Solved Using Non-HP Toner Cartridges 8

Problem: HP LaserJet P1102w Printer will not print with a non-HP toner cartridge in place.

You may find, as I did, that after installing a non-HP printer cartridge that the printer will not print with the new cartridge in place. It won’t present an error or any warning lights—it simply never prints. Holding down the “cancel” button on the printer will print diagnostic pages, proving that the cartridge works, but that HP is somehow interfering with the print job from the PC. This is obviously sabotage, likely motivated by HP wanting you to buy their expensive toner cartridges.  I further proved this by swapping back to an HP cartridge and immediately my queued print jobs began to print unrestricted.

I want to note here that although

Solution: Set the printer up as new with the non-HP cartridge in place

I was able to get around this problem by browsing the printer at its IP address (found via the Diagnostic Printout—hold the “Cancel” button) and using the web interface to “reset to factory defaults” and then running the HP Driver Full Package Setup and adding the printer as if it was new, including setting up the wireless settings again. I was immediately able to print to the “new” wireless printer with the Non-HP print cartridge.

For further testing, I then removed the former (now duplicate) printer from Windows. I rebooted all devices and PCs and continued to print test pages. I also removed and reinserted the non-HP printer cartridge. Everything is working perfectly.

Possible Secondary Solution:

There are some whispers online that you can find an elusive “cartridge” setting in the HP software that can be turned to the “off” position which will solve this issue, but I was never able to find this setting and I suspect it differs between Mac and PC.  I was only able to find success by setting up the printer as new, with the non-HP cartridge in place, as described above.

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8 thoughts on “Solved Using Non-HP Toner Cartridges

  1. Reply Garth Jan 27,2019 11:42 am


    That was a kick-ass tip! Thanks! I bought a new HP Envy laptop and was super excited/happy about it… Until I realized that the drivers included on the laptop were NOT going to let me use my trusty HP 1102w printer UNLESS I ponied up for the more expensive HP brand toner cartridge. Grrrr….!

    As you mentioned, I found the IPv4 Address using the Self Test diagnostic on the printer itself (hold down the Cancel button, page will print). Then I went to Setup, add new printer, selected My Printer Is Not Listed, and added the 1102w using it’s IP address.

    To find the driver I went to HP’s self-service support:
    https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/HP-LaserJet-P1100-Printer-series/4110394/model/4110306
    I downloaded that entire executable, but when I ran it nothing happened.

    With some digging around I found it had unpacked itself to this directory on my hard drive:
    C:\LJP1100_P1560_P1600_Full_Solution
    Back to the printer installation dialog: I selected Have Disk for the driver choice and put that path into the field. The dialog then grabbed the driver from there and.. Bob’s Your Uncle! Successful Test Print.

    And, I should add, a Successful blow-to-the-man: why can’t I just buy any cartridge I want and use it with the HP Printer that I PAID for AND OWN outright? I’m not leasing this printer on some agreement that requires me to buy their cartridges. Sure, use of an off-brand cartridge may invalidate the warranty; that’s fine with me. Frankly I’d rather pay more for the printer up front and be able to buy whatever cartridge I want in the future.

    Or, alternatively, just buy a non-HP printer next time. That’d be too bad, because I love their printers and have found they are built like tanks.

    Thanks again for the tip Sensei Reinhart!

  2. Reply Attmik Feb 14,2019 12:01 pm


    Just a few notes for the above from my experience.

    The issue is really with the driver. My win8 tablet can print without any problem with the OEM toner but my Win10 laptop could not.

    What I did was not resetting the printer (in fact I could not find such an option) just removed from the list of printers and added it again manually as Garth suggested.

    Now i can successfully print from win 10 but every time I have a popup message telling me that the job failed. So this is quite annoying but works at least.

    This was the last HP product I have purchased, that’s for sure. I have checked the price of the brand toner, and it actually costs more than the original price of the printer and can print half as many pages as with the OEM one which costs 9 times less than the brand one.

  3. Reply david Feb 20,2019 10:22 am


    Worked for me too by installing manually. And agree, I am 100% done with HP. Zilch, Zippo, they are dead to me done!

  4. Reply RadioMan57 Jun 2,2019 7:41 am


    Win10 Home 1809 PC prints ok via USB cable. Win10 Pro 1809 PC printed ok via WLAN. Win10 Pro 1903 shows “printer needs attention” error and does not print via WLAN. Factory reseting the P1102W did not solve my problem. So I agree with Attmik’s post above that the problem is with the driver.

  5. Reply DT Feb 15,2020 10:43 am


    Agree to all, I am done with HP or any printer vendor that tries to restrict me to their brand of overpriced razor blades.

  6. Pingback: Solved Printer Only Prints At Reboot - Justin Reinhart

  7. Reply Chas barclay Apr 7,2022 4:05 am


    I found a much simpler solution.
    User the browser to access the printer via the IP4 address.
    Go to the last tab and download the driver.
    Run it.
    Voila! The printer is set up and uses any cartridge. It is the latest drivers which cause the problems.
    🙂

    • Reply Justin Reinhart Aug 21,2022 12:24 pm


      Interesting. I don’t have that feature to download anything on the last tab of my printer in order to do a comparison. I think what is going on here is that this is actually a firmware installation and that functioned similarly to the factory reset I’ve described above. I have no way of knowing.

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