Question Brother turns to the dark side. No longer allowing 3rd party cartridges

Red Squirrel · Mar 3, 2025

To make matters worse, this is including EXISTING printers. If it tries to update itself, it will no longer work, even with the cartridge that's already in it. So if you have one make sure you block it from being able to connect to the internet.

igor_kavinski · Mar 4, 2025

Must've hired some scum executive(s) from HP.

Jimminy · Mar 4, 2025

That's a damn shame.

How do I block updates? Their software is bloated and confusing. Don't know where to look.

Red Squirrel · Mar 4, 2025

I think you'd have to block your printer's IP at your firewall to make sure it can't do outbound connections. I didn't realize these things even updated themselves.

Jimminy · Mar 4, 2025

Red Squirrel said:
I think you'd have to block your printer's IP at your firewall to make sure it can't do outbound connections. I didn't realize these things even updated themselves.

Thanks. I couldn't find any way to block it in the router settings without blocking it from the network altogether. But that's a problem if I want to use it without a USB cable.

Red Squirrel · Mar 4, 2025

I use Pfsense, so just created an outbound rule. I can connect to it locally, but it itself, can't connect out to the internet. I think mine is old enough that it may not even self update though, it's from the early 2000's. But now I know to also not manually update the firmware because it could brick it.

Paperdoc · Mar 5, 2025

Thanks for this. When I chose my Brother colour laser (really, LED but who wants to quibble?) the ability to use third-party toner carts with a minor adjustment was really important and I am using that feature. I have been suspicious of this and have refused to "bite" on the pop-ops urging that I update the printer's firmware.

I lucked out in this! I have a model HL-L3290CDW which LACKS a number of features in related models that make use of the internet directly. According to the manual for these several models, mine does NOT have any way to access the internet and download anything. The only way to update its firmware is to use a utility on my computer to download, then install that on the printer. Access to the printer is solely by WiFi on our home network - it is shared by several users in our house. I went through that manual thoroughly and the printer's menus today to confirm. You can bet I will never do that! Great printer, never want to hobble it!

dlerious · Mar 5, 2025

According to Ars , Brother is denying it:

Brother denies using firmware updates to brick printers with third-party ink

Brother: Updates aren’t behind degradation of quality or removal of features.

arstechnica.com

Paperdoc · Mar 6, 2025

So, Brother may NOT have done this with their printer firmware updates. They claim they have not, but people do report problems that appear from working third-party toner cartridges after a firmware update.

How might this happen IF Brother is telling the truth? Well, my Brother colour laser printer has menu options that allow the user to reset the print count record of each toner cartridge separately. Basically, print count is used as the way for the printer to predict when a toner cart is empty, but often that process calls "empty" too early. So resetting the count can evade this issue and allow printing to proceed. That is, until the cart actually IS empty and you can see bad prints. I might SPECULATE that updating the printer's firmware might cause problems with this system, so that resetting the print count on EVERY toner cart after an update MIGHT avoid trouble.

I note, also, that there are similar counter systems to predict component lifetime for the four toner DRUMS, for the one toner Carrier Belt, and maybe for the Fuser unit. Whether resetting those might help also, I do NOT know. As I said above, I have one particular model in which I AM using a third-party Black toner cart with no trouble, but never have tried to update the firmware. So I cannot verify my speculations.

mindless1 · Mar 8, 2025

I don't recall ever seeing any evidence of my old MFC-8890DW being able to update itself, though just checked and see no setting for it either.

What it has instead is the PC app, ControlCenter 3, which periodically checks for updates and lets me know and have the option to download and install them. I did that once, years ago, but nothing since.

Granted I have not had a need or tried to update the CC3 app, don't know if a newer version might automate that more, but with the firmware it has currently, the printer does not appear to have its own update capability.

While I had that CC3 open, I checked for firmware updates and there are none, probably won't ever be any more for this printer that has aged out of the support cycle. I don't think the cartridges are chipped though (AFAIK), just a reset gear that indicates after so many thousands of pages (or tells the printer that a new cart was installed, I forget which) or the optical viewport on the cart to indicate low on toner.

It has used bulk toner, and 3rd party carts, and reused 3rd party carts with more bulk toner, all of it's life. It has a separate drum though, so reusing a cart a greater # of times is more viable. In my experience, 3rd party drums are usually low quality so next time it needs one, it'll be an OEM drum if they're still available.

Jimminy · Mar 9, 2025

I'm worried:
I have an HL-L2405W model bought (new) about a year ago from B&H.

It came with firmware V 1.08. I updated it to V 1.13, because I had no reason to not trust brother at the time, though I was quite aware of the shady practices of HP, cannon, epson, etc. It appears the very latest version is V 1.21
Recently, I turned off the auto updates (I was not aware they were enabled). I hope I got to it in time!

Maybe there's a small chance, because I rarely use it and I keep the printer turned off most of the time. It's still on the small toner cartridge it came with, so I won't know if I've been screwed until I replace it with an aftermarket part.

I sure hope Brother hasn't gone to the dark side.

Question Brother turns to the dark side. No longer allowing 3rd party cartridges

Red Squirrel

No Lifer

igor_kavinski

Lifer

Jimminy

Senior member

Red Squirrel

No Lifer

Jimminy

Senior member

Red Squirrel

No Lifer

Paperdoc

Platinum Member

dlerious

Platinum Member

Brother denies using firmware updates to brick printers with third-party ink

Paperdoc

Platinum Member

mindless1

Diamond Member

Jimminy

Senior member

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