How to Reset an HP Printer After Refilling With Ink

Aaron Donald September 8, 2021

An HP printer is one of the most cost-effective investments you can make for your home or office. They are famous for their excellent quality in printing, which HP has built up for over 50 years. The company continues to innovate with features like high-resolution printing, faster print speeds, and faster wireless connections.

How to Reset an HP Printer After Refilling With Ink

However, HP printers are far from perfect. Although you can refill cartridges with ink to cut costs, the printer may not recognize them when they are re-installed. As a result, you could end up delaying important print work even when you have everything your printer needs.

Luckily, resetting your printer after a refill will almost always get you back on track. But how can you do it?

This article will show you how to reset HP printers after refilling with ink.

How to Reset an HP Printer After Ink Refill

Refilling HP cartridges is an inevitable chore if you own one of their printers. While some cartridges will work without problems after using a refill kit, some models require a hard reset. This is because the printer may not detect the newly filled cartridge. Sometimes you may even encounter a “third-party cartridge detected” error message even though the refilled cartridge is a genuine HP product. This can be pretty frustrating.

Whenever this happens, resetting your printer should be first on the list of your troubleshooting options. And the good thing about it is that it can also work if you’ve replaced HP cartridges with some other compatible option from another vendor.

You can reset your HP printer in two ways. Let’s see how each method works.

Tape Method

This method works by covering the cartridge contacts used to gauge the ink level. The goal is to restore ink level monitoring. Here’s how to go about it:

First, ensure that you can see the contacts of your cartridge by turning it over. After that, turn the cartridge around so that the contacts are on the lower side.
Cover the contacts on the top left corner of your cartridge with a piece of tape.
At this point, insert the cartridge back in the HP printer and immediately print an alignment page. By default, the printer may display a message suggesting that the cartridge has problems. You can ignore that as it won’t affect the reset process.
After the alignment is complete, remove the cartridge once again but leave the tape in position.
Next, cover the contacts on the top right corner of your cartridge with tape.
Reinsert the cartridge and proceed to print an alignment page. As before, ignore any error messages your printer displays in the process.
After that, remove the ink cartridge.
Without removing the tape that’s already on the upper side of your cartridge, tape the lower-left corner.
Insert the cartridge back in the HP printer and print an alignment page yet again.
After the alignment, remove the cartridge and then take off all the pieces of tape on it.
Reinsert the cartridge. Your printer should now indicate that the cartridge is full.

Swap Method

This method uses several empty cartridges to erase your printer’s memory. Here’s how to do it:

Place the refilled ink cartridge into the printer.
Proceed to print out an alignment page. If the printer displays an error message, ignore it because it won’t affect the reset process. At this point, the ink level will still be at the pre-refill level.
Safely remove the ink cartridge from your printer.
Take one of your old compatible cartridges and proceed to print out an alignment page. The printer will detect that there’s a new cartridge.
Remove the second cartridge.
Insert yet another cartridge from your old stock and then print an alignment page. The printer will erase the memory of the second cartridge and now recognize the third cartridge.
Insert a fourth cartridge from your old stock and print an alignment page. The printer will erase the memory of the third cartridge and now recognize the fourth cartridge.
Finally, insert the current refilled cartridge into the printer and run the alignment. Your printer will now detect the cartridge as full.

What HP Printer Models Will This Work For?

Cartridge refill problems are relatively common. Although there may be specific ways to deal with this in some of the latest models, these reset methods work well across both the old and the new generation HP printer models.

Low ink level is a situation that can make any HP printer owner worried if they don’t have a replacement at hand. Being unable to use a full cartridge because the printer doesn’t recognize it is even more frustrating. However, a hard reset using any of the methods discussed should solve the problem.

Be that as it may, it’s important to complete a hard reset of your computer as quickly as possible because your cartridges should not be disconnected from your printer for more than 30 minutes. If that happens, the ink may dry and clog the nozzles. After removing all cartridges, remember to wipe down any excess ink before reinserting them into their slots.

Have you tried resetting your HP printer after refilling with ink? How did it go? Let us know in the comments section below.