with my ink cartridges?

January 16, 2007 9:35 AM

Have you replaced your inkjet print cartridges with a generic by physically moving the cartridge chip? This site gives instructions, but I can't tell if this will screw up my printer's ability to detect low ink levels or not. Does this work?
posted by noahv to Computers & Internet (2 answers total)

No matter what it voids your warranty. If that's run out then have at it. Otherwise, pay the extra five bucks and buy the OEM ink. A new print head costs much more than the ink.

The chip does a few different things depending on the printer. It can detect ink level and/or ink color. Some printers will not function if they cannot detect the ink, so beware.
posted by sephira at 10:04 AM on January 16, 2007

A better bet, if you're an ink cheapskate like me, is to pick up a refill kit, and a chip resetter. I've got a handful of Epsons that I use for various creative endeavors, and I've had great luck manually refilling my carts and resetting the chip data multiple times.

You can get a multicolor refill kit for ~20 bucks, and a chip resetter (at least for Epsons like mine) on Ebay for about $5
posted by stenseng at 3:53 PM on January 16, 2007