[stuff4ben]

> In particular, there is some brand that was praised for consumer friendly practices here on HN that joined the dark side recently too; Brother iirc.

What did Brother do to join the "dark side"? I and lots of other folks love our Brother laser printers. I haven't heard of them doing anything evil...

[CogitoCogito]

The brother printer (HL-L2350DW) I have auto-detects when the toner is "low" and refuses to print. It does this even though I haven't noticed any degradation in printing quality and would prefer to continue printing with the old cartridge even if it results in a worse print. I find this kind of infuriating actually. Being able to continue using a cartridge as it gets low was always one the features I loved about laser printers. I wouldn't have bought this printer had I known and I don't recommend it (or Brother) to new buyers.

[stuff4ben]

I have a previous model DCPL2550DW and it has the low-toner warning too. Can't remember if it refused to print because I just went and bought a new toner for $45 which is cheap IMO. Anyways, I was perusing the Amazon reviews for my printer and came across this... maybe it'll help you?

Now, to override the alert Brother gives you when it THINKS you are out of ink, I have user Allegra to thank for that as follows:

"Go to the buttons and follow these instructions:

MENU > GENERAL SETTINGS

Press the down button (minus sign) until you get to REPLACE TONER

Hit OK

Please the down button (minus sign) until you see CONTINUE

Hit OK

[CogitoCogito]

Thanks for the tip! I ended up buying a new toner, but I think I still have the old one somewhere so I'll see if I can find it and see if it works.

[patrick451]

I've had some middling success with taking the cartridge out, shaking it back and forth, and re-inserting it. But I agree that behavior is really frustrating

[CogitoCogito]

I did find some vague claims on the internet saying there were ways around this, but I just don't have the energy. Tinkering with things can be fun, but I specifically bought a laser printer and specifically from Brother because I thought they cared about their customers and wouldn't do stuff like this. It's a betrayal of trust.

[massysett]

My HP laser will warn its toner is low but it will keep on printing. I keep using a toner until the pages have white streaks.

[CogitoCogito]

Having the choice to do exactly this was one of the primary reasons I bought the printer. Hence my disappointment.

[soco]

I'm also a halfway happy Brother laser customer. Except sometimes the scanner missing the computer (which means restarting both printer and computer) no complaints here. Can't say the same about Epson or HP, myg what for a garbage called software they install on your comp...