METHOD, DEVICE AND SYSTEM FOR DETECTING ILLEGAL CARTRIDGE, STORAGE MEDIUM AND CARTRIDGE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inhibit printing operation by detecting an illegal cartridge which is refilled with consumables such as toner or ink by specified number of times or more. SOLUTION: The cartridge is provided with a toner chamber filled with the toner. When the cartridge is set in a printer main body, the toner in the toner chamber is measured by a toner remaining amount measuring part. Toner remaining amount obtained at the previous measurement time is written in a cartridge memory. A CPU compares the toner remaining amount measured this time with the previous toner remaining amount read out from the cartridge memory. When the toner is increased in amount, the number of refilling times is added by judging that the cartridge is refilled with the toner. When the number of refilling times N reaches a specified value K, warning display is performed and the printing operation is inhibited by deciding that the cartridge is the illegal one whose life ends.