Yellow 951 Ink Cartridge ruined printer

[brianzebra]

I installed a new HP 951XL yellow ink cartridge, and even though my printer (HP OfficeJet Pro 8600 Plus) was working fine before that, upon installation of the new ink cartridge my printer stopped working, giving me a message that there was a problem with either the printer or the ink system.  HP Support claimed it was a hardware problem, and not a defective ink cartridge that I was seeking to get a replacement for. My last chance to troubleshoot the problem before having to throw away the printer and getting a new one was to buy another new yellow ink cartridge to see if a different new one would work. I did that, and got the same error message. However, I then noticed that according to the label on both new yellow cartridges that did not work that they were both made in the same place and had the same warranty expiration date, and all the other information on the labels is identical, so they may have come from the same batch. I'm wondering if anybody else has had this experience, whether a bad batch could cause the problem to persist. The cartridge that is giving me a problem is a 951XL (yellow), made in Malaysia, with the warranty expiration of December 2026. Also, when I Googled the problem, I discovered that a number of other people have had a problem with the yellow ink cartridge, including the same error message that I got.

[RC1097]

I had the exact same issue.  Purchased a new 951 Yellow cartridge yesterday at Office Max.  It was a genuine HP manufactured cartridge in an unopened box.  The place of manufacture is Malaysia.  The cartridge I took out was manufactured in Singapore.  When I inserted the new cartridge in the printer I got the error message "There is a problem with the printer or ink system.  Turn printer off, then on.  If problem persists, contact HP."  I tried this several times to no avail.  I removed and reinserted the cartridge a few times to make sure it was firmly seated, again to no avail.  Now I have a printer that is out of service.  The defective cartridge was returned to Office Max.  The printer was working fine until this crtridege screwed things up.  BTW, when the old (empty) Yellow 951 cartridge was reinserted, the only message I got was that the cartridge is empty and I can't print until the cartridge is replaced.

[brianzebra]

On 8/5/25 when I bought the 2nd new yellow cartridge from Staples, and it gave me the same problems as the first new yellow cartridge which started this whole mess, I went back to Staples later the same day and I was able to get a refund from Staples - which saved me around $60. I wasn't even expecting Staples to give me a refund for an ink cartridge in an open box, so thank you Staples!  . . . I got the same message you did when I put back in the deleted cartridge - cartridge empty and can't print until cartridge replaced. I thought that because I was getting that empty/replace message with the depleted cartridge, and I was not getting the "problem with printer or ink system" message with the depleted cartridge, that it must be the new cartridge causing the "problem with printer or ink system" message.  If you think about it, if there really was a problem with the printer or ink system, HP wouldn't be giving me a message which essentially says to go out and buy a new cartridge, which would be totally useless and a waste of money if the printer still wouldn't work with a new cartridge inserted.  Since that 2nd new cartridge I bought at Staples was apparently from the same exact batch of cartridges - manufactured in the same place with the same warranty expiration date - that didn't exhaust the troubleshooting I have been doing; maybe the whole batch of cartridges made at the same place and time was bad, so I need to try another cartridge outside of that batch.  I thought I'd look online at 3rd-party replacement cartridges, or ways to refill my existing depleted cartridge.  I just ordered a replacement 951XL yellow cartridge from compandsave.com, and it was only $11.54 with shipping cost included.  So, if that ends up not working, at least I haven't thrown too much money out the window.  What I found really interesting is that in the reviews one review said "Cleared the dreaded ’ink system failure’ error!"  If a different cartridge (the one I ordered) works for me, I'm going to be really pissed at HP, and HP better send me a replacement cartridge for free, which HP previously refused to do because HP claimed it was a printer hardware failure, and not a defective ink cartridge.  And I would love to bring this to the attention of state consumer protection sections (or a class action attorney), if HP has been wrong about the problem, and HP is using the situation to try to persuade consumers to simply discard their existing printer and buy a new HP printer.  The HP support person I spoke with did that with me, trying to persuade me to buy a new HP printer (as well as trying to get me to subscribe the HP ink refill program).

[RC1097]

Let us know how your aftermarket replacement cartridge works.  If it works for you, I'll do the same thing.  Thanks.