HP toner for HP Laserjet M604 - switched at birth? (!?)

[WillRhodes16]

Hi , at my work we have this printer = https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-laserjet-enterprise-m604n

and I am the tech-ish person for the department.

One day when i was gone, my co-worker was asked to replace the 81A toner is this printer.  she opened up sealed  box, took off orange piece(s), pulled orange O-ring and tape it pulls out.  Put the cartridge in and it was printing.

(this toner billed as 10,500 pages = https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/pdp/hp-81a-black-original-laserjet-toner-cartridge )

   (and i get what of these "rated" pages could be a half page)

two weeks pass (?), a time when we are printing alot. (like 100's? 500? 1000?..not sure)  The "new" toner says its near empty   sub-10% and my coworker says thats weird, i just replaced it.   the "earlier" / 1st toner, i didnt scan in its print status, but it talked (supplies status page) about being installed 6/21/2023 ..and last printed  mid  august (i believe , i can get the sheets soon)... whereas the 2nd toner (see attached jpgs below)  says 1st install  - print 10/23/2022  and last print 6/21/2023 ..   (the 2nd copy below, same toner , once its printed a bit..updates to 1st install 10/23/2022 (same) and last print 8/29/2023 as it had been printing lately.    so both cartridges are empty. 

     I cannot figure it out.   The M604 printer is 7 years old,  not sure? its ever had bios updated. its never been factory reset as far as I know. (our campus IT manages the printers, not sure if they update drivers)

    The printer must "write" to the little chips on the toner,  about when it was first used and most recently used, right?

    It seems unlikely the printer could error in such a way as to put in way wrong dates onto the toner? or get mixed up about a full-ish toner and "declare" it empty when its not?

                                                                                                                 curious is anyone has thoughts on this.

                                                        We have a fresh fresh unopened 81A toner that we will likely try soon but..?  - will

[NC77]

Just to confirm, these are HP toners?  Cartridges have a smartchip that monitors how much toner is left in the cartridge, and gives warnings when printer's toner is running low.   Printer's event log should show page counts for install and low toner message.  How do the toner cartridges feel?  If cartridge is empty, it will feel very light.  The toner low message should not stop printing.  I would use the toner until the print quality degrades or the printer stops.  Upgrade printer firmware.  Record the next toner install date/page count.  Track the page count.  Evaluate performance.  

[Repairatrooper]

I am a little confused as both status pages are from the same cartridge. It also shows that you printed close to 16K pages with this cartridge. Depending on toner coverage that is entirely possible to print that much from a cartridge rated at less. The was the chip is used is that as your print, cumulative pages printed are written to the chip so that the printer knows, even if the cartridge is removed, how much toner is left. This estimate is based on historical coverage on pages and based on the page counts you are getting per cartridge I am guessing your average toner coverage is around 3%. Posted yield on cartridge is based on 5% coverage.