Color LaserJet Pro MFP M281cdw not allowing 3rd party toner

[amyhopex3]

We just bought this printer less than a year ago, upgrading to a LaserJet because of the amount of printing I do for work.  When the first set of HP ink cartridges ran out, I decided to try a 3rd party toner that got good reviews because the cost of HP toner is rediculous. I replaced all four cartridges one by one as the HP cartridges ran out.  It worked great for several weeks with all four 3rd party cartridges working.   I was pleased with the quality of the prints--no different than the HP toner.  

Then, all of a sudden I started getting a Supply Memory Error , and one of the new cartridges was not being read or recognized in my supply levels; which also prevented us from printing anything.  We were in a bind needing to print some important stuff quickly, so bought one HP cartridge to replace that one.  As soon as we put in the new HP cartridge, a different one of the 3rd party cartridges started acting the same way, and was not being read or recognized. We started looking online and found all of this "great" information about how HP "protects" the cartridges to prevent users from buying from other companies.  We are pretty furious as the HP cartridges are so expensive and we didn't know when we invested in this machine, that we would have to also buy the HP toner or not be able to use the darn thing at all. 

So we have now looked online and tried everything we can find, from downloading new firmware; making sure the cartridge protection is OFF in the settings; pulling out the 3rd party cartridge and fiddling with the chips to lift them up to make better contact with the reader inside the printer.  Nothing is working.  If anyone can help, please!  I have wasted enough time and money and have vowed that I will never buy another HP printer.  But it would be nice if I could at least get my money's worth out of this one.  Thanks in advance for any suggestions.  

[AlS77]

I run into this problem all the time with my customers. It is not the printer or HP causing the problem, but actually the 3rd party memory chips on the toners themselves going bad. Blame the 3rd party manufacturers for the cheap and defective memory chips they use on their cartridges. Most of the time 3rd party toners work well, but may not last as long or be as reliable to the end as OEM HP cartridges. The other common problem is the little memory chips on the 3rd party toner cartridges go bad.  You should really be contacting the sellers from whom you purchased the 3rd party cartridges from and get a refund or replacement cartridges or even replacement memory chips for the defective cartridges. You could also try moving the good, working memory chips from the old cartridges to the newer defective ones, but, the chips will carry the old toner level info with them, and if the toner had gone empty, the chip will still say the toner is empty on the new cartridge, so it may not work due to that.