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No, it's not a way of looking at life, but the findings of the latest report on inkjets by Which? magazine which discovered that chips in Epson inkjet cartridges prompted the user to replace them, even though they were sometimes more than one third full.

Replacement cartridges cost as much as £29 for a typical HP replacement cartridge, which works out at £1.70 per millilitre, more expensive than a bottle of 1985 Dom Perignon Champagne (about 23p per millilitre). And you'd be cross if you were told to buy another

However, the persistent reporter at Which? managed to override Epson's system and was able to print out a further 38 per cent more good quality pages before replacing the cartridge.

Helen Parker, Editor of Which?, said: 'You should get the most out of your printer cartridge by continuing to print until you see a drop in quality.'

Epson responded to Which? saying that its customers were free to ignore warnings triggered by the chip instead reset it and continue printing. It said the system was there 'to protect the customer from accidentally damaging their printer or producing sub-standard print quality, by unknowingly draining the ink cartridge and damaging the print head.'

The after-sales revenues on printers make up much of the profit for every printer sold, and manufacturers are keen for you to buy replacement cartridges of the same brand. Earlier this year Lexmark won an injunction to stop a company in the US manufacturing a 'Smartek' chip that fooled the printers into thinking recycled cartridges were actually genuine Lexmark ones.