Ricoh jumps on the firmware bandwagon
April 21, 2020
The Japanese OEM joined HP, Sharp and Lexmark releasing a firmware update in March, affecting third party cartridge used in its IM C series and MP C series devices.
On 9 March of this year GM Technology detected a firmware update causing problems with compatible cartridges in Ricoh IM C series machines and some MP C series models.
The new update with identifier 2.27.1 affects all Ricoh IM C series machines (C2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4500 AND 6000) and MP C models like the MP C2503 and C2504.
Conducting more research, GM Technology confirmed that the Ricoh firmware update is in line with the ‘Always Current Technology’ strategy launched by the brand in 2019. Where Ricoh has programmed its new firmware to run the update fully automatically without requiring prior authorisation from the user.
The company stated “With this update installed, Ricoh can check the compatibility between the region of its machines and the toner cartridges to limit the use of its products between different geographical locations. For example, after this update European machines will only accept European toner cartridges.”
With this latest update installed on Ricoh devices, the Japanese OEM will be able to verify the region code on the toner cartridge chip and if it does not match with the machine, it will automatically block the device and all its functions.
Consumers using compatible toners created outside Europe my find their printer and all functions are blocked if the machine cannot verify the region code on the toner cartridge chip with the printer. If this happens, the user will see an error message on the screen and will not be able to continue using the printing device until the toner is replaced with a correct one.
GM Technology said: “As an immediate priority we verified that the new update does not affect our remanufactured toners. With our own unique reset technology, we can reuse original chips and return them to their original factory condition.”
Read more here about GM Technology’s solutions.
Categories : World Focus
Tags : Firmware Update GM Technology Ricoh
