HP 302XL Black (F6U68A)

Simply press the paper feed button. This will stop the lights flashing and you can continue printing as normal.

Your cartridge is not actually empty. It has been remanufactured and the ink levels cannot be reset. Continue printing as normal until all of the ink is used.

The working parts of the printer and cartridge are delicate and need to be in the correct condition to function correctly. Sometimes a little dirt or ink can prevent the cartridge from working. Remove the cartridge from the printer and gently clean the gold coloured electrical contacts on the cartridge and the contacts on your printer with some moist tissue. Reinstall the cartridge and attempt to print again.

Unfortunately your cartridge has developed an electrical fault and will not work. Please return the cartridge to your store for a replacement.

There may be air trapped in your cartridge’s printhead. Please run a cleaning cycle according to your printer’s instructions and try to print again.

There may be a small blockage in your cartridge’s printhead. Remove the cartridge and try wiping the printhead from back to front a few times with a moist tissue. You should soon see a black line or a three colour line on the tissue. Reinstall the cartridge and attempt to print again.

First check to make sure that you have removed the clip and/or tape from the cartridge before attempting installation. If you have, then make sure that your printer is listed in the ‘Compatible With’ section.

Do not remove this chip.

With this chip in place, your cartridge can be inserted into your printer and the correct ink levels will display on your status monitor. A message may appear that a previously used genuine HP cartridge has been installed, simply press Continue or OK and carry on printing as normal.

Some of the latest HP printer models will only accept newly released cartridges. You may also encounter this same message when using an original branded cartridge.

Unfortunately only newer generation cartridges will work in your printer. Please return the cartridge to your store for a replacement.

HP have introduced a ‘cartridge protection’ update on their ink cartridges as part of their latest printers, intended to lock the ink cartridges to a specific printer so that you cannot use that cartridge again in any other printer. This also means that the cartridge becomes non-recyclable as it cannot be refilled, recycled or remanufactured to use in another printer and it will just end up in landfill.

So when certain remanufactured HP cartridges are installed into your printer, an "HP protected cartridge" error message will be displayed. Therefore this cartridge will not work in your printer and will only work in the first printer that the cartridge was used in. Your cartridge is not usable and should be returned to your store.

You can prevent this from happening with cartridges installed in your printer by disabling HP cartridge protection in your printer settings:

Through your computer, go to the settings/toolbox on your printer menu, navigate to the 'HP Cartridge Protection' tab and select the 'Disable HP Cartridge Protection' option. Cartridges that you use in your printer can now be recycled.

HP have introduced a ‘cartridge protection’ update on their ink cartridges as part of their latest printers, intended to lock the ink cartridges to a specific printer so that you cannot use that cartridge again in any other printer. This means that the cartridge becomes non-recyclable as it cannot be refilled, recycled or remanufactured to use in another printer and it will just end up in landfill.

Please choose to not protect your cartridges by selecting 'No'. Cartridges that you use in your printer can now be recycled.

If you selected 'Yes' in error, you can change your choice at any time on your printer settings. Through your computer, go to the settings/toolbox on your printer menu, navigate to the 'HP Cartridge Protection' tab and select the 'Disable HP Cartridge Protection' option.

Printer manufacturers often use the roll out of their printer firmware updates to prevent you from choosing the origin and type of supplies you use in your printer. This has been done is ways such as blocking the use of remanufactured/recycled cartridges entirely, applying a 'cartridge lock' system that locks a cartridge's usage to a printer and introducing a new 'generation' of the same cartridge model to stop older, remanufactured cartridges being re-used.

Most printer manufacturers will prefer you to set your printer to automatically download and install their updates for this very reason. We suggest that you disable the automatic update option to allow you to continue to use remanufactured cartridges and also to recycle your cartridge after it has been used. By allowing your printer to update the firmware automatically you are risking being locked into only using the more expensive and less environmentally friendly original branded cartridges.

This is true for both original and remanufactured HP cartridges. The page yield displayed by HP is based on a 5% page coverage life test. That is, if you only fill 5% of your page, your cartridge will print for the given number of pages. If you print photos, graphics or even a full page of text, you will be using more than a 5% page coverage. So with normal everyday printing, the page yield listed by HP is unlikely to be the same page yield that you will get out of your cartridge.