That's a very reasonable opinion. Three years old for an inkjet device is ancient.
Was the cartridge genuine HP, or some third-party? Inkjet manufacturers have a nasty habit of putting features in the cartridge that cause degraded operations with third-party cartridges.
It was an HP cartridge. Althought I think over the life of the printer we've probably used other brands.
It's not that it won't print. It won't "fit" so that the printer keeps saying "check cartridge."