HP Printer Setup Cartridge Problem (Solved)
Once again we have an obtuse & incredibly frustrating HP Printer problem causing trouble. And it’s a repeat of the ridiculous mindset that HP seems to want to perpetuate. Grrrr.
Even though the HP Printer Admin Solution post is one of the most popular articles here on 1024kb.co.nz, there is no reason to believe that influential HP management would have read it & set out to change the culture of the business to bring an end to stupid PIA errors.
As it happens, HP have come up with an even more obtuse problem to frustrate their customers, & have continued with their mind-numbingly dumb methodology of hiding the solution from public view. Why would you do this? What could possibly go wrong?
HP Client: Halp! I haz HP Printer problem!
HP Support: We know how to fix. The answer is hidden.
HP – Arbitrary Drama
HP have added a new thing to complicate printer installation – they’ve introduced “Setup Cartridges”. These are a supposedly special set of low-ink cartridges that MUST be installed in your new printer before regular ink is fitted. “Setup Cartridges” are meant to come with your new HP printer – if they’re missing (for whatever reason) HP’s advice is to return the printer to the retailer as you cannot purchase these “Setup Cartridges” anywhere or anyhow. They are precious commodities, it would seem on face value. As we shall find out, they are only artificially precious & deliberately rare.
But let’s get real here, think this situation through –
- Have HP suddenly improved their printers? No, nothing more than the usual annual updates anyway.
- Have any other manufacturers introduced essential “Setup Cartridges”? No, no they haven’t.
- Do “Setup Cartridges” bring whizz-bang new features & benefits to the printer scene? Stop it, no they don’t.
So…..
Set The Scene
The following events are actual, real happenings. My client is a busy self-employed lady who lives rurally. Not remote rural as in paper roads, helicopters & internet via daisy-chained woks but still a good 20km drive from the nearest tinpot town. Her HP Envy printer was refusing to scan the documents that are imperative for her business, so she called me out.
I couldn’t see anything glaringly obvious after a quick inspection of the Envy hardware & was about to move into a deeper investigation of the software when my client told me that she did, in fact, have a brand new HP Office Jet Pro printer still in the box – purchased about a year ago. I figured sharing this info with me was a sensible idea.
One of these:
Moderately expensive in comparison to your average home/small business PSC (Printer/Scanner/Copier) machine, the automatic document feeder helps justify the increased price point.
Replacing over repairing is often the easiest & most cost-effective route for the client, considering the hourly support cost & the as-yet unidentified problem.
The printer manufacturers make their vast profits from selling ink, not printers. The printer hardware is simply a necessary conduit to the spectacular returns made from selling liquid gold. So a relatively low-cost replacement printer builds certainty into the value investment. Uhmm in most cases anyway…
A quick unboxing took place & the Office Jet Pro replaced the Envy in the backroom office. Then the arbitrary drama referred to above cast its’ long shadow.
It was obvious that although the Office Jet Pro was still in the original box, it had been repackaged at some stage. I did not question why the new printer had been put back & stored for months – but as I’m paid per hour, I wasn’t too worried about it.
There were 2 sets of retail ink cartridges in the box – one set open but unused & a partial set – CM & Y, no K – of what turned out to be these tricky little Setup Cartridges. They didn’t particularly stand out to me – in every way physically identical to the regular cartridges – see for yourself below.
Spot the difference:
Let’s face it, printer setup/installs are fairly mundane events, once you’ve done a few, you don’t really need to read the instructions for each & every make & model, right?
So, as per usual in any of the 500+ printer installations that I’ve done over time, I took the new cartridges from their already open boxes & one by one slotted them into the printer, gently but firmly so they clicked into place, making sure that the colours were correctly positioned & the protective tape removed.
So now it’s time to power on & then it’s a very quick process adding the PSC to the home network & introducing it to the client’s devices (iPhone, iPad, Lenovo laptop) – which is good because I have another appointment looming.
Immediately though, the Control Panel lit up with “Use Setup Cartridges That Came With Your Printer” – as shown at the top of the page – no other option was available. This is the moment that I became aware of “Setup Cartridges”. It’s lucky really that I’ve already been through HP Printer Admin Solution drama – I’m fully experienced in HP fuckery.
Checked the box, there’s the “Setup Cartridges” – well, 3 out of 4 anyway CM & Y, no K. I swapped the standard ink for Setup Cartridges, leaving the K as it was. Reboot – “Use Setup Cartridges That Came With Your Printer”. Tried with 3 Setup Cartridges & no Black – “Use Setup Cartridges That Came With Your Printer” and so on – every combination failed & the “Use Setup Cartridges That Came With Your Printer” message meant that no other function was available either – apart from Help which simply repeated the “Use Setup Cartridges…” demand. Yes, I was starting to lose my shit, in case you were wondering.
Let’s have a deeper think about these “Setup Cartridges” – what could they do that regular ink cartridges can’t? Well, considering that regular ink cartridges are perfectly fine in all other brand printers & earlier HP printers, I’d say Nothing. A visual comparison revealed: Nothing. What does Google say that “Setup Cartridges” do uniquely? Nothing. There’s a whole lot of Nothing going on here. I’ll bet it’s an arbitrary software command placed there for no good reason – and therefore bypass-able. Fuck this shit, you know?
HP’s own Support forums are the natural place to visit for solutions to problems with HP hardware. The official HP support forums are heavily populated, massively busy 27/4. Considering that all site visitors are there because the HP product that they’ve invested in isn’t doing the right thing, surely HP realise that this is not a Good Thing – customers’ Nirvana is never needing to access support ever. If any HP support staff are reading this, please share with your bosses.
In the Search window I only needed to type “Setup” before the most popular search query appeared – “Setup without Setup Cartridges” – so we know this is a common problem. Here’s the copy/pasta response to hundreds & hundreds of frustrated HP printer users:
“Welcome to the HP support community.
I understand that you want to bypass the setup cartridges, and I am glad to assist you.
I am sending you a private message with the steps to skip setup cartridges and complete the printer’s initial setup. Please check the mailbox icon at the top-right corner of this screen.”
Other versions of this same message claimed that since the instructions were model-specific, they may brick a printer if used on the wrong model. What a load of shit. Really, why would you include a key combination that worked to solve a problem on one printer yet destroyed another model? Even HP aren’t that stupid. They seem to think that their users are though.
Even if you were happy with this Secret Squirrel messaging system, you’d have to wait until your query was answered – time that I didn’t have. So I did Megabyte things & re-enacted my private message discovery method used for the previous HP Printer Admin problem.
Ha! Still working, stroll on in. No, I do not have a User/Pass combo – HP Staff Forums are simply not very secure. I found the instructions to several different models – they’re all just about the same. The final action is identical in all cases, it would not be difficult to publish a generic set of instructions. HP are fucking with their user base, for sure.
So, here you go, this is how to solve the HP Printer missing “Setup Cartridges” problem – it’ll take about 1 minute.
Instructions To Bypass Setup Cartridges Requirement
Here’s the HP LCD Control Panel:
- There’s a hidden Back icon in the mirror opposite of where the Help ? icon is, directly under the “am” of “Came”. (HP being tricky). Stab at that 4 times & all of a sudden there’s life in the Control Panel. (Not 3 stabs, 4. There’s no action anywhere until you hit the right hidden spot 4 times. FU HP.)
- Scroll through the menu selections to System Configuration menu, select that & Scroll to “Trade Supplies Enabled” – it’s disabled by default so select & enable that. You have just become a haXX0R.
- Now restart the printer. Hello, success!! The printer will happily recognize your not-Setup Cartridges & roll on through the initialisation process without any issue at all.
There are a total of zero extra steps required because of not using Setup Cartridges, which proves that this whole gig is an arbitrary demand by HP for no good reason.
Happy Ending
The new printer does do scanning well – quick & easy. After 2 or 3 demonstration run-throughs with the HP Smart app my client was confident & comfortable operating her new HP Office Jet printer. The PC version of HP Smart took a couple of tries but the iPadOS app was an instant success.
Back to work for both of us.