In Memoriam: Canon PIXMA MP610

(A follow-up to Wednesday’s post, which I’ve also posted to the Off-Topic form at the Chartered Institute of Editors & Proofreaders (CIEP), of which I’m a member.)

I can’t even remember when I originally bought you, definitely late 2000s. Your print head had trouble with ink in your later years, much as my own head lacks for hair, but you struggled on regardless. You finally keeled over while I was fetching some more plain paper… but did you have to do that right after I’d changed the black ink cartridge???

(Regains composure, continues.)

Farewell, old friend, you outlasted two PCs and one Mac, and helped me send out lots of parcels over the years as I’ve decluttered, as well as documents, scans and the occasional photo print. I’ll miss your duplex printing, which came in mighty handy but is now deemed a luxury reserved for pricier models, and your relatively low running costs for an inkjet.

(Choral music plays, printer lowers into recycling skip.)

Okay, a little artistic licence above, as I need to have a laugh after cursing for a few hours the other day. Poor thing literally popped its clogs while my back was turned, I found it without power and nothing I tried has revived it. I tried replacing the fuse in the mains plug to see if that was the culprit, but it looks like something inside the printer has shorted out, alas.

After a lot of research, I’ve ordered a mono laser printer, the HP Laserjet Pro M15w, that will handle my modest printing needs while not costing me an arm and a leg. (And, I should add, was actually in stock and available to buy – I have a feeling a lot of printers have been sold during lockdown as more people switched to working from home.)