New HP 951 cartridges with different ink zone don't work in my HP Officejet Pro 8600

[SylviaClarke]

My Officejet Pro 8600 was purchased in Trinidad and Tobago, has never been moved to another location, and I have always purchased genuine HP 950 and 951 ink cartridges locally with no problems until today.

The locally available HP 951 cartridges are now labelled "z30 For use only in Latin America" on the box, and the product number on the cartridge itself has a suffix "L", for example the Cyan cartridge is "CN050AL". When the new cartridge is installed in the printer, the Embedded Web Server shows that its Ink Zone is "8", while the ink zone for all the old cartridges is "1".  The printer can no longer print.

After much wasted time trouble-shooting and searching the forums, I concluded that I needed to have the printer re-zoned to "Latin America" to be able to accept the locally available z30 cartridges. So I wasted another couple of hours on the phone to HP support at 1-800-711-2884 trying to convince them that this is a zoning issue, not just an isolated bad cartridge. In the end they agreed, but said they were unable to re-zone the printer to Latin America because new locally available black HP 950 cartridges still show Ink Zone "1" in the Web interface, and to re-zone, ALL cartridges had to show Ink Zone "8" in the Web Iinterface. 

The new HP 950 cartridges came in boxes clearly labelled "For use only in Latin America" and the product number CN049AL on the box has the Latin American "L" suffix, but they still show as Ink Zone "1" when installed. HP could not tell me what packaging an Ink Zone "8" HP 950 cartridge would come in, so it will be difficult for me to find one!

I now have an HP case number 5007694769 and a nice printer that can't print. Thank you, HP, for this unexpected Christmas treat.

[Bob_Headrick · Accepted solution]

The printer will regionalize itself to the first regionalized cartridge that is installed.  The ink zone 1 cartridges are universal, before the -Zxx scheme.  Likely your printer had a Z10, Z20 or Z40 cartridge installed at some time, locking the printer to this region. 

If you are able to print a Printer Status Report (click Setup on the front panel, scroll down to Reports, Printer Status Report) please report the information in line 6, Printer Zone.

You should be able to have your printer region reset with a mixture of universal (no -Z marking, ink zone 1) and -Z30 cartridges (ink zone 8).  I will ask to have your case escalated.

[kevin-t]

@SylviaClarke

I have brought your issue to the attention of an appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post personal information (serial numbers and case details).

If you are unfamiliar with how the Forum's private message capability works, you can learn about that here.
Thank you for visiting the HP Support Forum.

[SylviaClarke]

Thanks for your response, Bob - it gives me hope 🙂

The front panel on my printer stopped working some time ago and I've been happily using my printer without it. Can I obtain the necessary information through the Embedded Web Server? Under Printer Information, it shows "Country/Region USA".

Today is the first time I installed a cartridge with a z30 code on the package (or any other zXX code). All previous cartridges were without the zXX code and they didn't have the "L" suffix on the product code on the cartridge itself.

The new HP 950 black cartridges are marked with product code CN049A (no "L" suffix) and there is no zXX code, however their BOXES are labelled  CN049AL and indicate Latin America.

I'm still hoping that I can get my printer set to Latin America region and working with four new cartridges: HP 951 Cyan, Magenta and Yellow all z30 (Ink Zone 😎 and HP 950 Black (Ink Zone 1).

Cheers, Sylvia

[Bob_Headrick]

The HP 950 cartridges manufactured before January 2017 will not have a -Z regionalization, they are universal. Later cartridges will have the -Z marking.  

You can print the Printer Status Report from the Embedded Web Server as follows:  Click the Tools tab at the top.  At the left click Printer Information and the Print Self Test Page at the bottom of the page.

[SylviaClarke]

I've tried printing the Self Test Page, first with the old (empty) Cyan cartridge, then with the new (z30) Cyan cartridge. In both cases, I get error message "The printer is busy. Try again later. Click "OK" to go back."

With the new (z30) Cyan cartridge, the Printer Information page shows a red x "Printer Failure" and in the Ink Gauge page, there is a yellow ! over the Cyan cartridge and green ticks over the other three cartridges.

With the old (empty) Cyan cartridge, the Printer Information page shows a yellow ! "Cyan Cartridge: May Be Empty" and in the Ink Gauge page, there are green ticks over all four cartridges.

[Bob_Headrick]

This sounds like a different issue  - it sounds like you have a defective cyan cartridge rather than an issue with regionalization.  For the issue you are seeing the troubleshooting steps in the document here may help resolve the issue.

[SylviaClarke]

Bob, I spent hours going through those trouble-shooting steps before concluding that I had an ink zone problem - hope I haven't damaged my printhead the number of times I re-seated it! Anyway, I am happy to say I have resolved the problem and am now able to print.

Your very first comment "The printer will regionalize itself to the first regionalized cartridge that is installed" was the key. The first such cartridge was the Cyan HP 951 z30, so I assume that when I inserted it, the printer was automatically regionalized to zone 8, but because I couldn't print, I couldn't see the Printer Zone. (I'm just guessing here).

On the assumption that all three HP 951 cartridges now needed to be z30s, I replaced the old magenta and yellow cartridges with new z30 cartridges, so I now have all three HP 951 colour cartridges showing ink zone 8. The old black HP 950 (without any zXX) shows ink zone 1. The printer seems quite happy with this combination (contrary to what HP told me on the phone this morning). I printed the Printer Status Report and it confirms Printer Zone (PX): 8 with Country/Region: 15 / 1.

It would be useful if HP would make the requrement clearer, and provide relevant information to their own staff who answer the support line. I spent 2 hours on the phone this morning and got nowhere. This is NOT a case where the printer was moved from one region to another, and cartridges have been locally sourced all along. I am left wondering why this had to be such a painful process. Thanks for your help and season's greetings.

Sylvia

[SylviaClarke]

As a footnote: To add insult to injury, I was billed by my telephone company for the wasted hours I spent on the phone trying to explain my problem to the HP rep. The HP website implies that 1-800-711-2884 is toll-free from the Caribbean.

[BillDubs]

Bob, I have the same issue. Have Z20 originally. HP shipped Z10's to me. How do I get the zone changed to Z10?