Printer Firmware Basics

Go into almost any business and you're bound to find a printer of some kind. Even though printers have become commonplace in most environments, how they operate is still a mystery to many. Today we want to shed some light on one area of print technology that has the greatest effect on the aftermarket toner world: firmware.

Printer technology is surprisingly sophisticated; there's a lot that goes on internally before your text or images can be printed. A printer's firmware helps to manage and control the many different processes and essentially acts as the printer's ""brain"". Every so often, OEMs will release new firmware versions to fix previous bugs and improve the performance of your machine. However, for users of aftermarket toner cartridges these updates often come with far more sinister outcomes.

Increasingly, printer firmware is being released that prevents third party supplies from functioning in a machine. And it's not just the updates. Since firmware is embedded in the printer, aftermarket users can experience these same issues with a brand new printer.

Situations like these can lead to confusion and inefficiency and aren't in the best interest of the consumer. To prevent any unnecessary downtime we recommend not updating your printer firmware unless that's being done to solve a specific issue.