Firmware Updates: What are they and should I accept them?

One common question we get from customers are whether or not, in our opinion, they should accept updates to their printer's firmware (internal software). The short answer to this question is "no" because doing so rarely improves the printer's performance while incurring the risk that your aftermarket ink and toner chips stop working. In this article, we will attempt to briefly explain why this occurs and also explain how we minimize the impacts of this on our customer base.

Simply put, a printer's firmware is the program stored on the printer itself (not on your computer) that allows it to operate. The printer's firmware is responsible for not only controlling the print apparatus, but also the menus and other software features on the device. One subtle but important role the printer's firmware plays is to authenticate that genuine cartridges are installed (in printers where cartridges have chips, which is practically every printer nowadays).

The printer firmware authenticates cartridge chips using cryptographic challenges. The printer submits a "challenge" to the chip and expects the correct response according to some algorithm. By monitoring the two-way communication between a printer and an OEM chip, aftermarket chip manufacturers can reverse-engineer compatible chips. Updates to the printer's firmware are capable of introducing a new "challenge" type not previously seen. OEM cartridge chips, manufactured by the printer maker, will "know" how to respond. Aftermarket chips will not, at least not until the design is updated to "understand" the new challenge type and thus work with the new printer firmware version.

InkOwl deals only with the most reputable and technologically advanced manufacturers of aftermarket cartridge chips. In practically all cases, the turnaround from the time a firmware update becomes available to the time InkOwl's chips will work with it is generally way shorter than the time it takes for printers with the new firmware version to reach store shelves. This is why our inkjet and laser chips are so reliable, even with brand-new printers! However, updates to our chip designs to work with new firmware versions will not affect chips that have already been sold and are in customers' hands. Thus, we recommend exercising caution when it comes to firmware updates.

It is important to note that printers are rarely released to the market with major bugs or flaws in the firmware that need to be patched later. In our opinion, any potential improvements from firmware updates are simply not worth the risk of losing your cost-saving products' functionality, even considering the fact that only a minority of firmware updates actually affect the functionality of aftermarket chips.

Printer firmware is often confused with the printer software that you install onto your computer. This is not helped by the often ambiguous wording used in prompts to update software. Thus, to keep things simple for our customers, we recommend declining any and all updates from a printer manufacturer.

All in all, we do not intend this article as a scare piece. For printer models where we know the likelihood of an update invalidating chips is high, we include warnings in our product instructions. When major firmware-related issues become apparent, we always contact our existing customer base to offer additional warning. That being said, if ever you are prompted to perform an update on your printer, we recommend you decline.

If you have any questions at all on this subject, please do not hesitate to contact us.