Using resettable cartridges with the HP 2800 Business Inkjet

I have been using resettable HP10/11 cartridges with the HP 2800 printer for a few years now but a flaw in the HHIC102R chip resetter tool, or the HP 2800 firmware, now requires a more complicated procedure to set the cartridge expiry in the future.

Originally, when the chip resetter tool was used with the replacement cartridge base holding the resettable chip the ink level would be set to 100% and the expiry date would be set about two years from the previous expiry date. Some time later, when using the tool the LED would flash as it should but the expiry date would not advance. This meant that the cartridge showed as expired. The "expired" HP cartridge, cartridge base and tool are pictured below.

I concluded that the tool would not advance the date past some predetermined date and decided to do some experiments with another printer using HP10/11 cartridges, the HP Officejet 9130. The important difference between the HP 2800 and the HP 9130 is the setting of the date used by the printer.

HP 2800

1. Does not have a menu option to set the date or time although a lithium battery does maintain the time.
2. Designed as a computer printer and must be used with a parallel or EIO card interface. The printer driver updates the date and time when communicating with the printer.

HP 9130

1. Has a menu option to set the date or time and a lithium battery maintains the time.
2. Can be used as a standalone fax machine and/or as a computer printer and scanner using a parallel, USB or EIO card interface.

I believe that the resetter is setting the expiry to an invalid date and if a resettable chip with such a date is used with the HP 9130 the date is set to the current date on the printer. This difference in the firmware of the HP 9130 allows the expiry date for a resettable cartridge to set to any value by following the procedure below.

1. Remove any HP or other non-resettable cartridges from the HP 9130 as the effect of leaving them in is unknown and not recommended
2. Set the date/time of the HP 9130 to a date in the future using the Set Date & Time option in the Admin menu, for the 9130 the password will need to be entered (defaults to 1234)
3. Reset all the cartridges and install them in the HP 9130
4. Immediately you will see an error message saying that all cartridges have expired, ignore this
5. Set the date/time of the HP 9130 back to the current time.
6. Power down the printer and power up. The expiry date of the reset cartridges will be the date that the HP 9130 was changed to.

This technique may work with other HP All-In-One printers that can use resettable cartridges and share the same type of cartridge with other printers. Using resettable cartridge bases with HP cartridges allows the use of genuine HP ink without any mess associated with refillable auto-reset cartridges or CISS systems.