Zoe Kleinman Technical Correspondent, BBC News
On September 13, a large number of HP printer owners discovered that their printers stopped recognizing unofficial printer cartridges.
Dutch printer ink supplier 123inkt said it received more than 1,000 complaints in one day.
HP said that during its last firmware update, the settings have been changed, so HP printers will only communicate with HP chip cartridges.
It also said that some devices already have this feature built in.
123inkt stated that it does not believe that a firmware update has been released since March 2016, which indicates that the change has been pre-programmed to roll out this month.
Hewlett-Packard said that such updates are launched "regularly", but did not comment on the time of the last update.
"The purpose of this update is to protect HP's innovation and intellectual property rights," it said in a statement.
It angered some customers because HP-branded ink cartridges are significantly more expensive than unofficial brands.
Error messages reported include "cartridge problem," "one or more cartridges are missing or damaged," or "old generation cartridges."
A contributor to the HP Support Forum stated that the firmware was updated "without my permission," and now an error message appears stating that the ink cartridge is damaged.
"I use it every day to work, and now I'm in trouble," he wrote.
"Others must have the same problem. Is there a way to stop HP from doing this to people who bought their equipment?"
HP OfficeJet, OfficeJet Pro, and OfficeJet Pro X printers are affected.
Hewlett-Packard told the BBC that notched cartridges with replacement ink can still be used.
It said: "These printers will continue to use refilled or remanufactured ink cartridges with original HP security chips. Other ink cartridges may not work properly.
"In many cases, this feature has been installed in HP printers, and in some cases, it has been implemented as part of the printer firmware update," it added.
123inkt said it has been able to develop new chips for its own compatible cartridge labels. These chips are currently in production, but the problem itself is not uncommon.
"Printer manufacturers regularly perform firmware updates, claiming that they have improved the operation of the printer or resolved security issues," it said.
"The (un)expected result is usually that the operation of low-priced, private-label ink cartridges is disrupted and triggers an error message."
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