What is a toner chip?

When you refill a toner cartridge with a chip on it do you have to replace the chip? what is the chip for????

• I am trying to find an economical way to replace or refill my Konica Minolta 2430DL. The cartridges have a chip on them. What does the chip do? I bought a refill kit from an online supplier. Refilled my cartridge. The directions said to replace my chip with the one they sent. The Cartridge didn't work. Then I bought a new/rebuilt cartridge on line and it worked great. It ran out and I just purchased another cartridge from online, and it doesn't work. Am I doing something wrong? Why does the chip need to be changed? I hate to pay $100 for a brand new Konica Minolta cartridge if I can buy a 3rd party/rebuilt one for $49. The OEM says I should. Is this just a gimick to buy the OEM one? Thank you for any advice you can give me.

• Answer:

  The Chips is the electronic device for the printer to "know" and to "remember" how many ink or toner level left in the cartridge. Ususally, there is no such a detector in the cartridges. The Ink or toner level are solid record by the chips. If you do not change the chips but only to refill the toner powder. It won't work. I will advise you to keep using the 3rd party manufacturer who has pass the ISO-9001 Standard Verification. try this one out http://tonersupermart.ca i know they do provide new Compatible Konica Minolta cartridge in Canada.