The good and the bad re: the HP 564, 564XL, XL cartridges.
This cartridge has all of the hallmarks of a perfect cartridge – looks good for refilling, or using inexpensive 3rd party compatible cartridges, and ultimately consumers who wisely chose printers that use this cartridge series (see a full list here).
Full, or “half-full” cartridge?
The HP 564 series of cartridges come in two flavors, a “full” cartridge (the XL version 564XL…), and a “half-full” cartridge version (the plain 564 version). Hewlett Packard also uses a shifty pricing scheme to make ink cartridges not seem as expensive – the “half-empty” cartridge is cheaper ($14.00-$10.00), but has half the ink of the XL cartridges ($40.00-18.00). We have looked at this cartridge in the past.
Wait a second…what is this chip for?
Notice the broken gold circuits - this chip will not function and is not recognized by the HP B8550 we own (we damaged it trying to get it off the HP brand cartridge)
Guilty, guilty, guilty…
The entire industry is guilty of this, so we are not singling out HP – the whole lot are wicked. There is a small chip on each individual cartridge in this series – black, photo black, cyan, magenta, and yellow – and that chip is specific to each (color/shade) ink cartridge. For instance, a chip from a yellow cartridge cannot be used on a cyan cartridge – and so on with all the shades of black and color.
The “chip” has two (2) functions – one (1) is to let you know when the cartridge thinks it should be empty (there is no “ink-level sensor” in the cartridge, the empty message is a total guess pre-programmed into the cartridge based on number of times used).
The second (2nd) is more nefarious and quite the headache – simply put, it is there to prevent refilling. Since the chips cannot be reset (many manufacturers are using 128-bit encryption on their chip designs to prevent a simple reset-of-the-chip solution) the chip must be “disabled.”
Canon employs a similar effort, and calls it “releasing the cartridge” and also provides some scary grade-school like scolding. HP also allows the cartridge to continue to be used with “empty” chip attached, but there are several hoops that have to be jumped through (no scolding). This means the chip can be turned off (as a result, the ink monitor will no longer report ink levels), but not reset.
Having used cartridges that required a chip swap in the past, you know when you are out of ink when it is no longer showing up on the paper. None of the pesky reminders to change the cartridge, but it is a good idea to keep an eye on the ink levels and try to change to a new cartridge when levels are getting low. This can prevent air from getting in the print head and causing clogging issues down the line.
Current Cartridge Options:
Currently, there are no copies of the HP chip, and there are no chip resetters available for the chip on the 564 cartridges from Hewlett Packard (HP). There are compatible cartridges available that come without the chip, and there are also cartridges that come with a “used” chip. So there are some options, but half are no good -
- Do-it-yourself “chipless” cartridge – you move your chip to “blank” cartridge*
- Compatible cartridges – they include a chip and *are* HP original cartridges, but ink monitor may not work.
- Use a continuous inking system (CIS, CISS, or Bulk Ink)
- Continue to use HP brand cartridges at incredibly high prices
- Get rid of the printer and start over
*Most economical option
So owners of the following printers, heads up, more info to come over the next few months.
- HP Photosmart B8500 Printer series
- HP Photosmart D5400 Printer series
- HP Photosmart D7500 Printer series
- HP Photosmart Premium Fax All-in-One – C309a
- HP Photosmart C6300 All-in-One series
Filed under: Cartridge Info, HP Cartridges Tagged: | 564, 564Bk, 564C, 564m, 564PBk, 564XL, 564Y, Compatible 564, Hewlett Packard 564, HP 564, HP 564XL, Refill 564, XL
