"Smart Chips" in Laptop Batteries & Pr

queenb**ch writes: "Well, we used to have a very good relationship with Compaq, so when they became part of HP, that relationship just sort of rolled over for us naturally. We'd always bought HP printers since they have a fairly high duty cycle. Recently, we discovered that the toner cartridges that were "empty" were, in fact, not empty at all. They had hit their maximum number of "passes". Now it doesn't matter if you print one blue period on an other-wise black & white document or if you print a flyer with a blue background. Either way, that's a pass on your toner cartridge. Now I can't help but think that this is done to increase sales of toner cartridges. Nothing we've been able to do has been able to get any of our newer printers to use the toner cartridge to completion. Never mind the waste, disposal, landfill, etc. that this generates, we're rather upset because of the cost of new toner cartridges when we're being forced cover because we have to toss out ones that aren't really empty yet.

Now, we've discovered that some of the laptop makers are doing the same thing — putting "smart chips" in the laptop batteries. Once the laptop battery hits its magic number of charges, it ceases to function. So far we've not found a way to hot wire around, flash the chip or remove the chip to get this perfectly functioning battery to work again. The only workaround we've found so far is to purchase a brand new battery. Now, for some of the older laptops, this is more than the laptop itself is worth and so we're replacing units that should have a much longer useful life.

In neither case is this information made available at the time of purchase, nor have we been able to have the manufacturers tell us ,for the equipment we already own, what the "magic number" is for either the laptop batteries or the toner cartridges."